On Wednesday afternoon, we headed out of town to visit my side of the family for Thanksgiving! You never know how your kids will do on long trips, but our girls did great with riding in the car for a few hours. We were the only ones staying at the house (my brother had already come and gone the day previous), so we basically took over every room with our luggage, blankets, pack and play, and assortment of other kid necessities.
I had an excellent 5-mile run on Thursday morning, and then ate a million pickles and olives while watching parts of the parade and waiting for the turkey to cook. Michael and Kaya (and her stuffed puppy, “Ruff”) enjoyed some back porch swinging instead of gorging themselves on sour, salty appetizers.
She’s so in love with “Ruff” lately and has been taking him almost everywhere, so he had to come on our Thanksgiving trip, of course. 🙂
And we actually took a picture of the two of us! I love this guy so much.
My mom did all the cooking, and did an amazing job, as always.
My dad carved the turkey, per tradition.
There were (almost) 10 pounds of mashed potatoes in that bowl!
We really missed Karl this year, but he was enjoying some crab legs and prime rib with Kaitlyn at her dad’s house!
The gravy is my favorite part…
Kaya sat down to dinner with us, told us what she wanted on her plate, and then… decided it was nap time. Traveling is tiring for little kids.
Kaelyn went down for a nap even before my aunts arrived for dinner, and slept until the meal was already over and cleaned up.
I guess sleeping is more exciting than turkey. She didn’t even need to be trippin’ on tryptophan to nap the day away.
When she woke up, she had her first-ever Thanksgiving dinner (she was too little last year)! She seemed to like some of it, but mostly chewed on her spoon and made a mess.
Kaya woke up hungry, but opted for leftover spaghetti over turkey. 
Auntie Joyce celebrated her 67th birthday on Thanksgiving, so we had a little party for her! This buttercream cake was too delicious.
Of course, there were plenty of grandma cuddles and kisses. She also spoiled them with new jammies and a book. I have some lucky girls.
