Call me brave. Or stupid.
The plan was that Josh and I were going to take our boys and their cousins to Thanksgiving in the western part of our state.
That was the plan until Josh got a stomach virus in the middle of Wednesday night and ended up staying home sick in bed (on the best eating day of the year, no less).
The cousins had arrived the night before for a sleepover. So I had three older kids who did not want to go to sleep until nearly midnight. And then I had five kids to wake up, get dressed and fed, and out the door by 9 o'clock.
And around 9:15, we headed out. Just me and five kids. But it turned out fine. Traffic is usually light Thanksgiving morning, and there's a lot of Interstate travel, so you move quickly. The twins were a bit noisy in their seats just behind me, but the three older cousins did well in the back of the third row seat. Austin might have complained a little as he tried to do homework on the bumpy stretch of road ever (old concrete expressway, so there were big bumps at every break).
We enjoyed our first meal with Grandma's extended family - my aunts, uncles and cousins. Aunt Mary and Aunt Cova had an amazing meal prepared for everyone.
We took the kids outside for a little energy and movement break. Nearly three hours in the car was a bit long, especially so early in the morning.
Afterwards, the three older cousins went with Grandma and Grandpa back to the lake for the rest of the weekend. The twins and I headed back the way we'd come, to stop in another city and visit with Josh's extended family for meal number two.
We broke out the iPads as soon as we hit the basement. Sawyer had fallen asleep somewhere along the drive and was less than thrilled to be woken up anywhere but our house. The boys were hungry and yet again assaulted by tables full of food they wanted but could not have.
So we headed to the basement. And iPads were brought out for the first time of the day. I opened the boys cooler for more of "their" food, and we visited with the other side of the family.
It was a good day. But a long one. And the back of the truck was filled with take home plates. One for Josh, who hopefully will feel like eating again sometime soon. And one for Uncle Brian, who was staying home to recover from surgery early this week.
We stopped at Uncle Brian's around 10 o'clock that night to drop off his plates (yes, plural). And we finally made it home and the twins into bed sometime around 11 o'clock.
Happy Thanksgiving!
