Evan and I flew in to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving so that we could meet my new nephew, Nolan. We spent the weekend at my brother's house. Evan and Cameron had a blast together and I got to snuggle with the new baby:)
Mom, Jodi, and Pax drove up on Sunday to spend the day and then Evan and I rode back down to mom and dad's house with them. The minute mom walked in the door ALL the grandsons were on her lap...
I was only in central IL for 3 days. My parents are used to having Evan and I for at least a couple weeks when we're in town! But I guess a little time with them is better than no time at all:) While we were at Mom and Dad's house, Grandma & Grandpa Bridgwater came to visit us.
They brought Evan a firetruck which Paxson enjoyed too....
And Grandpa brought a little wood dancing man which entertained Evan for awhile....
I was able to spend an ENTIRE day with my sister! When was the last time that happened? Jodi and Evan started to make pancakes until we realized we didn't have any eggs....oops.
Paxson is hilarious. I love how anytime he sees the camera he automatically offers up his best "cheese"....
We took Pax and Evan to the library where they were both on their best behavior as the lady sang about turkeys and pumpkin pie. We checked out some books and then just ran through the aisles of books for awhile....best part about being at the library, right?
Mom came to Jodi's for the afternoon to watch the boys so we could go see New Moon. I gave Jodi an assigment about a month ago: Read Twilight, Watch Twilight, Read New Moon. She did great...I think she was in the last chapter of New Moon when I arrived! We LOVED the movie and I'm actually going to see it again on Thursday:)
Being in Illinois for only a short time makes it completely impossible to see everyone that I would like to see but I always try to make at least one visit to see my Grandma Edi...
3 Days in Southern, IL....
Amazingly, I have NO pictures of the actual Thanksgiving day. Evan and hitched a ride with Joel's cousin, Jason, and his wife, Andrea, from Champaign down to Tamaroa. Evan did great on the 3 hour car ride except for when I told him Jason might put him in time-out if he kept kicking the back of his seat. After a few seconds of only his lip puckering and tears forming in his eyes....he let out a full-forced cry. It took me awhile to convince him that Jason was really a nice guy. Jason dropped us off at the Searby Cabin where Linda was waiting for all of us to arrive. John, Jessi, Jack, and Josie pulled in only a few minutes behind us and then Joel and Mark arrived from Birmingham about a 1/2 hour later. We had a traditional Thanksgiving Supper "homemade by Publix and Walmart."
On Friday morning we had "Thanksmas" with Joel's parents and brother. Sometimes its just easier to Christmas with one of our families a little bit early rather than trying to cram everything in at Christmas time. Evan and Jack ripped into their packages and Josie worked hard on hers. I think we were all thankful for the gifts that we received and for the time spent with family.
On Saturday, the entire extended Searby family met at the Friendship Church of Christ in Tamaroa to celebrate Granny and Grandpa's 65th wedding anniversary. Someone even brought a recliner to the church for Grandpa to sit in....
Since the whole family was going to be together we went ahead and did the BIG Searby Thanksmas too. Evan and Jack had fun opening their gifts:
Joel, Evan, and I drove home on Sunday...the worst possible travel day of the year. But after 15 hours we were happy to be back in our own home in Gainesville!
