Thanksgiving Festivities and weekend at the Lake

This year, we spent Thanksgiving at the lake with both of our families.  The kids were in heaven having everyone together.  

We took off after school and dinner on Wednesday night.  We arrived at the lake around 8 and the kids were actually down by 9 so that was pretty good I thought.  Leah and Bill arrived late that night and the kids were excited to see them when they got up Thursday morning.

They were up bright and early the next morning though - ready for the excitement!  We played and prepped food and had all sorts of fun.  We managed to get Kylie down for a nap just before Nana and Grandad arrived (around noon) so she'd be nice and fresh for Thanksgiving dinner.  Andrea, Sean and Savannah arrived around 2:30 and we had so much fun just being together and eating a great dinner that evening!!  Some pictures and stories from the day...

A rare picture of me and Waylon!  :-)

Sisters!

Happy Kylie-girl and her happy Papa

Grammy had seen some of the pictures of Noah playing dress up with the girls and decided that Noah needed some 'masculine' dress up clothes.  :-)  She got him this knight/king outfit and he LOVED it.  He wore it for most of the day.  Grandaddy and Noah took off on an hour long trek fighting dragons and finding treasures!

King and Queen of Thanksgiving

Papa carving the turkey

The feast!

Happiness!

Early the next morning, Waylon left since he had to work on Friday (he doesn't have much time to take off since he just started the new job and already took a week for our Disney World trip) so the kids and I stayed through the weekend and played with Grammy, Papa, Leah and Bill.

Kylie loves her puzzles and loves letters - she can sing her ABCs!  So fun to hear.

Silliness with Mommy and Papa

Morning snuggles

Later in the morning, Noah went with Papa to get worms and go fishing and Kylie, Grammy and I took a walk....

She kept asking if she could jump in!!  :-)

Here she was being a monkey climbing a tree.  :-)

When we got back from our walk, she had to help Papa fish, too.

My sweet Noah-man

Kylie and Aunt Leah

Noah entertained himself for about an hour tying knots in these ropes.

Noah and Aunt Leah

After lunch and naps for all of us, we decided to go out for a boat ride.  I bundled up the kids and brought blankets but it was actually pretty nice and not too cold.

Heading to the water - Kylie had to bring her doggie along

LOVE

Ready to ride with Grammy

Kylie and Mommy - look at that glassy water!

 Of course, everyone had to have a turn driving the boat!!  :-)

After our boat ride, we did a little photo shoot for Christmas pictures.  Here are some of the ones we didn't choose - you'll have to wait for the Christmas card to see the 'real' ones!  :-)

Then - what else? - dance party time!! (Leah looks like she's really into it).  :-)

Friday night, we had a great ravioli dinner - I got my dad a ravioli maker for his birthday - yum!

Saturday morning, more outside play time.  Jumping in the leaves here....

Riding Noah's bike!  She's actually pretty good at it!

Noah was really excited about doing yoga with Aunt Leah

Bill and Kylie joined in, too! :-)

Another boat ride late Saturday morning before saying goodbye to Leah and Bill.  We thought it would be even nicer than the day before cause the temperature was warmer but the wind actually made it colder!  Fun anyway, though!

By Saturday night, we were all itching to get out, so we found a park in Roanoke Rapids and went to play before having mexican for dinner.  The park had a huge slide that was really high.  Kylie loved it (much to Grammy's dismay!).

Look at me!

A new way to swing  :-)

There were so many leaves!

Sunday morning, it was time for me and Kylie to pack up and say goodbye to Noah.  He stayed at the lake with Grammy and Papa Sunday night and then rode back to MD with them.  He stayed with them all week until we came back up for our annual Seafood Feast with the Stones the following weekend.

While I was packing up, Noah played some games on my computer.  :-)

I got some pictures from Grammy and Papa of their day (and week) together.  Here are the ones from the lake.  So much fun!!!!

Noah and Papa caught a fish!!!

BEAUTIFUL

Playing on the beach with Grammy

Dinosaur village

Silly Noah pretending to eat 'wormy worms'  :-)

They went back to MD on Monday and had a GREAT time doing all sorts of fun things!  I think Kylie enjoyed the extra attention also and Waylon and I took advantage of it as well.   Noah didn't seem to miss us too much but was super happy to see us when we got there also so that was so fun!  More pics of the week and this past weekend to come.... stay tuned!