Thanksgiving {2014}

Be warned this post is full of pictures!

On Saturday, November 22nd we set out on our Thanksgiving adventure. First stop the Cleveland airport. This was our 1st time to fly out of Cleveland and besides trying to find long-term parking everything went pretty smoothly. This was also our first adventure traveling with 3 wee ones ages 4 and under. I was pretty proud of myself for packing a family of 5 for a one week trip in 1 suitcase and no carry-ons (they cost money now :( So we checked 1 bag and we all had book bags for our personal items. It worked really well!

Waiting in line for our boarding passes (since you can't check-in online with a lap child :)

One  huge blessing was our flight to Denver was not full so we had 6 seats to ourselves and were able to spread out.



This was Kolter's 1st flight and he did very well. He slept some and played some, but there were no meltdowns.



Off the plane and riding the train, anxious to see Papa and Nana. It was a long day and we were exhausted, but thankfully it went very smoothly!

Nora & G-pa

We immediately went to Nana and Papa's house where Aunt Christina had prepared a wonderful meal. Then we quickly got in our pj's to relax. Nora loves her grandpas!

The grandkids piling on Papa's lap for a story

Can you tell she adores her Papa's?

Sawyer and Nora being tickled by More Papa

While we were in CO Kolter officially became a full-time crawler. Look out world!

There's another Elmo lover in the family, cousin Nathaniel

If Elmo was ever out of Nathaniel's grasp Nora was quick to retrieve it for him

Papa and Nana had planned lots of fun activities for the kids. They went swimming at an indoor water park, went to Focus on the Family play land, went to McDonalds for ice cream, visited a dinosaur museum and celebrated Christmas. They also had their first sleepover at cousin Noah's house! And somewhere in there we celebrated Thanksgiving!

Some activities will get their own posts, but others will be included in this post…first up the dinosaur museum. This was the kids 1st time following a guided tour and they did pretty well.

Nana, Nathaniel, Nora and Sawyer with Stan the T-Rex

Sawyer comparing the T-Rex tooth with his own

Digging for fossils

the great grandkids climbing all over Papa and Tache

All the CO and OH grandkids eating together

our attempt at a family picture on Thanksgiving

and us being silly (or normal, you decide) on Thanksgiving

Kolter was excited for his 1st Thanksgiving and he turned 8 months that day

He literally fell asleep at the table at his 1st Thanksgiving

On the traditional walk after the Thanksgiving meal

Lots of fort building by all the grandkids, under this table is Nora, Nathaniel and Josiah 

After our Thanksgiving meal we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house for dessert. While there Nora was very complimentary of my Aunt's flowers. Then she got it in her head that she wanted 1 of the flowers, but it had to be pink. She became pretty insistent and my Aunt was a very good sport. They scoured the house for a pink flower Nora could have. She brought home this large stem of pink flowers and she was smitten. She wouldn't let it out of her sight :) Oh, this girl kills me!

Selfie with my big boy

This guy didn't sleep well during the trip, so we had lots of time playing in bed

up early, but oh so cute!

crawling machine

The Schenk kids with Papa and Nana

The Schenk kids with Papa and Tache

We had a fun trip, but we were all ready to get back home. Here we are waiting at the airport. The 2nd flight was full and Kolter didn't sleep as we had intended, but it went pretty well. Sawyer and Nora made new friends with their seat mates and Kyle and I focused on keeping wiggly Kolter entertained.

a peek into what she might look like as a teenager :(