The half-way point to Roanoke is my alma mater, James Madison University, so we took a quick break to get some wiggles out and take some family photos around campus. Very intuitive but not well known fact: the campus is completely empty on Thanksgiving Day, thus allowing for primo parking and lots of places to take great photos. We took one family photo with a life sized statue of James Madison, poor guy. I know people were shorter back then, but geez! When this statue was put in, the landscaping crew went to great lengths to plant beautiful flowers and people always hopped right into the flower beds (like we did) to take a picture. I noticed on this visit that there are now these very handy stepping stones built into the bushes :)
We also headed over to the football stadium that has an enormous Duke Dog, our mascot, outside. My son's first reaction wasn't to be afraid or intimidated whatsoever. Nope, instead he stuck his head right inside the dog's mouth.
We also managed to get a family shot here, too, but Nate was much more interested in playing with his own stuffed animal Duke Dog and trying to climb on the big Duke Dog to really look at the camera. This was as close as we got to a 'good' shot.
Once we got to Roanoke, we had a really nice lunch with my family -- I miss their food so much! I have the recipes, but that would mean I would have to learn to cook in general :) I'll admit that I was a bit worried about Nate and the other kids, as he's become a bit shy, but he jumped right in with his cousins and within minutes insisted that he was too busy to eat because he was playing with his friends. That makes for a happy momma moment!
That moment was quickly squashed as Nate turned to go downstairs and play with the other kids, missed the first stepped and barrel rolled down an entire flight of 9 stairs (yes, I went back and counted afterwards). Surely, I thought we would be on the way to the Emergency Room, but little mister rough and tumble jumped up, said he wanted to go play, and ran off without as much as a single tear. His guardian angel is amazing but certainly overworked!
My family has a tradition where a group photo is taken on the front porch every year. Usually a poor neighbor gets stuck with twenty or so cameras and we stand outside in the cold This year, Chris and I took our tripod and remote, and revolutionized the family photo! So easy and quick! :)
We also took a trip across town to visit one of my great aunts who is incredibly sweet and just loved on Nathan. In fact, he asked her to feed him a bowl of cereal because he was "so hungwy". Only my child would scarf down multiple bowls of cereal on Thanksgiving instead of a proper home cooked meal!
Cereal aside, it was so good to see my great aunt. We had a very nice, sweet visit. Nathan slept for half of it, woke up, ate 2 bowls of cereal, and then told us that he wanted to stay and live with her. Lots of loyalty with that kid.
After finishing our visit with my great aunt, we headed back to Thanksgiving Central and had dinner, let Nate get a few more wiggles out, changed him into pajamas, and hit the road. I'd like to say that we made a graceful exit, but our exit was hurried and involved a terrible-threes-tantrum that lasted through multiple rooms of the house, into the car, and until we left the neighborhood.
Shockingly enough, the ride home was excellent. Between paying under three dollars a gallon for gas (even if it was $2.99/gallon), some strong coffee, a Disney sing-along with Nathan, and the fact that he stayed awake and happy for over half of the drive home. It's not the easiest, but 7+ hours in the car plus a day chocked full of family visits with a three year old can be done!
Since I refuse to do any Black Friday shopping in stores, we stayed home today and relaxed a bit. I did go to the grocery store, which was marvelously empty. We also saw Chris's brother, sister-in-law and our nephew today. Our boys always have so much fun together, they are too sweet!
I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving, spending time with family and friends!
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