Thanksgiving

As usual I'm a few days late in posting about the most recent events, but oh well. This is our life.

We had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving at Seven Springs ski resort in western Pennsylvania with Rob's extended Bedinghaus family. There was no snow at the resort yet, but we still had a fun time and enjoyed the resort. Rob's family rented a huge house and then some smaller sleeping cabins nearby to accommodate all 24 of us. The lodge and property were beautiful and perfect for fishing, walking, lots of games and eating. Additionally, we were able to use the resort itself which had restaurants, a lovely pool, a spa and an arcade.

The main lodge house where we stayed

Part of the pond complete with a pair of swans

Rob and the men went clay shooting one morning. The next day the women went to the spa...it was only fair!

One evening we went up to Pittsburgh for dinner at Buca Di Beppos. All 17 of the cousins sat at the huge "Pope Table". Here the Pope is sampling some of our dessert.

We were happy to welcome Ryan, Lauren's boyfriend with us for the weekend too. He's looking a little orange here and as usual Kayla is looking weird.

After dinner we rode an incline up a hill overlooking downtown Pittsburgh. It was beautiful with all the lights.

Family picture missing a few members.

This side of the family is more spread out with members traveling from Georgia, Ohio, Virginia and San Francisco. I hadn't spent a lot of time with them as a group, but they are a comfortable family who likes to have fun. We spent the evenings playing big group games like OLD (a version of charades and telephone), four on a couch, Pictionary and our version of Minute to Win It. There were many moments of our game playing that were priceless -- my father-in-law trying to get an Oreo from his forehead into his mouth during Minute to Win It by only wiggling his face comes to mind. Fun I tell you.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of dad doing the game I mentioned, but Rob snapped this lovely shot of me stuffed with balloons for another game.

Aside from the drive and some coughing fits in the night, Liam did pretty well. I think he was a little overwhelmed by all the people and tended to only want to be with "ba-ba" which is how he says "mama" now. So it wasn't so much a vacation for me as I would have hoped, but it was still a nice time. This trip definitely confirmed our decision to drive through the night at Christmas when we go to my parents. When your baby only sleeps for 45 minutes during an eight and a half hour drive you will resort to drastic measures. It's actually amazing I don't need to go to the chiropractor this week to get my neck put back straight after all the time I spent turned around in the passenger seat trying to give Liam snacks or things to play with.

But you know, that is just the season we are in right now. Squirmy almost 14-month olds just don't want to sit still. I'm still thankful we were able to go and spend time with family. I'm thankful to be blessed with such great in-law family members too. I know it's a little late, but what are you thankful for this season? Happy belated Thanksgiving!