Thanksgiving

We made our way to North Carolina, again this year, for Thanksgiving.  

Despite still not feeling my best we had a great time! 

The campground we stayed at was covered in fallen leaves and large pine cones, quite the novelty for our floridian offspring.

My SIL put together an amazing Thanksgiving dinner!  She is quite possibly one of the worlds greatest gravy chefs which is important to me and my obsession with mashed potatoes. 

The kids had a great time playing together and especially enjoyed celebrating both Uncle Nate's and Blake's birthdays.  

Sadly my exhaustion and nausea kept me from getting out my camera much.  Thanksgiving was probably the worst and I didn't touch my camera once that day.  The following day I was feeling a bit better and was able to capture the fun we had at the Pik n' Pig, a North Carolina BBQ restaurant.

We sat outside which overlooked a driving range and a private airstrip!  

The boys were in heaven!

"Fore!" 

The Pig

Kane watching a plane land!

Best Buds!

Everyone shout "Pik n' Pig!"

Saturday morning we had Jess, Nate and the kids over to the campground for breakfast. 

Aunt Jessie helped the kids make their first ever leaf pile!

Jon is under there somewhere...

Not pleased to have to stop playing for a photo op!

Twinsies

Ok, so not really but they have similar features with their fair skin and ginger hair, although Kane is a strawberry blonde while Mags a more obvious redhead.  Not to mention the adorable poutie lips which of course you can't make out in these pictures because Kane is being crazy.  As far as personalities go they couldn't be more different with Maggie being every bit the little girly princess and to counter her, Kane is all boy with a side of goofball.  I love that even though Kane is our little genetic anomaly (which we absolutely love about him) , he has a cousin that can relate!  

The Lake

We spent a day with my SIL and family.   We visited the yacht club they joined this year where the kids swam and played on the playground.  The boys and I finally got to try Bocca Felice's finest oreo cupcakes!  Oh my goodness they are amazing.  More on that later though. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just hanging out enjoying each other's company.  It had been over two years since we had last seen them!  Its hard to believe how big the girls are getting!  The only bummer was that Taylor was with her dad the week we were in town and we didn't get a chance to see her.  However there are rumors they might make it to Florida for spring break this year!  We're all looking forward to it!

  

Cousins

Our last full day at my grandma's my cousin stopped by with her children. I hadn't met her kids yet and she hadn't met my two... or maybe even three youngest, I can't remember. Unfortunate side effect of moving over a 1,000 miles away from where you grew up.

Ford was pretty jazzed to have some visitors his own age!

Six out of grandma's seven, great grandchildren under one roof!

Such cuties!

Poor little L, Kane has never met a stranger.

Case in point.

Fortunately baby A knows how to deal with men already.

Kane can be sneaky though.

I dont get to take pictures of little girls very often but when I do I eat it up!

The big boys went outside to play, well the big boys who aren't terrified of being outside that is.

My cousin organized a good ol' fashioned game of red light, green light. I think this might be magenta light...

A quick break on the front porch.

Then a rousing game of Ring Around the Rosie.

It was a blast! Thanks for visiting us guys!

A Man Party

Our last night in NC, Sofie had a slumber party to go to. Before Sof even left Evan was lamenting his cousin absence. To cheer him up Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate promised him and the other boys a "man party"! Evan requested, soda for party, Seth, muffins, a.k.a. cupcakes and Blake, a real life game of Angry Birds. I love that kid. While soda and cupcakes were easily enough to procure from the local grocery store, Uncle Nate had to improvise on Angry Birds.

In lieu of hunting down ornery fowl, and ugly green swine the boys settled for this. The party was short notice and all.

Cheap shot.

He was probably making up for this from earlier.

Let the fun begin!

On a side note, during the man party dinner Aunt Jessie asked the boys what kind of pop they wanted, we had two flavor options, to which they responded with "Huh, whats pop?"

We be from the south Aunt Jessie and around these here parts we call it soda. Dont be tryin to force that there Yankee slang of yours on us! :)

Thanks Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate for letting us stay with you! We had a blast!