Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Hello Everyone! We were able to take a trip out to North Carolina for Thanksgiving this year. I haven't been home for Thanksgiving since I left for school back in 2002. It's been 7 years since I've had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and it was so wonderful! Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us come out. Once again we managed to cram a lot of activities in for the short time that we were there. Here's the picture report:
The night before Thanksgiving we played Scum. I call this "The Sisterhood." Yes, I was President, Jenny was vice president and Kelley was the next step down. Oh yeah.
Thanksgiving morning Jenny, Kelley, James and I got up early and headed up to Raleigh for the annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 8k. There we met Aaron and his girlfriend Alisha. I signed us up for this race to keep us motivated to continue our good running habits. It didn't work so well, I think James and I could count on one hand the number of runs we went on in preparation for this race. It was fun anyway. It was so cold and foggy on this morning! We stayed in the car until it was time to start. 
Aaron and Alisha! They killed us on this run. Who can blame them? They go on 10+ mile runs every Saturday! Way to stay healthy doctors!
All of us together. Jenny, Alisha, Aaron, Kelley, Ann, James. 
While we were gone, the kids stayed with Grammy and Grandpa. Grandpa had a stash of toys and gadgets that he pulled from occasionally to entertain the kids. The first of these was a kit to make a fountain out of two soda bottles. Other gadgets that showed up while we were there are metal bugs and a car, a slinky, train and boat whistles. 
After the race, we had to boogy home and start helping with Thanksgiving dinner. Here's Kelley making my Grandma Barrow's famous Pumpkin Pie. Delicious Kelley! 
Thanksgiving dinner...mmm...look at all that food! We had some cousins who live in Virginia down for the holiday. It was fun to reconnect with them.
This is Owen. He is the son of my cousin...Thomas's first cousin, once removed? I'm not sure, but for the couple of days they were here, they were best friends. These two had very interesting conversations including topics on volcanoes and geysers. 
The day after Thanksgiving we went out and played frisbee golf. This is something we've never done before, but I would love to do it more often. Unlike regular golf, I actually felt like I had a chance of showing off some skill. From left to right, Thomas, Grammy, Kelley, Alisha, Ann. 
James teeing off. Aaron behind him.
Ann teeing off. Dad, Aaron and Kelley behind. 
It was dark by the time we were done and the kids were cold. I wish I could remember the ending scores. I think Aaron and James finished first and second. It went all down hill from there. :)
James had to head home early on Saturday. I can't say he was too sad to leave us because he scored tickets to the BYU-Utah game through a member of our bishopric. James was able to take his dad along with him and they had a blast. We watched the game back in North Carolina which included a lot of cheering, nail biting, yelling, and finally a sign of relief and more cheering. 
Later that week we went to the North Carolina Zoo. The week after Thanksgiving is the time to go visit places because everywhere we went there were zero crowds. We especially felt alone at the zoo. Many of the animals were out and about because it was cooler. This is Hailey by the seal tank. This seal was swimming circles around the tank. 
There was a play area set up like a beehive. The kids played here for a long time pretending to gather and make honey.
In the aviary. It was nice to be somewhere warm finally. You can see come birds behind us. 
Thomas and Hailey were very curious about he huge gorilla. He just sat there staring at us and other things going around him. It's so unusual to go to the zoo and get this close to the animals without a crowd of people! 
Thomas on the rhino statue.
The lions were roaming around. We think they were hungry because during the winter they are only fed once a week and the next day was supposed to be feeding day. It was fun to see them so active.
Thomas and Hailey by the chimpanzee statue. Hailey really liked the little baby.
Hailey reading stories with Grandpa. She loves her Grandpa Barrow!
Sunday morning and Hailey in her cute little dress I found at one of the thrift stores. I usually don't do the whole Christmas dress thing because you can only where it for so long, but for 6 bucks, I couldn't resist. She loves it so much that she was willing to go without lunch because I told her she had to change before she ate. I was finally able to convince her that eating was more important than wearing the dress. 
Hailey and Alisha Sunday night playing Balderdash.
We were also able to go to the science museum in Durham. This is in the butterfly house. We watched the butterfly keeper release new butterflies and moths. I found this place so peaceful and have decided that if I ever become so wealthy that I can't figure out what to do with all my money, I'll build a butterfly house complete with a care taker. Ah dreams...
Digging for dinosaur fossils...actually we mostly found sea shells.
Thomas was determined to find something significant. He mostly just got muddy though. The work of an archaeologist is a hard one.
Hailey playing in the steam. I wish I could get videos to upload because she ran and ran and ran in circles around this. 
Thomas sailing boats. 
Thomas playing with more steam. He's trying to make smoke rings but it was a little bit too windy. 
Break for lunch. Cheetos was a staple lunch food while we were out there. I don't usually buy them, so they were a major treat for the kids.
This is a picture from the children's museum. Once again I wish I had the videos from this. They are much more exciting. I'll have to work on that. This is Hailey pretending to be a spaceship captain. Mostly she enjoyed pushing the buttons. 
Jenny treated us to a night out to see Phantom of the Opera. Jenny, Kelley and I drove up to pick up Alisha then headed over to grab something to eat and head over to the play. All of this was done in the pouring rain. Because of time restraints we had to eat at the bar of the restaurant and when I say bar, I mean balancing our plates a piece of 2x6. We were able to scavenge a table finally and enjoyed our garlic fries. Again we ran through the rain to the play and enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks Jenny!
I just had to throw this one in because Kelley is always stealing cameras and taking pictures of herself. I thought I'd publish this one for her.
Too soon, it was time for us to head back home. It's no fun having to say goodbye knowing that you're not sure when you'll see each other again. I'm thankful for easy communication these days. We are able to easily talk to each other and even web cam. It's a glorious world we live in.
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2 comments:
We had fun with you all too!
Wow, looks like a GREAT trip! It makes me want to go back there again! I will have to watch the movies of the kids when we are at your house sometime. It looks like fun.
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