Turkey Day in Philly

The five of us traveled to Philadelphia to visit Jacob's brother and family for Thanksgiving.  

I couldn't quite capture it, but it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen!

Mitchell earned a 10 out of 10 on the flight, Maverick earned an 8....and little Macallan got about a 2.  Yep, he was TOOOOOO busy to sit still!  Here he is pictured climbing all over my laptop that I had out for the older boys to watch a DVD.  No such luck!  Little did he know, this was really a trial to see if we wanted to take him with us on our December vacation to Florida.  He failed miserably and earned himself a week with Grandma & Grandpa!

We were greeted at Chris & Amber's house by the rest of the family -- seventeen in all!  Amber and Chris have  BEAUTIFUL home, and we did all we could to leave it that way :)

With a little help, Amber made a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving meal!  Amber provided the food...

Chris provided the entertainment....

He planted a fart machine (yes, a fart machine) under Katy's chair and a fake cockroach in her wine.  It was an entertaining meal to say the least :)

You can barely see him, but my favorite part of this picture is Chris's mischievous smile!

Ewwww, cockroach!

Macallan enjoyed his first Thanksgiving meal, & the big boys enjoyed sharing their meals with their cousins :)

With 17 people in one house, cousin Allie tried to get some peace and quiet listening to music the hallway.

The boys were thankful for Greyson's Wii to help keep them entertained :)

 They also created their own fun out of just about anything, including our stroller :) 

  

Here's my fellow shutterbug, Maverick.  He's missing one important step...turn it around, buddy!

Eating and resting were popular activities for this trip!

Thanks to a cake from Aunt Katy, we had a little celebration for Macallan's 1st birthday!

Jacob and I got our fair share of cookie cake! :)

...and Allie!

The cake excitement wore the little guy out!

No more, Daddy!

So good to spend some time with the newest married couple :)

All of the grandkids got some love from Grammy. It's Allie's turn :)

 I guess the love wasn't just for grandkids.... :)

 Once most of the family departed, we stayed a few more days and took the boys out to see the city!  First stop was Sesame Place, a Sesame Street themed amusement park.  It was fun, but CHILLY!  In the 30s to be exact!

Okay, so not everyone would agree that it was so fun!

 The big boys enjoyed dancing with the parade characters! :)

We also took the boys to the children's museum.  We knew it'd be a hit when we saw the name...The Please Touch Museum...you don't have to ask twice, or really even once :)

Here we are at the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

Macallan enjoyed himself a little more at the museum.  Maybe because he was warm :)

We all really enjoyed our time in Philly!  Thanks again to Chris and Amber for hosting!  We'll invite ourselves back any year :)

Decking the Halls

We usually wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, but we were just too anxious this year :)  We hadn't unpacked any Christmas boxes from the move yet, so we knew it would take extra long this year.  Thank goodness we have so many "helpers!"


 The whole family was able to get in on the fun :)

I think Mitchell is especially fond of the tree!  I was washing dishes after dinner tonight and when I turned around, I found Mitchell sleeping.  Now, this kid can certainly sleep ANYWHERE, but this is a new one.  He was curled up, complete with pillow and blanket underneath the Christmas tree!  We usually move him to his bed if he falls asleep elsewhere...but I'm thinking of leaving him tonight.  There is just something so special about sleeping under twinkling lights!