Thanksgiving 2012 in NC

As we annually do, we went to NC for Thanksgiving to be with Stephen's family.  And as always, everyone was so warm and wonderful and reminding us why we love them :)

We arrived Thanksgiving Day.  We got to see Nana and Papa.  Nana had dinner ready for us when we got there!!

BUT I did not do my typically fabulous job of documenting it all with pics!!!  (no pictures of Nana???  What??!!)

Here's 3 generations of men playing angry birds.  (about the only way I could get them in a picture at all!)

 Stephen and Clyde showing a tickled Soulea how to play angry birds...

The kids' 1st cousin, Mason...

Lucy and her 1st cousin, Mirzanna...

She taught Mirzanna the Virginia Reel...

Clyde and his 1st cousins, Soulea & Devonne (clyde was the LEAST cooperative for this picture :/  ).....

Iris and her 1st cousin, Mekayla...

yep, I know...they're STINKIN cute...

had to throw in the one where you can see Devonne's freckles :)...new development since last year!  You have to look closely, though.

The next day we went to the reunion where we saw all the aunts and uncles....well...not ALL.  some were missed :(

Here's Stephen with his Uncle Milton...

Iris with her cousin, Chloe...

Lucy with her cousin, Rebekah...

Then we did our annual hop over to Stephen's cousin, Joey's house :)
This is always fun and Joey & Tammy are always gracious enough to let us bring our brood over and stay for HOURS.

Stephen and Joey like building fires :)

Lucy and cousin, Courtney..

Lucy and Clyde being introduced to Clue by their twin cousins, Devon & Dawson.  Ha!  Apparently, Tammy's Dad calls them the arson boys :)  cracks me up.

Love their kids!!!  They're just the sweetest!!!

The Little Bird

So this little boy of mine....

Has an enormous soft spot for this little girl....

When her Mama called me to tell me what he had made for her, I was surprised.  Writing and trying to spell are difficult and not fun for him, and he does not think he draws well, BUT he made her a book....

 And, apparently, she really liked it :)

A Galaxy Over the Mountain

Stephen had an overnight trip to Baltimore, so I drove my crazy self over to my Dad's lest I panic.  I took the three sweet munchkins with me....with their Star Wars costumes.  And they made sure that I remembered that Grandad and Grandmom had not seen them in their costumes yet, and remember, Mom, how we do that trick-or-treating thing where we knock on the doors in Grandad and Grandmom's house?

Yes, I remember.

But first other activities ensued....like scrabble with Grandmom.

Trying to "get" Grandad...

Getting "got" by Grandad....

Grandmom had the younger two "rake" her leaves and much merriment occurred.

Grandmom distracted Clyde from his shiny new goose-egg as he applied ice.

Eating out for Grandad's (late) birthday.  These two did a staring contest, but my camera just isn't quick enough!

Once Daddy was back in town and Sherry showed up, it was time for the residents of Tatooine and Naboo came to join us.

The way this works is this.  Grandad and Grandmom's house is laid out in a sort of circle.  The kids knock on a door, Grandmom lets them in gives them a treat, they knock on the next door, Sherry lets them in, gives them a treat, they knock on the next door....etc.  You get the picture.

Because you're always hopping, it's hard to get good pictures.  We always give Grandad the living room.  Whenever they knock on his door he always says, "We don't want any!"  Here they are trick or treating with Grandad....

and Sherry...

Grandmom was very innovative and dressed up like a mattress once by wearing a fitted sheet.  I know she dressed up as other things, but I didn't get to see her.  And she wouldn't let me take  a picture :(

Sherry and I had excellent access to the dress up bin, so we were constantly changing things up....

Stephen is from Jamaica, mon.  He did other creative things as well between each visit from the kids.  (Oh yeah, they make multiple circuits around the house. 

The kids going through their goodies and figuring out how to use some from their tutor....

The kids don't plan on outgrowing this anytime soon.

Abrams Falls

This post could have easily been called Cades Cove...but I'm pretty sure I have a number of posts named that already.  But this one is special, because we kind of on the fly decided to tackle Abrams Falls...the kids' first 5 mile hike....I think.

Before we got to the beginning of our hike, we got to see a young buck.  I gave Clyde the camera for this one....

Then we saw two red-headed woodpeckers....unfortunately, this was the best I could get...

Here we are near the beginning of our hike to Abrams Falls.  My uncle Norman took this picture.

Norman and Iris skipping...

Iris and Clyde...

Stephen and Lucy (I was worried about how Lu would do with her breathing and light-headedness, but she took the lead and set a rather challenging pace for the majority of the hike)....

Norman, Sherry, Mom and kids...

Once we got down there we snacked and took some pictures.  Sherry took this one of Stephen, the kids, and I beside the falls...

The kids with the sign once we got back.  They're holding up 3 finger because we made it in 3 hours, actually it was 2 hours and 50 minutes, but we rounded to the nearest hour ;)

Here's what they actually felt like before I made them smile...

We finally saw a large group of turkey!!  Good thing too, Iris really wanted to "track" some.

Here's my doe...she was quite close to the car.  I literally took this from my driver seat window.

And then Uncle Norman bought each of the kids one of these!  They were excellent troopers!  Very
proud of them :)