Thanksgiving Day, 2011

This year's Thanksgiving probably goes down as one of the worst days I've ever had but one of the best trips.

Several months ago, some of Dave's cousins came up with the idea of gathering the whole family as a surprise for their mother's 70th birthday. Since her birthday is in late November, they thought Thanksgiving would be a good weekend. Great! We booked a flight from Myrtle Beach to Albany, NY (with a quick layover in Atlanta), booked a car so we could drive the hour from Albany to Williamstown, MA and booked a fantastic room at The Orchards Hotel in Williamstown, MA. We were so excited about it and so were the kids!

I got up at 3:00 AM (yes, that's 3:00 IN THE MORNING) on Thanksgiving Day so I could drink coffee, eat something, finish packing and wake up before I had to wake the kids. JD woke on his own at 4:00 AM and was in a pretty good mood. Excited about the airplane ride, no doubt. I woke Allie around 4:30 AM, fed them both breakfast and got them both dressed. We left our house at 5:15 AM to catch a 6:45 AM flight.

JD wrapped in his blanket eating cereal at 4:00 AM (iPhone pic)

The kids were fantastic on the hour-long flight from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta. Allie sat on my lap and colored and JD was happy in his seat playing games on my phone.

JD was very excited about the airplane ride. He kept asking when we were going to "blast off" (iPhone pic)

Allie all set for her very first airplane ride. JD's first was when he was about 5 months old (iPhone pic)

We only had an hour or so layover and Atlanta is a big airport so we whisked the kids from our arrival gate, down the escalator, onto the train, back up the escalator at our new concourse and to our new gate with about 15 minutes to spare. They thoroughly enjoyed riding on the suitcases and everybody in the airport thought we were geniuses (credit goes 100% to Dave, it was his idea).

This might have been better than the airplane ride..... (iPhone pic)

The flight from Atlanta to Albany was a little tough. By this time it was 9:00-ish in the morning and the kids were getting tired since they got up so early, and pretty restless. Not to mention it was a two hour flight.... I was able to distract them here and there with crayons, stickers, food and games on my phone but they were pretty unsettled on the flight. There was lots of kicking the seats in front of us, pestering each other and whining but at least they didn't scream the entire flight... it could have been worse!

By the time we arrived in Albany and got to our rental car (a very cool mini-van), Allie had had it. I think she fell asleep before we even got out of the airport! JD held on for about 30 minutes before he conked out. I enjoyed the drive from Albany, through Vermont and into Massachusetts. There was even some snow on the tops of the mountains!

I've never been a minivan person but this thing was seriously cool. I loved that the doors and the back hatch all opened and closed with the push of a button! (iPhone pic)

Vermont! I didn't know I'd get to (briefly) visit Vermont! That's TWO states that I've never visited over the weekend (iPhone pic)

There was snow on the top of that mountain, I swear. No really, there was! (iPhone pic)

We got to the hotel and got checked in around 1:30 PM and neither kid got much of a nap. There were 7 other kids (all of Dave's cousin's kids) all under the age of 9 already at the hotel so getting them to lie down once we got there was a lost cause.

We're here! This was such a cool town. I absolutely loved it! (iPhone pic)

Our room for the weekend. It was huge! And I've never had a hotel room with a fireplace....that was really nice! (iPhone pic)

Luckily Nanny brought TOYS! They kept JD happy pretty much all weekend!

Nanny also brought stuffed animals, which Allie loved! This particular bear suffered a terrible fate later in the weekend... we'll get to that story in another post, though.

At 3:00 PM we gathered in the hotel's library for the big surprise. Dave's Aunt Barby was floored. His cousins had pulled it off. She had no clue. We all visited for a while then went our separate ways to get dressed for dinner. 

At 5:00 PM we gathered for dinner at the hotel's restaurant. We tried to do pictures before dinner but my kids were not having any part of it. JD was such a mess that he wouldn't let go of me. They were trying to get a picture of all the cousins and spouses and JD had to be pried off of me, while screaming, by Dave's Aunt Sue! After I got him settled down I sat with him at the children's table and distracted him from his foul mood with my telephone, which quickly became a hit. Luckily, Dave's cousin Greg's wife (Annie) was also sitting at the children's table and we were able to distract ourselves with wine!

Daddy and his little girl, ready for dinner and standing beside the fireplace that is at the center of yet another funny story... to be told in another post....

I realized that there was no way I was going to get a picture of my severely overtired and crabby kids actually smiling in their nice clothes... this was the best I could do.....

All of the grandkids (our kids plus all of Dave's cousin's kids)... plus one mom!

All of the cousins and their spouses. This was the picture that so severely traumatized JD...I wish someone had thought to move the chairs out of the way (picture taken by Poppy)

Dave's cousin trying to cheer JD up... it wasn't working (picture by Poppy)

Still trying to console my pitiful boy so I could go sit with the grown-ups.... oh and trying to get Allie to stop pulling her dress up (picture by Poppy)

Finally! I was able to get JD to calm down enough to sit beside me instead of ON me. That's a look of relief on my face (picture by Poppy)

My iPhone quickly became the center of attention at the kids' table (picture by Poppy)

Annie and I were all too happy to see wine glasses appear before us (picture by Poppy)

Allie spent most of dinner sitting at Dave's table (she's a bit of a Daddy's Girl) but was anxious to come sit with me when she saw the big kids using glue sticks! (picture by Poppy)

Dinner itself wasn't that great. The service was painfully slow and by the time they got the food out it was cold. It would have been wonderful if it wasn't cold.... but the company we kept more than made up for the sub-par food.

After dinner Dave and I took the kids back to the room. I put Allie down first and took JD (and the baby monitor) next door to Nanny and Poppy's room where there were toys for him to play with. Once I was sure Allie was asleep I took JD back to our room to put him to bed... but the first thing he did was shake Allie's crib and wake her up....sigh.... I finally got everybody settled and asleep and I collapsed into bed while Dave went down the hall to hang out with the cousins he never gets to see as well as his sister, brother and wife, and his parents.

That night didn't go so well. JD woke crying several times but was still asleep when I tried to comfort him so he just pushed me away and kept on crying. Then Allie was up for the day at 4:00 AM......

So, that's our Thanksgiving this year... As I stated before, it pretty much sucked.... but the rest of the trip was fantastic. This post is long enough already so I'll make a separate post about the rest of the weekend.....