a series of fortunate events.

[Just finished . . . and this is the longest post ever. I should have split it up, but now it is done and I don't want to go back and redo it. Feel free to read in segments . . . like a good book.]

I'm not going to lie, I needed a vacay.

It seems that as a stay-at-home mom, where many days are similar, and some days are hard to fill, every few months its nice to have a change of scenery, and some other people to entertain your kid.

Cue Thanksgiving vacation.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Chris's sister Becky came up to visit and brought Carly's big girl bed (an inheritance from his parents). We had MSU football tickets for that Saturday, so she offered to watch Carly and Chris and I headed out to cheer on the Spartans.

We were season ticket people at BYU, but Big 10 football is a whole different story in terms of craziness and prices. Then throw a kid into the mix, and we decided just one game a year would be a good tradition. This year we lucked out, and Chris's adviser offered us tickets. He has season tickets: front row of the upper deck, right on the 50 yard line. They were incredible seats, with nothing in front of us but air and football. We had a lot of fun, and the Spartans killed Indiana U. So while there was very little suspense, there was a whole lot of offense. Works for me.

 

Chris's days before Thanksgiving were shaping up to be busy ones, so Carly and I hitched a ride with Becky back to my in-laws house to start our vacay early. It is good we did, too, because Chris was on campus until 2 am and 11 pm, and got all sorts of things accomplished without a pregnant wife to cook for a toddler to chase around. We were willing to make the sacrifice, and go eat food that I didn't have to cook, and go shopping and see Breaking Dawn and play with aunts and puppies and swing with Papak and bake pies with Grandma.

Chris finally arrived Wednesday night and I sure was glad to see him. Before we knew it, Thanksgiving was here. Chris and his sister Jenny went on their traditional Thanksgiving run, then he was kind enough to walk laps with his massive wife. We had a delicious traditional dinner in the company of the sister missionaries, one of whom was German and tested Chris on his slipping language skills, and the other had my little brother as a district leader in their last area. I was kind of rooting for Elder T to be in my in-laws hometown come Thanksgiving time, but the sisters made for nice company, too. Carly was not a fan of the handshake thing, though, and tried her hardest to give them hugs and kisses.

[Sammie was really hoping my FIL would slip up and drop a massive amount of turkey.]

The day after Thanksgiving, our little family of 3 (errr . . . 5?) loaded up and headed down to Cincinnati for the day. Two of Chris's childhood friends/college roommates were home for the holiday. We all got married around the same time, and now all have kids they we haven't had the chance to meet, so we decided to go visit for a mini reunion. It was fun to see friends and reminisce on the good old days. Carly and Kaden are only two months apart. It took her a little bit to get warmed up to him, but by the time we headed back to Indy, Carly was asking "Where Kaden go? Where Kaden go?"

[some of the posterity from Roman Gardens #329]

After a big lunch of BBQ ribs and queso and chips, and lots of playing, we headed out to UDF to get malts. This is apparently a big event, and Chris's UDF chocolate malt brought tears to his eyes. Carly was a fan, too.

Then we bid farewell to our friends and headed to the nearby Ikea. I was dying to go because there were a few things I wanted to get Carly for Christmas there. I told Chris I needed 30 minutes and $30 dollars. Let's just say I doubled one of those estimates, and tripled the other. That store is way too much fun and so cheap. But now Carly will actually be getting presents from mom and dad for Christmas. I'm way more excited to give her her presents than to get any myself, but that is what Christmas is all about, right?

Oh, a cute story. At Ikea, all the soft toys were 50% off. You know Carly takes her stuffed friends very seriously, so I thought maybe we'd get her a new one. We went around to all the bins. "Do you want to take this one home?" I would hold them up and ask. She would give hugs, but say no. Then we arrived at a bin of beagle-looking puppies. "Take that one home!" she said and pointed. I grabbed one. "No, that one!" she said and pointed. I went through about 7 or 8 different dogs. Mind you, they were all identical. Finally I reached the one. "YEAH!" she said and gave him a big hug and tucked him under her arm and walked off. I guess she knew he was supposed to be in her posse. Later in the car we were trying to name him. I rattled off about 15 names and Carly said "nope . . . nope . . . nope" to every one. Then Chris says "How about Buster?". "YEAH BUSTER! I love Buster!" Now we have Buster.

[Carly and Buster on our way back from Cincy.]

We drove back to Indiana that night, and got just enough sleep to head out on our next adventure.

Carly's first pedicure.

Chris's three sisters, mom, and I were having a girl party, and I was torn whether to bring Carly or not. I was a little afraid she would freak out, or get hyper and create all sorts of chaos. Turns out she was a pedicure natural. Don't know why I didn't expect that. She is quite the diva.

Carly was clear from the get-go that she wanted pink toes. But once we got there, the yellow started to sway her. I didn't really like the idea of yellow toes, so I found the best pinky pink I could, and she was sold.

[picking our colors. Carly got pink and mommy got dark purple.]

[a little nervous, but showing off her pink.]

It totally cracked me up that they did the works: soaked her feet in the "blue bath" (as Carly called it), shaped her nails, gave her a massage. It was the complete package . . . for a two-year-old. They had kid chairs with little DVD players and after Carly got used to what was going on, she was much more interested in Scooby Doo than in the foot massage.

[why is she touching my feet?]

Her toes ended up really cute though. And she made a point of showing off her "pink toes" the remainder of the day . . . and all the days since. In fact, later that day I went to put her shoes on and she freaked out when I covered her pink toes with socks. How dare I?

Then Carly got a sucker and sat back to watch her movie and mommy got a turn. I have to say, a foot and calf massage and a massage chair are just about all a sore pregnant lady can ask for.

It was a fun girl trip, and I'm glad I was convinced to take Carly.

Later that day we attempted family pictures and it went something like this:

Ha! No, there were some cute extended C family pictures, but the little C family had less success. We'll have to give it another go.

We ended our week-long vacay with Five Guys on Saturday night. I have a very special place in my heart for Five Guys. I try not to daydream about it on a regular basis.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break.

It reminded me that everything is ok, and that everything is going to be ok.

Carly and I went to the mall one day, and I made my first twin purchase: matchy newborn hats.

It was therapeutic.

It was physical evidence of how blessed we are.

And that life is fun and exciting, even when it is crazy and scary.

Hope your Thanksgiving was fab.