Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was AMAZING this year! I always love thanksgiving, but this year was especially special! I took a half day off work, and Devin and I left our small Lake Bluff apartment mid afternoon on our long voyage to Hanover, Pennsylvania. Besides the 3 1/2 hour traffic we sat in just to get to and through Downtown Chicago, our drive went by pretty quickly. It took us 15 hours to get to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike's house, and we arrived at 5am Thanksgiving morning. Devin's favorite parts of the drive were the many toll booths that stopped us along our way. Every time we got to one, it was like adding another tally mark to his heart failure chart. We did spend a lot of money on tolls, but it was well worth it for the time we spent with my family. I'll walk you through our stay in Pennsylvania through pictures....

Like I said, we got in about 5am, I slept for 2 hours, then ran the 5k Turkey Trot with my cousins, Amanda, Megan, and Ali, and uncle Mike. It was really fun. Megan and I finished with a good time, and it felt great to pass this girl who was secretly racing us the whole way. On the last 100 meters Megan and I kicked it into 5th gear, and so did this other girl....but who crossed the finish line first you ask? That's right, Megan and I. And she was one of those girls who wears all the cool workout clothes that are so expensive, and you never buy cause you would rather spend the money on cute work/dress up clothes...yeah..we beat the fitness-dressed-to-the-nine runner! What a way to end our run Meggie!

This is us back at the house freezing from our drying sweat, and happy to be finished

Amanda and Kathy in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the delicious dinner

(left to right): Uncle Steve, aunt Kathy, and Daddy-o. My dad's brother and sister.

Enter me...exit Steve

Exit Kathy...enter Devie and my brother Matt

I L*O*V*E these girls! Amanda, (me), Ali, and Megan. My favorite girl cousins on my dad's side! So many memories in this house with these girls :)

Matt felt left out, and needed some attention :)

Devin and I with my Grandpa right before we dug into the grub! Isn't grandpa cute?

We went to Gettysburg, and took advantage of a great photo-op with ol' Abe.

This is the view of Devil's Den, a famous battlefield in Gettysburg. Many, many, many men died right here in the Civil War. (I love history, so this was a really fun outing)

Same field, but with us in front of it

We played games all night every night. Kathy and I were on the same team playing Mad Gab. I'm not good at that game, but she was!

The 2 men in my life :) Dad & Devie

Grandpa, Dad, and Steve trying to get everything ready for our fishing outing.

We tried our luck at the dock first, but decided to move to the dam.

Dad about to cast his line. I love my dad!

I got our lines crossed, and Devin patiently unraveled the mess. I was the one getting impatient, and I wasn't even doing the work! Typical me!

And Devin caught one...a little guy, but still...he got the rush of reeling it in

Just before going back to Grandpa's house

We stayed in Hanover until Sunday morning, when we got up and left the house by 5am. We drove 4 1/2 hours to the south of Pittsburgh where we met up with this fine fellow! This was a HUGE highlight to our trip! We got to see Devin's little brother Matt for a few hours. He is serving an LDS mission in Pennsylvania, and we were able to meet him for church Sunday morning. He looked great, he sounded great, he seemed very happy, and we were lucky enough to experience him as a missionary in person! Matt has been gone for over a year now, and we haven't been able to talk to him. We just write him emails once a week. I can't say enough how special it was to be with him, even if it was just for 2 hours. I'll remember that always!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving break, and made it back to North Chicago by 8pm Sunday night. Thank you so much Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike for hosting us. We loved every minute of our stay! Our next big trip will be to Utah. We leave on Sunday December 20th and will be in Utah until Tuesday evening, January 5th!! Count 'em...that's 17 days!

Oh man....WE * CANNOT * WAIT!!!!!