Thanksgiving

We had such a fun Thanksgiving(as always!)

We left mid-morning on Wednesday, but definitely should have left earlier because we got stuck in a lot of traffic on our way to Raleigh!!  We finally arrived at a hotel we have not stayed at before(I chose it because it had a pool!) and M spotted a Bass Pro Shop right next door!  He was super excited about that and we ended up checking in, eating a small complimentary hotel "happy hour" snack and heading over to Bass Pro with Gigi(whom was checking in just as we were leaving so the timing couldn't have been more perfect!)!  When we got there, we were told that Santa was there and that there were free crafts and free pictures with the big guy - our lucky day!  The kids did the craft but neither had any interest in seeing Santa(what!?!?!) so after they crafted a cute little ornament, we walked around the store, bought a fishing pole for Friday's events at the fishing club and made our way to a quick dinner before hunkering down in the hotel room for the night!

This boy loves to eat, but is sooo slow!  He frequently has
to take parts of his meal "to go"!

Thursday we were awake bright and early with a coughing little boy at 4:45am(ahhh!!!) and headed downstairs for a seriously delicious and huge breakfast buffet!  Again, M was in awe when he walked down - a kid in a candy store!!  We ate a great breakfast(I had several much-needed cups of coffee) and then let the kids watch some TV since they were pretty tired too.  There were luckily 2 TVs in the suite we were staying in so M and I were able to watch the parade.  We got ready and met the rest of the hotel crew(Gigi, Aunt Robin, Uncle Bobby and Jennifer) downstairs and went over to Chaney's for lunch!  Oh my goodness did we have a feast!!!!  I loved seeing all the family and the kids did as well!  S was off with Lucy and Kate(I hardly saw her all day!) and C was off with Dylan(and I wouldn't have seen him all day either if I wasn't constantly going to check on him to make sure he wasn't getting into too much trouble!!)!  M and I visited with the adults and had so much fun! Chaney and Boss are so kind and hospitable and welcoming!  It makes Thanksgiving extra special!  Around dinner time we started making our way back to the hotel so that we could hopefully get a good night's sleep!  Our lights went out at 8:09pm!!!!!  Oh yeah!!

And got up at 7am!  We felt like human again:)

Friday morning we had promised the kids after breakfast we would go to the pool.  Well, it was FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!!  We lasted about 45 minutes before we just couldn't take it anymore!  We came back up to the room and got ready and went to the fishing camp!!  This is the second year we have done Thanksgiving in Raleigh and it is so fun to have the fishing camp to go to on Friday!  We have BBQ and Chick-fil-A catered, a bonfire with s'mores, fishing boats to go across the pond to look at the waterfall, lots of fishing, cornhole, soccer and lots of good memories!  We discovered the C really, really enjoys fishing!  He and M went out on the boat and were gone for a couple hours fishing, not even catching anything, but he still wanted to go out and do it again next time!  We enjoyed our time with cousins for most of the day, and went back to the hotel around dinnertime and had a great offer from Jennifer to watch the kids while M and I went out!!!!!!!!!!!  She's awesome!  Of course we took her up on it and off we went to downtown Raleigh where we walked the entire length of Fayetteville Street and ate a yummy dinner at Jimmy V's!  When we got back, she had them fed, bathed and in the jammies!  What a great way to end a great day!

Saturday morning we ate our last awesome breakfast(and M made sure it counted!!) and leisurely got ready to leave.  We left mid-morning and stopped in Salisbury on our way home to visit with PawPaw!  He celebrated his 92nd birthday this week and is doing so great!  He was able to come meet us at his old house(he lives in a nursing home but we don't like taking the kids there) and we visited him for a bit before hitting the road for our final stretch home!!!!  We hit a little traffic, but not too bad and were so so so glad to see our house!!