Thanksgiving Away

We packed up and headed for a repeat trip to Texas and Oklahoma, this time to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. Matt's birthday celebration also continued on our trip!

Here's Matt at Granny & Grandpa's, hiding in the toy bin!

The boys were grilling up something for breakfast, I guess!

Back in the bin!

One afternoon we headed over to my brother's house to spend a little time with Uncle Steve and Aunt Kimberly. We got to see the boys' cousin Chase while we were there too! Here's Jonathan with Uncle Steve.

Matt was upstairs making noise and playing with Chase while Jonathan got handed off and entertained by all of the adults! Here he is with his Aunt Kimberly.

Chase tried to get Jonathan to look at the camera. One of the rare occasions where he wasn't looking.

Back at my dad's house, he found his cheesy grin and looked at the camera on cue, while cooking something again!

One morning we all headed downtown to go watch Grandpa at his swim meet. Matt wasn't too sure what to think about all of it, but he seemed to enjoy the new environment as long as he was walking around in between my dad's 2 events.

We waited for Grandpa to get dressed after the meet, and Nick & Matt hopped a ride in the glass elevator for some entertainment!

Coming back down!

Granny & Grandpa introduced Matt to Candyland one night. He did a great job for about half the game. I am not sure what he thinks Grandpa is up to, but it looks like he doesn't agree!

I think he repeatedly tried to go two squares for every one we picked. He did a great job searching for the special spaces on the board.

We went to Northpark mall one day to see the trains. We had lunch first, and since it was Matt's birthday celebration week and a half, we got him a birthday song and sundae at lunch. I think he liked it!

Jonathan had a good time too!

He actually shared his ice cream with me. I was shocked. I thought he was going to fake me out, but he let me take a bite.

We were a bit of a mess by the time he was done with his sundae!

Time for the trains!!!

He kept going back to the "working trucks"!

The train exhibit was amazing. They had several cities and scenes set up. You can see D.C. in the background, and New York City is over my other shoulder. It was so detailed!

It was hard to tear Matt away and move through the exhibit.

The hat they gave him upon entering was donned as soon as we left. He didn't even want to touch it before we saw the trains.

More cooking at Granny & Grandpa's house!

That night, Matt's cousins, aunt and uncle came over and we had a big family birthday dinner for him.

Grace and Jonathan played together, but it looks like Jonathan thought she was up to something.

Matt got to sit at the kids' table without audult supervision, so Granny went to check on things at the end of the meal. He did a great job!

Jonathan was at the adult table, entertaining us all!

He had just learned how to do "touchdown", so Grace was trying to get him to do it for her.

Playtime on the floor again!

We tried to get a group photo, but this is the best we could get. It's a bit hard to get 6 kids to stand still AND look at the camera. Well, at least it's hard to add our 2 in and get it to work. Here's Matt with his cousins Chase and Ethan.

Aunt Kimberly stole a little more time with Jonathan.

Time for cake and more trains!

Once Matt realized the tracks came off and someone suggested he lick off the icing, it was game on!

I think they liked the cake!