thanksgiving.

since i'm at least a month behind, let's take it back to november. this year we drove to louisiana for thanksgiving. it was a great holiday. thanksgiving is always my favorite...i love the foods and the weather and the mellow-ness. there's no intense agenda (or, in my mind, there shouldn't be) and i am usually remarkably relaxed that week.

anyway. we got there tuesday night around 10 and the kids were super tired. they were going to share a bed at kk and jj's house for the first time ever, so we got them situated. it wasn't completely smooth sailing, but it was way better than i expected. i ended up sleeping kind of on the floor, kind of on the air mattress with them that night, but all the nights after that went great. they are actually still sleeping together in emme's bed at our house now that we're all back home, so i guess that's what we'll call success!

wednesday was low key and fun. we hung at the house, ate judice inn for lunch, and mom and i ran a bunch of errands to get the last-minute items for the feast. late afternoon/early evening, dad and i left to get ready for our 5K - we ran the gleaux run in river ranch and the kids, jb, mom, and joe came to cheer us on. i was super proud of my dad - he hasn't been running as consistently lately, but he totally kept up and the two of us finished right under 30 minutes. when registering, whoever inputted our info into the computers translated my dad's age (62) as 82, so we had many laughs about him winning the octogenarian category.

thursday was thanksgiving day and we piled on the food and fun. my grandmother and uncle arrived around 11, then our friend margaret, her son collins, and my brother got there shortly thereafter. my mom made all our faves - cornbread dressing, greenbean casserole, sweet potato souffle, mac n cheese, broccoli/rice casserole, these heavenly flaky rolls, fried AND smoked turkey...i feel like there may have been more, but every single thing was delicious. hollis napped for approximately three hours through most of the eating, but emme was happy with the extra attention. she invented some games and had everyone outside obeying her instructions. that kid.

after the guests left on thursday, mom and i made our traditional turkey & sausage gumbo with the leftover thanksgiving turkey. it turned out soooo good this year - extra thick roux and the turkey was smokey with just enough of a kick.

friday, several people came over for gumbo and hanging out. there were lots of kids and lots of eating (again). oh, louisiana. at around 4 or 4:30, we all loaded up in our cars and headed to the "zoosiana", aka the zoo of acadiana. they had it all decked out with lights, santa, a nighttime train ride, etc. the kids had an absolute blast. my aunt and uncle's au pere from when their kids were little was there with her husband and kids, and emme really got along with pima.

saturday morning, jb and i packed up our gear and hit the road back to austin. the kidlets stayed in lafayette with my parents and had a blast. mom and dad rented a fun jump for them for two days, they  went for walks with arlo, read books, played with other kids, had visitors, watched movies, and generally had the kind of awesome time you're supposed to have during a week away from your parents.

we drove back the following friday for a wedding. it was so good to see the kids again - time away was unbelievable, of course, but by the third day i was definitely missing them. super proud of how good they were and how great my parents did keeping up with them!

*a quick note on the (overload of) pictures. taking family portraits where everyone is looking at the camera is basically impossible. we had several attempts at getting a christmas-card-worthy shot of my parents and the kidlets, and a couple other attempts with my grandmother and the four generations, etc. if children are not hysterical and anyone is looking remotely at the camera, it's a win, really. also, i don't understand how there are no pics of justin. i mean, i do because i'm the WORST about picking up the camera, but man. sorry about that.