Our Thanksgiving 2012 trip part 1

We woke up at 4am Thurs., 11/15, to get ready and head to the airport (after staying up way too late packing and getting ready for the trip!).  It was only 32 degrees as Jared and I were out in the parking lot wrapping the car seats with shrink wrap to get them ready to check in, as the girls waited in the warm car.  The girls were really good on the plane rides--we just had to keep them busy with coloring books and coloring pages that I printed, little doodle pads, an Elmo movie on the laptop, etc.  On the way to my parents' house, we stopped and got lunch at Wendy's and saw an egret and nutria rat in a big ditch by the parking lot.  My mom had a roast beef dinner ready for us that evening and Ben and his girls came over.

11/16: We drove to Denham Springs so I could play volleyball with my friends (who I used to play with every Friday morning while we lived there).  Nikki came and played with us.  Jared brought the girls in for a bit, then took them to Bass Pro Shop while we played.  He took a few pics of us playing VB but I'm not putting them on here, ha ha!  When we got back to my parents' house, we got ready and drove up to Percy Quinn State Park in MS (just an hour or so north).  All of us (my parents, us, Ben and his girls, and Nikki), stayed in a cabin together.  My parents took one bed, Nikki and I shared the other, Belle slept on the couch, Ben and Brenna shared an air mattress in the LR, and Jared and the girls slept in the dining area on air mattresses and little beds that Ben brought.  We didn't get much sleep the next two nights with people coughing (me), snoring (me, Mom, Dad), getting up to use the bathroom (me ~20 times, everyone else), Makenna crying, air mattresses making noise at every toss and turn, etc., etc.

We got there in the late afternoon and took the girls to the park there for a bit:

Nikki and Makenna

Jared throwing Avery in the air

Nikki and Makenna

Makenna went down by herself but didn't like it!

Nikki and Avery on the slide

Jared showing the girls what a pine cone is

Avery didn't mind going down the little slide by herself

Picking up pine cones to use as kindling

Makenna did a great job picking up as many pine cones as she could

Aunt Patty and Uncle Raymond came that night and stayed in the cabin right next to ours. Our porches had a doorway between them, so we could easily walk from their cabin to ours. We just hung out that first night. Patty and Raymond gave some games to Ben's girls and some toys to our girls. I played one of the games with Ben and his girls and Nikki; the twins had fun playing with their new toys.

Cousins

Makenna wouldn't go to Raymond at all until he brought out the gifts he and Patty brought for them, ha ha

Another gift from Patty and Raymond

Ben and his girls playing one of the games Patty and Raymond gave them

Paw-paw and Avery--almost bedtime

11/17: Avery woke up with quite the crazy hair!  Everyone enjoyed a breakfast of cheese omelets, grits, biscuits, bacon and sausage.

Avery and Uncle Ben

 

WHOA!

 

 

Nikki's gonna love this pic, ha ha!

 

After breakfast, Jared took the girls for a walk down the road with Nikki, Maw-maw, Paw-paw and Brenna while I went on a trail hike with Ben and Belle:

Ben & Belle

 

Belle was a little scared to cross this part

 When I got back from the hike, Jared and the girls were hanging out outside and the girls got into the fire pit.  Nice.

I think I'll stop here for now.  There's plenty more just to finish out the rest of this day.  I'll post more soon...