Thanksgiving

I know, I know, it's January.  It's a little late to be telling all y'all what happened for us during Thanksgiving.  But at least now I've told you why I've been such a slacker with posting things!  Also, in my defense, I was waiting to get some additional pictures from our festivities e-mailed to me (thank you SO much again, Connie!!) and I had totally forgotten about the pictures I did take because they were on my little purse camera instead of our usual DSLR.

The day after Thanksgiving, Kendra and I flew into Kansas City for the weekend.  For various reasons Grant had to stay behind.  It was a very lonely weekend for him.  We stayed with my Dad, Michelle (his girlfriend) and her daughter Adrienne and just had so much fun.


A Photo-less story

We stopped for some Mexican the evening we got in and as we were munching on chips and queseo and salsa, Kendra saw us dipping our chips and decided she wanted to try some, too.  Well, it turns out, this child looooves herself some spicy, spicy food!  She was pretty much just using the chips as a spoon to get more sauce into her mouth--and we had just commented amongst ourselves that even the mild had quite a bit of kick (which is what we gave her).  She didn't mind it, though...she just kept dipping chips and sucking it up by the gulpful until she had tears streaming down her face!  She'd take some water and then plow right on back in for more...she didn't even seem to have an upset stomach later.

I guess I need to add Tabasco to more things I cook.


Having FUN!

Kendra loves animals, so she had a ball with the three dogs at the house.  Unfortunately, I was having so much fun watching her I didn't go grab my camera.

I learned that she's a terrible bedfellow, though.  To make the trip simpler, I decided not to bring a portable crib (and I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified of Delta losing whatever I checked so I didn't check anything, especially since we were flying out of a teeny airport here in town that makes transfers necessary unless you're flying to Detriot, D.C. or Philly) so Kendra shared a full-sized one with me.  As soon as she fell unconscious, she'd swing herself fully perpendicular to me but with her head or her feet mashed up against my side.  Stinker!  But, I was just a little worried that she would have a really hard time sleeping at all, so I guess kicking me around (literally) is better than not being able to sleep.

While we were there, she did all sorts of helpful things around the house, like show everyone how to play the piano and pass any object she got her hands on from the table to the nearest person around.  And boy did she have some fun bumping down the stairs on her tush!  It was a really, really good weekend.


The Main Event

And while this is all very excellent stuff, the main reason we went was to attend a family dinner on my paternal grandfather's side of the family.  They've been doing their get-together the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the past several years and I finally got around to going--I'm so glad I did!  I hadn't seen my Grandpa in a very, very long time and it was sooo nice to give him a hug and introduce him to his great-granddaughter.

This little boy is Damen, my cousin's son unfortunately she had to work, but my Aunt came and brought him with her.  He was a very fun guy and of all the children there, Kendra totally latched onto him and followed him everywhere.  He was very sweet to her!

I also got to see my great-aunt Norma, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures with her.  I hadn't seen her in over a decade and it was so nice to chat with her for a while.  Actually, I haven't had many opportunities to meet that side of my family at all, so it was a lot of fun to spend the afternoon with all these awesome people and better yet to know that we're related!

As we left my Dad's cousin Connie, the hostess, grabbed a couple of shots of our branch of the tree--although we'd already strapped the kids into the cars, so we just opted for the 4 of us.

Dad, my Aunt Lynnie, my Grandpa and me.

I predict more trips to Wichita on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in our future--you becha, I do!

It was a short and incredibly sweet trip--if we've ever had a conversation about him, you know how much I really, really love my Dad.  And everything went pretty smoothly--Kendra was a super trooper in every sense of the word for the travels.  I think it's safe to say that we all had a really great time.