Thanksgiving Recap

We have returned from our holiday trip to Iowa. All in all it was a fabulous trip with little drama and tons of fun. Our biggest drama was that I really do not like flying as a pregnant woman. It was terrible.

Thursday - Turkey Day: We were up bright and early to catch our 6:30 flight. Papa picked us up at the airport and let us borrow the USS Papa (Chrystler 300) for the week. Our day was full of visiting with Papa, Aunt Jan and cousin Billy. We had great conversation ranging from politics, religion, tv shows and pets. Aunt Jan gave us our Christmas gifts of books - Cowboy's book for Keith and the Brother's Grimm stories for me. That evening we took the DVD's of Papa's old family movies over to Denny's (the 61 inch TV made a big difference!) and Keith got to see his mom as a kid. Words can't explain how wonderful that was for all of us.

Friday - My Mom's: We were spending the day with my family but not before I had my darling husband up at 4 a.m. for Black Friday shopping. I am sure he will never do it again and in my current state it was not my smartest move. Although, we did get all the deals we set out to purchase - including a camcorder in honor of the baby on the way.

My how the kids have grown! We learned that the baby is not a big fan of crowds....there wasn't any movement while at Mom's. 5 kids, 5 dogs and 6 adults in a small house creates plenty of noise. The food was yummy and the kids treated Keith as a jungle gym. Mom and Dale gave us Christmas presents - a food processor, Hawkeye gnome (no clue how to spell that), knife sharpener and some baby gifts.

Saturday - The Busby's: Finally I get to meet Mark and Kate, who by the way have the most wonderful set of twins ever! It was great meeting them and getting to know them a bit. If we end up back in the Chicagoland area we will definitely be hanging out with them - if they like it or not! Cameron will celebrate his 1st birthday in December which meant we could celebrate at Thanksgiving. Hard to believe it has been a year already. Some of Linda's family was over for the yummy meal - it is very hard to keep all of them straight since she is one of 12, I think.

Sunday - The Johnson's: The most important thing to mention here is that Aunt Jo rocks! She makes the most amazing turkey and noodles and she saved some from Thanksgiving for me. Brett and Grandma J share a birthday very close to Turkey Day so we took the opportunity to celebrate as a family. Grandma's children purchased a Wrigley Field brick in her honor....the best gift ever for the devoted Cubs fan that she is. No birthday is complete without a bit of red cake. Seriously, all the food all week has been wonderful and that is exactly why I had been looking forward to it for months!

Monday - Iowa City/Cedar Rapids: A quick trip to eastern Iowa to meet with Rob's lawyer to ensure things with him getting primary care of Branden are moving along. We then took Rob out for Chinese food in CR. It was nice to hang out with him a bit more before we headed back to Jersey.

Tuesday - HOME: Although the trip was enjoyable we were ready to go home. The flight was much better than the trip there. We were lucky and got home a couple of hours early which allowed us to pick up our little Missy.

There are pictures and maybe some video from the trip that I will have Keith help me post this weekend.

I really am thankful for the visit with all of our family members and it was a great way to spend our last trip before becoming parents. HOWEVER, there was one very important piece of our family missing....Sgt Wally. Scott is in Iraq and was able to make a few calls while we were home but that just doesn't compare to having him all to ourselves last year in NY. Hurry home, Scottie - the baby will definitely want to meet you!!!