Thanksgiving weekend

It's taken me almost a week to get around to writing this. Last weekend, over the holiday, was a pretty great weekend.

Dad H playing with A and J

Thursday morning we drove down and spent most the day with Jason's parents, visiting with Dad H, Mom H, his sisters, brother, brother-in-law and sister's boyfriend. The food was pretty amazing. Our new brother-in-law sure can cook! Sis-in-law is a lucky lady ;)
Jorie and Matt gave the boys their Christmas gifts early since they won't be able to make it to Ohio this year. E got a cool Minecraft shirt, Alex got a whittling kit/book, and Jack got a Thomas the Train toy (Tidmouth Shed). He hasn't stopped playing with it all week and can name every vehicle and person that came with it. I swear if I hear "Harold the helicopter" "Thomas" "Topham Hatt" one more time, I may lose it... actually it's really cute how he says it! E can't wait to wear his new shirt to school for casual day - he might have worn it today, I can't remember! And Alex is just waiting till we get some foam or balsa wood for him to practice whittling. He wants to earn the whittling chip for cub scouts.

I thought I took more pictures at the inlaws house, but I can't find them :(

Boys reading a flyer from the hotel lobby

The boys were tired so after we got back to the hotel, we all just went straight to bed. Breakfast was, of course, mediocre, but free. After a morning hanging out together, we went to lunch and then back to his parents. Jackson and I decided to go to the mall to do some shopping and I got some good deals. Each of the boys are getting some new jeans and a matching sweater (for family pictures, most likely), Jason got a new Ohio State t-shirt and a surprise birthday gift he's not getting until his birthday in 14 days. I hope he likes it, but it's a silly gift, too. Jackson got to make a build-a-bear like his older brothers both have - they actually each have two. He decided on the cute little monkey! After stuffing and naming him, I looked at the time and realized it was after 5:30 and Jack would most likely fall asleep on the car ride home, so we ate a quick dinner and walked over to Old Navy really quickly. They had a fantastic 50% off everything sale, so I snagged 3 dresses, 4 pairs of tights and 2 pairs of flats for right around $100!

Sure enough on the way back to Jason's parents, he fell asleep. After a little more visiting, we went back to the hotel, where Jason worked on his homework and I took the boys to the pool for over an hour. They had such a blast just playing and splashing, we had the whole pool to ourselves. Jackson was giggling the whole time.

Saturday was spent watching OSU vs MI and eating wings and pizza at his parents house. After the game, around 6, we decided to go to the Toledo Zoo to see The Lights Before Christmas with Jason's dad, brother and niece. It was very pretty, cold, but pretty. All of the kids but Jack rode the carousel. I'm mad because I left the darn camera in the hotel room!

Heather

My sister, Heather, text-ed me to say they were coming up that night and staying at the same hotel! Jake went to spend the night with his dad, but Heather, Matt and his girls were all there. We went swimming for about 15-20 mins before the pool closed. We went back and hung out in there room across the hall for an hour or two (Ethan and Jason left early, because E was tired) and had pizza - again, LOL - for a very, late dinner/snack.

Dad O (w/ Versan the Monkey), Mom O, and Jack (guy in bg is Matt)

After waking up on Sunday, to find out that my sister was up and eating breakfast before me (!!), we
checked out and went to spend the day with my folks. Again, with lots of good food and visiting. My mom, dad, Heather, my BIL Matt, their 3 kids (Jake, M and A), plus my nephews Chris and Tony were there! It's been a year since we got to see them so that was nice. Of course, another nice surprise happened. My nephew Jeremy showed up! Heather's oldest son! It's been 5 years since we've been able to see him, with schedules and whatnot, so that was very neat! He had to work but got there around 3:30 or so after we had eaten, but he played football with all of his cousins and then had some of the leftover dinner.

Nephew Tony with Jackson

Jason and Jake

E and J

We all stayed and visited until around 6 or so when it was time for us to get on the road. As always, 6:30 Monday morning comes very early, and the boys had school. We missed having my other sis, Linda, her hubby, and their 3 kiddies (K, K and N) there, but Florida is a little too far to drive for a short weekend visit. It stinks they live so far away now, but I know they are doing good. Christmas will be nice, with almost everybody there again.


Jeremy is planning to be off of work and come too, with his FIANCE! I can't wait to meet her, I hear she's very sweet.


This might be my favorite shot of the weekend. I caught Jeremy giving his mom a hug at just the right time :) Love it. --->

I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday weekend, and that this week has been kind to you. I think I'm taking the weekend off from blogging and coming up with some topics for next week. I'm off my game a bit, and I'd like to spend the weekend with just my little family. So if you don't see anything from me, that's why. Of course, I'm sure I'll be posting on Facebook some, either on my personal page or here. Jason's last class for the semester is tonight, and then he's got about a month off, till the middle January when classes start up again. He's signed up for 3 classes, going 4 days a week M-Thurs, so I'm going to soak up some hubby time over the next few weeks. Once he's back in class, I'll either be on here more because of boredom or just to spare my sanity ;) January through May will definitely be interesting... I think I may be looking for a GNO one of these days.