Thank Full.

We were incredibly blessed this year to spend Thanksgiving week in Virginia Beach amongst some of our most favorite people.  People who are brothers and sisters; people who taught James the Truth; people who counseled us and married us; people who had an integral role in James' and my relationship during our courting years; people who you wish lived right next door; people who you will spend eternity with in the Kingdom.  It makes you long for that glorious day even more. 

The trip down was quite eventful as one hopes it wouldn't be.  Forty-five minutes into the trip-Ireson threw up his entire breakfast all over himself, his car seat, seat straps and all.  We stopped for over a half hour cleaning up, wet wiping everything, changing clothes, bagging clothes, and taking apart his car seat-instantly upgrading him to a booster seat since we had to revert to using the seat belt rather than his puke laden car seat straps. 
1 hour later it hit again in a less aggressive and bountiful manner but gross just the same.  Once we hit the mountains and the twists and turns, it was well...all up hill from there.  We stopped at a gas station/subway shop to clean up AGAIN and we went inside to eat what our stomachs could bear.  At this point my stomach is in knots and my nerves were shot from constantly turning around every time I heard him move and then lunging to catch anything that was expelled.
Ireson was pale and pathetic and cuddling on me and just laid there with his poor pasty head on my shoulder.  I rather enjoyed it for a few minutes.  Luckily for me, I passed him off to his Dad just in time.  I finally had hands free to eat my sandwich when we saw him start to lurch. James headed for the bathroom though I needed to assist with the door opening since his hands were literally full with either a kid or throw-up.  Sorry for the graphic visual, but I'm recording this mostly for posterity.  Anyway, once his stomach was completely void of contents and we were passed the mountains and into VA he fell asleep and things died down or rather stayed down.

We spent the night in a hotel (always fun!) to ensure that Ireson was merely car sick and nothing more.  He had done this sort of thing on a smaller scale on numerous other trips, so I was pretty sure that it wasn't an actual sickness.  Anyhow, we took chicken and mashed potatoes back to the room and settled in.  Ireson was running around being his jovial old self all pink and perky.  He sat down to eat and intensely inhaled 2 pieces of chicken and a ton of mashed potatoes.  Of course we encouraged him to pace himself but the poor kid hadn't eaten anything in over 12 hours.  Needless to say, all turned out fine and we headed out Sunday morning for bacon at the Waffle House. 

The kids walked into The Waffle House chanting "bacon, bacon, bacon!"  The poor pork deprived children thought this to be the best official start to our vacation.  I indulged in the swine tasting as well!

We headed off to church where we saw a bunch of brethren that we hadn't seen in over three years.  Then it was back to Ruthie's house to settle in where we had an afternoon of fabulous fellowship time with some seriously special people and their adorable children.  Jonathan & Corrina and Meredith and the twins were a great start to a great week!  The kids all hit it off great for not having seen each other in years! 

During the week we spent hours talking scripture, eating, reminiscing, relaxing, eating, and spending quality time with "Queen" Esther, Ruth and Murray and Joanna, Shay and Cian while eating.  I would have been perfectly content simply staying home, talking and spending time with everyone all week.  However, we did make a few jaunts to various venues.

Tuesday:  Ocean - Along with the misty, windy and slightly chilled weather, we HAD to go to the ocean.  So we set out with our wind breakers to go take in the sights, smells and sounds on the outskirts of Neptune Park. The previous week a hurricane had hit and they lost a 1/3 of their beach!  Fortunately for us, the hurricane left a ton of sea debris on the beach and we had a great time scavenging the sea weed for dead sea life and some real life science application.  Shells, egg sacks, horse shoe crab shells, dead mini crabs, and trash were a few of our findings.  I counted that as a school day!

Wednesday:  Ruthie treated us to an afternoon at the Zoo- Teagan was absolutely enthralled with the 4 week old baby giraffe.  We couldn't tear her away.  I think her maternal instincts were telling her to take it home.  She got all teary eyed when we moved on to the next exhibit where James got to meet 4 lion cubs!  Their pride was proudly perched up on top of this mountain thing in their enclosure.  We had a great and eerily up close view.  They all got to pick out a stuffed animal or souvenir to take home.  James got a Fennec Fox, Teagan a baby Tiger, and Ireson a bag of bugs.  Good times and another school day accredited!

Thursday:  Thanksgiving Day!  We went in the morning to see some brethren and to check out "Queen" Esther's in-law suite under construction.  Then a bunch of family including: Jesse, Jacob, Joanna, Shay and Cian, and Uncle Bascom came over to share in the festivities.  Much food and fun was had by all. Later, we went to Murray's parent's house on the edge of a river!  The view was outstanding.  What a blessing to have that in the family.  Jesse took James and Jacob and the kids out on his fishing boat for a 2 hour excursion!  Teagan stayed back and built sand castles and animal burrows and watched pelicans with Joanna and me.  My kindred spirit, JoAnna and I had some "intense" conversation while trying to stay warm, watching the sun start to set, and wondering where our children were!  As the boat approached at high speed, all you heard was squealing and laughter!

Friday:  We went over to Nathan and Antonia's house to visit.  Nathan was James' best man in our wedding so it was great to reconnect and have our kids play together.  Teagan disappeared 30 seconds after getting in the door.  She saw a girl and girly toys and went running.  I think she was please to be surrounded by some estrogen.

Saturday:  We got up, ate another delicious breakfast, with bacon!  It was a great start to the end of our trip for we headed home around 10am.  We took a bunch of pictures after Ruthie and "Queen" Esther spent time reading the Bible to the kids.

As we were pulling out of Ruthie's development, Teagan pathetically piped up "Oh Mommy, I miss Ruthie already.  How am I going to do this?"  James and I just looked at each other and started crying.  10 minutes later she so matter of factly states:  "Mom, aren't Cian and Shay special?" To which James concurred, "Yeah.  Aren't they so much fun?!"

Indeed they are.

For the ride home we prepped Ireson at breakfast with some ginger laden applesauce.  Ruthie gave us a bucket just in case.   Ireson was adamant that "I not throw-up Mom."   I was torn but eventually I did give him dramamine to help ensure an uneventful trip home.  He was fine the entire ride home.  Shew.  We got home safe and sound and tired around 8pm.

Our Thankful Tank is Full.