Thanksgiving wishes and honey coated dreams

Here's hoping everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We took the 6 hour tour to Honey's house. The ride down was slower than anticipated with traffic and construction, but, at long last everyone was gathered together safe and sound.

We all settled in, enjoyed a delicious meal and spending time together. On Friday, Kurt and I had the chance to escape for a while. We went to Easton and had a fantastic lunch, with just the two of us. No kids. Just grown up talk. I didn't have to cut his food! It was amazing! We then wandered around and checked out some of the shops, especially a Sur La Table where we said hi to honey and spent over an hour picking out all kinds of things we'd love to have.....when a $3000.00 coffee maker doesn't seem too terribly absurd on a Christmas wish list!

After our return, we had the chance to hang out with Tim and Cokely and play pool, eat some great white chili (Thank you Em!) and let the kids run wild! Max really took to pool, especially with Cokely!

Saturday, it was Joe and Emilie's turn to escape while Kurt, Grandpa Kelly and myself spent some time with all the kids. Along with a rousing game of "football" outside, Max and Noah watched Spiderman 3 and Levi and Avery plotted their escape, with Avery in complete control. Still not sure where she gets THAT kind of behavior from! It truly must be from Kurt. Lucky for us we caught them before they grabbed the keys and headed off for a night of 2 year old style dabauchery! I imagine that would incude a lot of juice, crackers and enough crayons to go around!

Sadly, it was soon time to make the trip back to Michigan. But, we did manage that in record time (under 5 hours, with a half hour stop......23 really IS faster). We have lots of pictures to get developed from the old fashion camera we still insist on using, but there were definitely some cute shots taken, which will be shared as soon they are developed. However, based on that track record, it could be a special wedding present for one of the kids!

As much as we love Honey and Grandpa and visiting with Uncle Joe, Aunt Em, Noah and Levi, it did feel good to be home! Now, we're getting ready to move into full Christmas mode with wish lists and letters to Santa. The neighbors have already put up all kinds of obnoxious Christmas lights (but then, what can you expect from the kinds of neighbors we have...that have Christmas stuff up before Thanksgiving....damn lawyers, think they can do anything), so it really looks like another Thanksgiving has passed, and fortunately we have friends and family to spend the holiday with. That alone is something to be thankful for.

Halloween Spooktacular!

The frog princess is amazed by the awesome presence of supermax! Halloween was WET...perfect frog weather! And while we were caught in a a brief monsoon, a good time was had by all! Avery lasted for most of the trip around the neighborhood, but it's a good thing we brought the stroller! Supermax was disappointed that he didn't get to eat candy all night long and is none to happy with the rations he gets. But all in all, it was sucessful and fun and one of those great childhood memories that will be kept for years to come. Now, we're on to Thanksgiving in Columbus with Honey and Grandpa Kelly next week and look forward to spending some there with Joe and Emilie and Noah and Levi and Honey and Grandpa of course. Here's to a 6 hour drive with the kids (thank goodness for technology...between the DVD player for the kids and the laptop for Kurt, I gets 6 hours straight of NPR!)

Welcome to the clan bake!

Not willing to be out done, much less left out...The Volkers "Clan Bake" has begun! We'll see where it goes and what happens...not unlike we have to with everyday life!

So, welcome! Sit back and enjoy!