our thanksgiving

We made it!  We survived our first road trip with the boys!!

We went to Erie, PA, as we do every year, to celebrate Thanksgiving with Kara's side of the family.  But unlike all the previous years we had two extra special little boys on board.  And the boys did absolutely amazing!!

We packed up the car and headed out of town on Wednesday morning.  We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and hit the road.  The boys slept the first two hours of the trip.  We were experiencing exceptionally warm weather so we were able to stop at a rest stop and sit outside and feed the boys their 11 am bottle.  The boys loved to look at all the trees.  The boys then entertained themselves in the car for the next hour of the trip.  Of course we brought all our toys from home.  I was trying to decide which toys to bring when we were packing up the car that morning but I finally gave up and just handed the whole basket to Kara with the words, "You just never know!"  So it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me when I had a difficult time determining whether or not the boys were awake or asleep during different points of the trip.  I couldn't see them through all the toys we had hanging from their car seats.   Anyhow ... once the boys played for about an hour they slept the remaining hour of the trip.  We decided to stay in a hotel during the trip.  We just knew it would be much easy to have our "own space" to come back to at the end of each day.  But before we headed to the hotel we stopped by for a quick visit with the grandparents.  The boys did great in their new surroundings and soaked up every minute visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Russell.

We visited for a couple of hours before we headed to the hotel to check-in.  The boys took a quick nap in the car.  We got all checked-in at the hotel and Kara lugged all our luggage to our room without any problems.  Did you know that you need just as much luggage for six month old twins for three days as you do for two weeks?  The hotel staff put us at the very end of the hallway.  That probably happens when you make a reservation online for 2 adults and 2 children but only request 1 king bed.  Once we got all settled into our room we decided to head off to visit the boys Great Grandma Mimi.  But because things never go as planned the boys decided to have a major meltdown in the car.  I climbed into the backseat and gave them a bottle which seemed to help for all of 10 minutes.  By the time we got to Great Grandma's condo we were in full meltdown mode.  I thought for sure our visit we be all of 5 minutes long.  But then this magical thing happened ... Great Grandma Mimi appeared in the doorway and the boys were mesmerized by everything Mimi had to say to them.  This visit would end up being the highlight of our trip.  Kara and I are so thrilled that the boys were able to spend some time with their only living Great Grandparent.  I loved to sit back and watch the joy etched on Kara's face.  It was truly a magical visit.  We think Mimi was very proud to show off her great grandsons too.

We headed back to the hotel after the visit and we called it a night.  The boys were very tired and for the most part did an excellent job sleeping that night.  I actually think Kara and I had more problems sleeping.  We are not used to a king size bed and we are not accustomed to sleeping without our little dog Leo.  The lack of body heat in the bed made for some chilly sleeping!

There was a Cracker Barrel located right behind our hotel so we ordered carryout on Thanksgiving morning.   Kara and I have made it a tradition to eat Cracker Barrel each Thanksgiving morning and the only deviation from that tradition this year was getting our food to go.  It is much easier than bringing the boys to eat in the restaurant.  The food was a hit as always and next year the boys will be chowing down on eggs right along with us.  When I got back to the hotel I walked into the room and saw this ...

I think the boys like this whole hotel gig!!

We had picked out "cute" Thanksgiving day outfits for the boys.  But during a mini meltdown Kara and I decided to see if we could put the Dr. Brown nipples on the bottle of pre-made formula.  Guess what?  You can't do that!  The boys were covered in formula and thus required an outfit change before we even got out of the hotel.  I learned my lesson.  I'm new to this whole formula thing.  We finished our breakfast and headed off to Grandma and Grandpa Russell's to meet Uncle Bryan (Kara's brother) and Aunt Katie for the first time.  We were very excited for this meeting!!!  It was actually last year at Thanksgiving that we announced our pregnancy to Bryan and Katie (you can catch that video here).  Oh the memories!  We were so nervous.  You can tell that my hand was shaking as I was secretly recording the whole thing with my crummy camera phone.  The boys started to meltdown in the hotel room before we headed out but that was our fault as we kept them awake past their morning nap.  We wanted them to sleep in the car on the way Grandma and Grandpa Russell's.  And sleep they did.  So needless to say they were a bit cranky when we woke them up from their nap.  But within minutes the boys had taken a great interest in their Aunt and Uncle.  Uncle Bryan was a HIT!

   

And so was Aunt Katie ...

We celebrate Christmas with Kara's side of the family each year at Thanksgiving.  The boys were rolling in all sorts of new stuff.  They received several new outfits and several new toys.  You can see Alex testing out some of the new toys in the above picture.  They loved them!!  And Grandma and Grandpa did a great job picking out toys to fit the boys unique personalities.  Perfection.

We went to Thanksgiving dinner around 1:00 pm at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Ray's house.  The boys got the chance to meet their Great Aunt and Great Uncle along with some cousins for the first time.  They did wonderful!  I was worried that a lack of a nap would cause some problems.  We let the boys sit with us during Thanksgiving dinner.  It was hard to eat but it was worth it to be able to eat with the family.  Alex decided that he wanted some of what we were all eating so he took a big handful of coleslaw off of Kara's plate.  It was too cute.  The family once again spoiled the boys with a lot of new clothes!  We are so grateful for a loving and supportive family.  We stuffed ourselves silly with a lot of good food.  The boys started to get very tired and both of them took about a 30 minute nap ...

Can you say too much turkey?

We headed back to town about 4:30 pm.  We decided to drive down to the lake while the boys took a nap in the car.  The city didn't have a lot of traffic so it was a nice drive.  By the time we arrived back to the hotel the boys had slept for another hour.  We got them into their pajamas and then we all hung out on the bed and watched football together.  It was a great time!  They boys are now at an age where they just love to play with their toys.  I love when you put a toy next to them and their entire face lights up.  They just get so excited about everything.  They love it even more when we play with them.  

We headed back to Columbus the next day.  The weather had turned a bit crappy but we still survived the trip home.  The boys did a great job entertaining themselves in the car.    

The trip was short but we managed to pack away many memories!  

Mary