Happy Thanksgiving!

We headed down Wednesday to see Matthew's family for Thanksgiving.  My parents went to my sister's house to celebrate, so we stayed at their house with my brother and his family.  After breakfast Wednesday we got on the road and went to Barbara's house.  Matthew's brother, Patrick, and his family were already there.  We went out to lunch and then to a playground.  It was chilly outside, but the kids wouldn't admit it!  There was a daycare there with their kids (mostly older), so it was a little crowded, but eventually it was just us.  We made a last minute decision to eat dinner at Mimi and Gramps' house (we picked up Chick-fil-a), but didn't stay too long because it was getting late and I knew the boys would want to spend some time with Mia and Nathan when we got to my parents' house, not just go straight to bed!

My mom bought the grandkids matching pajamas that they were supposed to open at Cousins Christmas.  Unfortunately they were left behind, but Robbie, Alex, Mia and Nathan got to open theirs together.

Thanksgiving morning we went back to Barbara's house to play with Caitlin and William for a while before heading to Monett and Gary's house for lunch.  The food was good and even the kids asked for seconds!  Barbara brought some toys over for the kids to play with, but it was really cold and I took a nap while they played outside.  Luckily there was plenty of adult supervision!  We took some bread to the pond to feed the ducks and turtles.  Monett said there were a lot of baby ducklings, but we didn't see them until we were headed back to the house.  

Checking out the yard decorations.

Playing a kiddie version of corn hole.

I don't know what Alex thought of Bailey (the dog).

Setting up the pins.

The cousins kept making sandwiches and took turns being on the bottom, middle and top.  Luckily no one got hurt!

The ducks are ready for a Thanksgiving feast, too!

William

Caitlin

I'm impressed with this shot!

Robbie

Alex (I'm pretty sure he's going to be my daredevil!)

See what Alex is doing?  (I'm sure it's because he saw me sitting that way, but it was a great angle for pictures!)

William stopped feeding the ducks after a while and decided the bread was really for him.

We found the ducklings!

Sandwich time!

We headed to Jim and Jean's new house Friday morning.  I told Robbie that they had a new house so he wouldn't be surprised, but he was still confused when he woke up after the ride and asked where we were.  Even though they haven't been there long it did seem like most of the unpacking had been done.  And they made sure the box of toys was within reach! :)  The kids liked splashing their hands and feet in the pool (by the way, their sliding glass doors are REALLY clean!) and sending the slinky down the stairs.  We met Patrick, Mariruth and the kids for lunch and then headed to the zoo.  Robbie wanted to see the tigers (some are coming to our zoo soon!) and Caitlin wanted to see the manatees, so we knew our trip would be a success if we saw those 2 animals.  Of course we did, and many more along the way!  Caitlin, Patrick, Brittany and Michael (Brittany's boyfriend) wanted to ride the roller coaster, so the boys went to ride the carousel.  Alex and Williams liked it, Robbie couldn't wait to get off!  Really, after it was over Robbie almost ran to the exit while I had to carry Alex kicking and screaming.  I took Alex for a second ride while Patrick and Caitlin went for a second ride on the roller coaster.  We bought a shaved ice for Robbie and I think that was his favorite part of the zoo trip.

Holding hands while walking to the zoo entrance.

Leopard

Zookeeper Caitlin

Zookeeper Robbie

Zookeeper Alex

Robbie liked the kimodo dragon

Hugs!

Goat petting zoo

 Giraffe hugs

There are 2 baby elephants

Robbie pretending to like the carousel (it hadn't started yet).

Alex really did like it!

I love this picture because you can see how much fun Alex is having.  You can also see how not happy Robbie is.

Saturday we met back at Jim and Jean's house before heading to the aquarium.  Unfortunately Jean's car needed work done so she wasn't able to go to the aquarium with us.  The boys had a blast.  Some times we would have to slow them down because they would run from one tank to the next.  Other times we would have to pull them away from the tanks.  There were also a couple of mist "curtains" and Robbie would cover his eyes as he went through.  After a fun day, we headed home.

Alex, Caitlin, Aunt Brittany and Grandpa checking out one of the tanks.

William and Patrick

Ohh!

Caitlin and Robbie.  Robbie really isn't taller than Caitlin!

Robbie and the colossal grouper.

I can't believe the picture is cut off, but the grouper is longer than Robbie!  (I also jumped in front of another guy taking a picture, so it serves me right that it's cut off.  It was an accident, though!  I laid Robbie down and then when I went to take the picture I saw the other guy trying to take a picture.  He was nice about it, but I'm sure not too happy!)

Sting ray touch tank.  Robbie touched a sting ray the day before at the zoo and all Robbie could say is "they're slimy!"  He did touch the shark in the tank, though!

I wish I knew what Alex and I were saying to each other!

It's so hard getting a good picture of these two!

Caitlin and Robbie

Grandpa and his grandkids

At the "Nemo" tank (with types of fish from the movie "Finding Nemo".)

We had a fun Thanksgiving trip and have so much to be thankful for!