It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and now we are thankful that we are home sweet home!

We ended our week long adventure in the cold cold North with the DD, visiting and spending Thanksgiving with my missy lil sissy in Northern Virginia.

My sister pulled out all the stops as usual and basically offered up a feast fit for a royal family for our Thanksgiving meal. My sister loves to cook and she is amazing at it. The food was heavenly, definitely the best Thanksgiving meal that I have ever eaten and Marc felt the same way. The DD ate well and for Ethan that says alot. We finished the meal with some home made pumpkin pie courtesy of my BIL's Mom who actually made it from real pumpkin and not the canned variety. My sister also made two types of fresh baked cookies with ice cream for dessert. The kiddos had a ball.

Lovely table

The DD very hungry and a little crabby before they got to eat their feast!

We then sat back and relaxed for the next couple of hours. The DD played Don't Break the Ice" with cousin Sam and I...once they got the hang of it they couldn't get enough of playing. Sam and I enjoyed playing as well and he "one upped" me in our series of games. We ended the evening with a rousing game of imaginary monsters (Steve and Sam) chasing the kids...thanks guys..like I don't have enough sleep issues with Miss Starr...OY!

Satisfied hubs after dinner

getting ready to "not break the ice"

So cheesy!

Everyone laying around after dinner

a little horsing around

everyone getting in on the coloring action with Miss Starr

My handsome nephew Sam with my sis

Katie loves her cousin

See!!

Ethan is pretty crazy about him too.

Here is a fun video of Katie getting some tummy rasberry's from her Aunty Jane



The final day was spent at one of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums. We all enjoyed our look at all types of aircraft back from the WW1 right through to the space program including a Space Shuttle that was in it's own hangar area...very cool!

Marc is so strong he was able to lift up the Space Shuttle *SNORT*

These two had to get in the act!

After that field trip we were going to go have lunch with the family before leaving but we ran outta time as we had to vacate the hotel room by 2:30 and we had not packed yet. We said our goodbyes to sis and family as well as my folks and we bid a hasty retreat to get everything done and get to the airport.

By the time we got home it was almost 10PM and everyone was beat. Katie's usual good humor was gone when she found that her beloved Gabby (Our Chihuahua) was not here but was with Grandma...that made her very upset!! Then when we went to put the DD to bed, she put up a huge fight as those "Monsters" were rearing their ugly heads again. She had gotten very used to sleeping in the same room as us for the past week and did not want to sleep in her room. I sat with her and talked to her for quite awhile until she calmed down and fell asleep.



When we awoke this morning we had two VERY happy children who seemed thrilled to be back in their surroundings. Who could blame them, I am happy to be back in mine as well.

It is wonderful to go away but even better to be home sweet home again.