Thanksgiving Fun!

our holiday started on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, when "uncle Mike" came to visit. He flew in Wednesday morning and the minute he got in the car, Esther was talking his ear off, she was so excited to see him.
Later that day, we crammed our entire family (8 adults and 7 children under 7 years old) into a small already crowded portrait studio to get our pictures taken. It had been 4 years since we had a family picture, and we have 5 new members since then!

After 1 hour of waiting, nearly 200 pictures being taken, waving feathers and balls in the kids faces, stuffing them with crackers and candy to keep them happy, we did finally get some good pictures!
My two sisters, my mom and I stayed (the guys took the kiddos back to our house to eat dinner) and went through the 200 pictures to narrow it down, and we actually found a couple where everyone was looking at the camera.
The best news of all, and one that makes the whole thing worth it, is that I got a great family picture of the 4 of us! I have not had one since we've had kids!

At 6:30AM Thursday, Kenneth and I got up and picked up my best friend and drove to our local 5 mile Turkey Trot. I really did not want to run, since it was 23 degrees out, but I had already promised my best friend I would run. So, she really got me through this race.
This was absolutely the most miserable race I've ever run. It was 23 degrees (did I already say that?), It took 3 miles until I could feel my feet, I had not run over 3 miles in about 3 weeks, I had just come down with a really bad cold the night before, there were over 5,500 people in this race, need I say more???
But, we managed to get the time we wanted - 37:45 - and we finished in the top 550 people! We got 11th and 12th in our age category out of 290, and we got 91st and 92nd out of all 2,800 females! So, I'm happy Rebecca stayed with me and ran with me because if she hadn't been there, I would have walked the second half of the race.


Sporting our gloves - hers say 26.2 for being the best out of our duo at a marathon, and mine say 13.1, since I hold the record for the half marathon.

Even after 2 hot chocolates, I think Kenneth's face was still frozen. It was so great that he could come with me to the race, since his brother was home to watch the kids.

After the race, Kenneth and I zipped out of there, came home, got ready for Thanksgiving, and drove to my sisters house about an hour away.
It was a fun day, although there were a lot of catastrophe's - luckily my Sister and BIL are used to messes because they cleaned them all up in record time. Within one hour of being there, my dad's homemade berry pie crashed to the floor, the kids table with the 4 older kids fell over, taking all their plates and cups with it, and the entire veggie tray and dip overturned into the deviled egg platter! But, other than all that, it was a great day!

Uncle Mike playing with Esther

Luke opening a present (we had to exchange gifts with one another, since my younger sister and BIL will be in California with his parents for Christmas).

Uncle Mike opened some of Luke's presents - I think it almost fits!

Esther got a pirate costume that she loved

Some cuddle time with Uncle Mike

On Saturday, the kids figured out how to have fun with Uncle Mike's matress - they could have played for hours on this! They just ran and jumped like crazy - and Luke would try anything Esther did.

The Gator boys watching a Gator game together for the first time in many years!!

The little ladybug with Uncle Mike

On Monday, Uncle Mike's visit came to an end - he had to go back to Florida. We were all so sad to see him go, and he was such a good sport all weekend - he had to sleep on a mattress on the living room floor, he basically had no privacy or peace and quiet all weekend, he kept up with all the "uncle Mike, watch me's" , and he watched the kids for us a couple times, so Kenneth and I could do a few things together. He even managed to get some assignments and papers done while he was here. Thanks so much for coming Uncle Mike, we miss you!

This video is of one of the many times during the weekend that Esther had fun jumping on uncle Mike's matress.