Ah yes, Thanksgiving! Our great American harvest festival. This year we headed down to my sisters for the local west coast family gathering. The morning started out pretty good. I think David slept most of the hight in his bed, so we were fairly well rested. And no one had any colds or flus! Yeaaa! After a lazy morning, we packed into the car, and headed off.
I had checked the traffic maps much of the morning, and it was going smooth, so I wasn't too worried about the holiday drive. But it looks like a lot of other people were thinking the same thing, as after about 10 minutes on the road, the slow down happened. I think it then took us about 40 minutes to go about 10 miles. And with no idea how much longer it was going to continue, it was time for an alternate route. Fortunately, we were right near the perfect exit for just such an excursion, so off we went.
This route was a smaller two lane road, with a few more bumps and twists in it, and after about 40 minutes, Isabelle informed us that she started to feel a little sick. After another 10 minutes or so, we were back on a highway, and zooming along, and Isabelle's belly settled down. The rest of the drive was uneventful. Whew!
Once we arrived at Joan's house, the kids were very happy to see everyone. And of course, everyone's happy to see everyone else too. This Thanksgiving confirmed a long running suspicion I have, there are never enough stove top burners, nor ovens. I think 8 burners are needed, and 3 ovens.

Isabelle is becoming quite the photographer. Every chance she sees to grab a camera and shoot until the battery is dead, she takes. We have lots of pictures of things up way too close, and lots of photos of book pages, but I guess she has to start somewhere.

Halloween! Yes, the kids had a great time. David was going to be either a bat or Batman, until he saw Isabelle dressed up as a cheetah a couple of days before Halloween. Then he wanted to be a big cat too. So luckily, we had another big cat costume from last year, and then we had two big cats with pumpkin shaped buckets, eager to know on some doors.


Grandma Jeanne came up again, and the kids were super happy about that. We headed out in the darkness, and started to knock on some doors, with a bit of trepidation. After a couple times of hearing and seeing the goods drop into their buckets, those fears waned, and we couldn't get to each house fast enough! A couple of times, David couldn't wait for the doors to open fast enough, and would knock, wait 15 seconds, then ring the bell, wait a few more seconds, and ring or knock again.


The other hard part was after we turned a corner onto a certain street. It was a fairly wide street, with lots of kids on it, and lots of houses with their Halloween decorations glowing brightly. We couldn't stay to just one side, and yet we didn't have enough time to go all the way down one side, then turn around and come back on the other side! So we zig zagged about one third of the way. Why only one third? Well, before we left, we asked the kids to go to the bathroom. I don't know if they did or not, since we don't stand in there with the kids. But both kids said they did. And off we went. It turns out, the bladder doesn't lie. So we had to make a quick detour home to take care of the business which may have been missed 30 minutes before.

In hindsight, it was probably a good time to head back anyway. They still wanted to do lots more trick or treating, but it was good to get off the road before the tired bizzies or fussy we-didn't-get-to-that-house whines.


After we got back home, Isabelle asked David to come over to the center of the living room, and they dumped out their loot to survey just what it was they were so happy about. They were very diligent about separating all the different types of candy, and even the chocolates amongst themselves.

Later that evening, just before bed, they played Trick-or-Treat with all sorts of things they grabbed in the house. One would go to the door, and knock, and the other would pretend to open a door, and the re-enactment continued for 15 minutes as they each took turns.

Gladly, they both slept very well, even staying in bed until 7:30. And even then, they just came in to our room and jumped on us. That was rather kind as they didn't wake up Grandma too soon, or jarringly.

David, smile for a picture....

Isabelle, smile for a picture...