gobble gobble

wednesday we headed on down to mansfield to spend thanksgiving with corey's family.  after i got off work, we left as soon as i could get us packed and arrived in town about 5:30ish.  we met up with kelly and grabbed a bite to eat at applebee's and then we all went back to the house to relax.  the kids know exactly where the toy box is at granna & grandpa's house and they made a bee-line straight to it as soon as we were in the door.
right before we left, corey threw his back out pretty bad.  he couldn't lift anything and it was nearly impossible for him to walk.  he had to borrow a cane from his parents just to get to and from the bathroom.  after a bit, the pain was bad enough that he let us call our friends dave and tanya (tanya's a masseuse) to see if they could come over and help his situation. 
while corey was getting massaged, we chatted with dave and kelly spent some quality time with the boys.  
some where in there, kelly made a call to ben to wish him a happy thanksgiving and talk about the song alice's restaurant by arlo guthrie.
the kids were pretty good the entire trip although jagger was quite ornery, getting his hands into everything.  at one point in time, he was crying in the hallway for no reason and when kelly and i went to go get him, he turned around and pointed at me very angrily, much like the evil monkey from family guy.  still not sure what that was all about.
it's getting harder and harder to capture pictures of that kid.  he runs from me when i get the camera out.

after staying up late talking with everyone, we finally turned in around midnightish.  i was a little wary about how the night was going to go because the kids have a really hard time sleeping anywhere but in their own beds.  we had decided to bring jagger's mattress which we set on the floor next to our bed and it worked perfectly.  cash and slade slept in pack n plays at the foot of the bed and they did get up a couple of times each, but the night went much better than i expected.

on thursday, jagger woke up at 7:30, which was way too early for me, so i let him hang out with granna & kelly and i went back to sleep.  cash and slade woke up at 9:00am and this was the look i was greeted with when i got slade out of bed.
kinda reminds me of nick nolte's mug shot, don't you think?  if he just had a little bit more hair...

the kids ate breakfast and we all just lounged around until it was time to start getting the table and food ready.  
grandpa serenaded the kids with some snazzy saxophone playing.  they were mesmerized.
jagger kept crawling around under the dining room table and slade would try to follow him, but he kept getting stuck.
then jagger tried dipping into the pies a little early.  
finally it was time to eat!  cash and slade thoroughly enjoyed the meal, but jagger was needing a nap by then and so he was not as pleasant at the table.  and even though it was nice to not have to fight over the mashed potatoes, i was pretty sad that andy, kate, and tek couldn't be there with us.
cash and slade went straight into the tub after the meal :)

once we let the food settle for a bit, kelly, tom, & the dogs and i, took a nice long walk over to fox glen to work some of those calories off.
once we got back, more lounging around ensued.  after a little while, i noticed jagger was missing and i hadn't heard a peep from him for quite some time.  i yelled for him and he came running out of corey's parents room covered in powder.  when we went back into the bedroom, we discovered the "powder" was actually ashes from their wood-burning stove and he had dumped them in piles all over the carpet.  here is some of the evidence:

that kid gets into everything, and i know it's only going to get worse when the other two are walking.  i just know the three of them are going to conspire together ;)  

we were able to get an ichat in with the savannah blairs, which was nice, but not as good as having them here with us.  it was great seeing tek walk.  we are so looking forward to seeing them after christmas.

at 6:00pm, we packed up the car and headed back to warren, since i have to be at work at 7:00am on friday, but it was a great meal with good company and i took a ton a photos (of which you are only seeing a fraction of).   i'm glad we made the trip.

christmas is just shy of 4 weeks away (!) so we'll be back soon :)