Thanksgiving 2015

Whew. I'm tired! We had an eventful trip into Virginia for Thanksgiving and enjoyed some good time with Dillon's family. We traveled up on Thursday and had dinner with Dillon's extended family, then visited with his sweet Granny Gross who we hardly ever get to see. Thursday afternoon was with Dillon's daddy and resting up. Friday, we hit up Wal-Mart for some Black Friday shopping and then had lunch with Dillon's immediate family. Friday night, we went down to Speedway in Lights and had a great time. Luke LOVED the lights, especially the dinosaur section. We danced to music in the village and got to drive on a racetrack like Lightning McQueen.

Today we came back and unpacked our goodies and then went and got our Christmas Tree! We picked out a little tree that fits perfectly in our living room. It's all decorated with pretty presents underneath already. Now, to keep Luke out of them for the next month!

Tomorrow is relaxing and getting ready for a full work week. I may stay in my pajamas all day, we'll just have to see! We're so thankful for a loving family and time off to be able to see everyone. Now onto the craziness of the Christmas season!

Luke & Granny Blanche

Libby says "look at me!" :)

Dillon, Granny Gross & Luke. Mrs. Gross and her late husband kept Dillon from the time he was 2 months old until he was in school. The hold a very special place in Dillon's heart. 

At Pappaw Eddie's!

Hipster Luke

At the river at Pappaw's house

Coming back today we did a little browsing/shopping at the new Cabela's & Bass Pro. Luke found a football and HAD to have it. So much so, that he slept with it on the way back.

Helpin' dad

Maw & Peepaw are excited for Christmas

Our ornament this year is "Firetruck 'Mater"... only thing is, Luke likes it so much, Mater hasn't made it to the tree yet.

November '15

The last week has been a little draining. Dillon's had to work from 5:00 (am) until 7:00 (pm) most days so we mostly call on the phone and see each other 20 minutes before crashing into bed. We're excited for a short work week coming up, but Dillon will probably have to cram 5 days of work into 3.

Not much else has been going on. I've got all of our Christmas gifts ready and wrapped and our decorations pulled out from storage. Next weekend, when we get back home, we'll go get our tree as is our annual tradition. Today, we used our annual passes to Biltmore and went and looked at the pretty decorations. It was frigid outside and so we didn't walk around the gardens and we didn't even go down to Antler Village. The house was beautiful though and I couldn't believe the size of the tree they have in the formal dining room. Luke marveled at the decorations and I was worried that we'd have to chase him across the library if he let go of our hands. But, he did wonderful and listened well and I think his favorite party was riding the "school bus" from the parking lot to the house.

We went downtown for lunch at Doc Chey's and came back home and promptly laid down for a long nap. My mom has made yummy food all weekend and I'm fairly certain I'll weigh 15 more pounds before her and dad's house is finished. We've snacked on chili and chex mix and lasagna... YUM.

We're looking forward to some time in Virginia this week and visiting with Dillon's family. I'm planning on hitting up the Marion Wal-Mart on Friday as no one is there and they have the same deals as the Super Wal-Mart stores! That's about as close as I can get to Black Friday shopping. This week kicks off our holiday schedules and it's all go, go, go from here on out to 2016. Yeah!

Gatlinburg 2015

A few months ago, our friends reached out to us with a proposition that it might be fun for us to all rent a cabin in Tennessee for a weekend soon and get a way for a little bit. It would be 3 couples and 3 kids ranging in ages 4 months to 2 years. With all the little ones, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to all get together nowadays!

So we signed up, we planned for things we could do (Aquarium, eating out, eating in!) And we anxiously waited for our weekend away. Only to run into several hurdles along the way... Our friend Rob got sick with a fever, a few doctor trips later and still a fever, it was determined that they wouldn't get to go. We were all bummed, but with a deposit already paid the remaining families decided to keep the plans and continue on. I picked up the dinner to make for Friday night from Amber, Rob's wife, and we talked about how sad we were that they couldn't go.

That afternoon Dillon and I packed up the car to the brim. We told an excited Luke that we were going on a trip and that we would go to the Aquarium the next day to see fish and we would have a full weekend. The Creggers would be leaving a little later and we would meet them at the cabin.

We piled in the car, started up some music, got some Dunkin Donuts coffee and headed out on the highway. Luke started napping and Dillon and I passed the time. I turned around to check on Luke somewhere around the Tennessee line and he promptly vomited allllll over himself. Luckily, we were passing an exit right as this happened and Dillon thought fast and pulled over. I tried to clean out the carseat as best I could and we had a diaper/wardrobe change on the side of I-40. I hadn't heard of anyone at daycare with the stomach bug so I prayed it was something he had eaten or maybe even car sickness.

We made it into Gatlinburg with no other "occurrences" until we drove past a McDonald's and round II hit. One more wardrobe change and a rush to the cabin later and we had made it. We spent the first evening doing loads of laundry, giving the carseat a thorough cleaning and preparing food for the next day.

Saturday morning we all woke up and had breakfast, in no hurry to get out of the house. The cabin was toasty warm and I was still waiting to see if the tummy bug was hanging around (thankfully, it wasn't). We drank coffee and walked in the woods around the cabin. Baby Josie took a nap and we got ready to go out for lunch and the aquarium. After Josie's nap, we packed up and headed out. Traffic was crowded and we had a hard time finding parking and someplace to eat. We finally ended up at Mountain's Edge Grill, where the atmosphere was strange and the food was mediocre. Luke almost fell asleep on his chair and we decided that maybe now wasn't the best time to go to the aquarium. We headed back to the cabin where we all napped. In fact, Luke napped for over 4 hours. We decided to not go back out and made tacos for dinner.

While it sounds like it wasn't a good trip, it actually was. We caught up with our friends, we relaxed and we weren't rushed. We took naps that we usually don't get to take and we stayed up late which we don't always get to do. We enjoyed it so much that we talked about doing it again next year. Even though it wasn't what we had planned it was what we needed. Some time away, some time relaxing and a beautiful fall weekend!

Clean up on Interstate 40. 

Bath time was needed.

Feeling better, we got to play with Baby Josie!

Sweet Girl! <3

We do NOT recommend this beer. Yuck.