I haven't added to my blog in so long, people probably think I gave it up. But I haven't - I just haven't had time in a while. I am now a working mom, so I really have been busy. Since Lindsey's paralegal left in September, I've been his assistant - I'm a lot cheaper than his last assistant. I'm working every day at his office, from just after I drop Hannah off at school in the morning, to 3:30, when I leave to pick her up at after-school care. But I'm going to try to keep up the blog from now on.
I'm just going to jump right in with our Thanksgiving trip, but in future weeks I will be adding scintillating "chapters" such as: "Summer Fun", "First Day of Kindergarten", "Halloween" and "Puppies' Progress". So stay tuned!
OK, now on to the Thanksgiving Update! We decided to drive to Kentucky to spend Thanksgiving with my folks, instead of flying. And I'm really glad we did. Flying is such a pain anymore, anyway. We can't get a direct flight to Kentucky, so a trip there means a layover in Dallas or Chicago, which isn't my idea of fun, and means that the trip will take most of the day. Plus, we'd have to rent a car to get around once we're in Kentucky, so whatever we would save in gas and hotels would be slowly eaten away. And it is just no fun to fly these days. They don't even feed you anymore, and they pack you in like sardines. And I like road trips. Hannah has her car DVD player we strap onto the back of the front seat, so she's happy as long as she can watch "Mulan" and "Aladdin" to her heart's content(and it's fine, as long as she has her headphones). And I brought along my iPod with all my podcasts of "This American Life" and the other NPR shows we like. We spent one night in a hotel each way, with our AAA discount. Pretty soon we'll be able to get an AARP discount!
When we got to Kentucky, we stayed at Janet's lake house again - it's always so nice and quiet there. It's a half hour from "town", but we would only go out once a day, so it was no worse than going to work and back. We got to see almost all my brothers and sisters (except for Kathy, who doesn't like to leave Florida in the winter, for some reason!), and a lot of my cousins. Not quite as many as last year, and none of Hannah's girl cousins came to Thanksgiving this year. But she "managed" to have fun with her boy cousins.
Other than Thanksgiving day, we tried to cram a lot into the short time we were there. We went out to eat a lot (including once at Frisch's Big Boy, of course!), and we went to the Children's Museum with Janet, which was great. Janet also went with us to a movie: "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", which Janet said was "nothing like the book". (They never are!) Hannah had a lot of fun with all her aunts and uncles and cousins - it's not like they spoil her or anything! On the way home, she told me, "Mommy, I wish we could live in Kentucky." Lindsey and I tried to tell her that if we lived there it wouldn't always be fun and games with her aunts and uncles; that they would have to go to work and she would have to go to school, and that life would get to be pretty ordinary after a while. But I don't think we convinced her. What we need is more family members visiting us!
I don't have that many good pictures from our trip, but I'll try to get some more from other people to add to these:
Hannah coloring at the lake house:
Hannah at the Cincinnati Museum Center:
Hannah and Aunt Janet:
Hannah and Jessica:
Hannah playing with her cousins at Thanksgiving:
Hannah and Big Boy:
More Thanksgiving photos:
"Kids Gone Wild!" (Kids playing at Thanksgiving):
