Thanksgiving in Washington

Though this is a long-belated post, I wanted to document our trip to visit the Williams-side of the family the last week or so.

Traveling
We started our trip Friday night (the 19th) and drove to St Louis and stayed with my parents. We watched football on Saturday with them before they dropped us at the airport. They are always so good to keep our car (free parking!) while we are gone.

Our first flight was pretty uneventful, and Collin even got his own seat. The second flight was a little more traumatic - sitting on the tarmac for almost an hour with Collin chanting "apple juice" and "up in the skies" while waiting for the fog to lift and for the plane to be de-iced was a bit rough. But Collin did finally curl up with Ry (it was 2am our time) and fall asleep towards the end.

Our return trip was about the same - one flight with Collin in his own seat and one flight in Daddy's lap. Unfortunately, Collin didn't fall asleep until we were waiting in baggage claim for his carseat. Oh well.

I'd say all in all, he was quite a good little trooper. He did have some issues with kicking the seat in front of him, and we did get some dirty looks despite our best efforts. It was our last flight with him flying free (which can also can be read as 'our last flight with him without his own seat'), and he was so flexible with all the rules and such. I was so proud of him.

Side Story: I'd like to make a little plug for Frontier airlines. I hate flying - I hate TSA; I hate all the lines; I hate the waiting and delays; I hate the rude passengers; I hate the rude airline employees; I hate the '3-ounces in a ziplock' rules; I hate the metal detectors, body scans and patdowns... Should I go on? I haven't been happy with an airline in at least 10 years.

But Frontier shocked me this time. First, they filled Collin's sippy with apple juice, which was far more than I expected - he wasn't a paying passenger, and it held far more than the little cup they handed to Ryan or me. But the REALLY awesome thing is that we each (yes, each of the 3 of us) got at least one warm chocolate chip cookie on each flight. Yeah - not only did they not skip the pretzels/trail mix/peanuts crap, but they gave us ooey, gooey chocolatey cookies. Oh, and they were FREE. They didn't nickel and dime us with paying for our drink (Direct Air to Myrtle Beach) or for a stupid bag of chips. So, FLY FRONTIER!

Seattle
On Monday morning Ryan's parents both had to work, so we rented a car and drove to Seattle to see his sister's new place. Unfortunately, the weather was far from cooperative. Apparently it never snows in Washington (not a flake all of last winter), but each time we travel there the snows seems to follow us! A curse. In fact, they got a good six inches in Vancouver and Seattle, and we drove through it all.

You see, in places that don't get snow, they don't own snow plows. Additionally, the drivers DON'T HAVE A CLUE what to do on snowy/icy roads, and both of these conditions add up to a total disaster. It was a stressful drive up there, and it really wasn't much better two days later when we returned. But we were safe and we didn't crash the car, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

The saddest part is that we were pretty much snowed in at her house the whole time we were there, and we didn't get to do any tourist-y things. I guess there's always next time. On the other hand, it was nice to get to actually see all the remodeling that we had heard so much about. It is a great house.

Other than getting to see Megan's "new" (80-year old home that they totally gutted and remodeled in the last 8 months) house, the main highlight of the Seattle part of our trip - for me! - was getting to see my good friend from back in my BYU days. We did Elementary Education together, and then taught 6th grade together (different schools though) our first year out. She was pregnant with her first that year (now he's a kindergartener!), and I continued teaching several more years, but we've kept in touch via blogs, email and Christmas cards over the last 6 years. Anyway, she now has 3 kids and stays home with them in a suburb of Seattle, and we popped over to her place Wednesday morning before heading back down to Vancouver. It was great to see her and her adorable kids. Miss you, Melissa!


Turkey Day
Of course, a Thanksgiving trip wouldn't be complete without stuffing ourselves to the gills with delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes, beans and corn, and warm rolls covered in homemade jams. We also had a table-full of homemade pies for dessert. Yum! Ryan's sister (plus husband and 3 kids) from Boise joined us, as well as Ryan's sister (plus husband and 2 kids) from Seattle. We also were able to have his parents (duh, it was their house), his grandma (who lives down the road but is in a different ward), and Ryan's aunt (plus her husband and two high-school aged kids) eat with us. It was all delicious, and we did indeed "stuff ourselves to the gills."

Cousins
There were a lot of kids around this trip. You can imagine the busy-ness and noise. Collin did much better than I thought he would, but as it inched towards naptime or bedtime each day, he would whine for "Nana's car" (interpretation: "Get me out of here!"). Since I was usually in need of a little break from the chaos too, we'd usually head downstairs to the tv room and sneak in a 30-minute Elmo movie. It seemed to do the trick to restart Collin, and he was usually rearing to head back up to the toys afterwards.

He was a little afraid of his youngest cousin (who turned one in August) who has learned how to fend for himself and often times takes the much bigger kids down by grabbing their shirts from behind and flinging them to the ground. You can imagine Collin's shock the first time that happened!

He did end up becoming quite the pal with his cousin who's about 6 months older than him. I think he really missed all of them after they all took off for home, and we still had another day left. The house was so quiet; he didn't know where they'd all gone!
One of the major benefits of us being the first to arrive and the last to leave is that we got Nana & Papa all to ourselves for one day on each side of the trip. Collin obviously doesn't get to see his Williams' grandparents much, and they really spoiled him with all the attention.
Black Friday
I'm not a Black Friday shopper. I know you've read about our Craig's List-ing, frugal crafting, garage sale-ing, trash digging, and Cat classify-ing, but no deal is good enough to get me out of my warm bed and fight mean-spirited crazies.

But I was going quite stir-crazy by Friday, so we headed to IKEA. It wasn't that busy (they weren't having any ridiculous sales) and since we don't have an IKEA close to us, we wanted to check out what they had. We were able to buy an extension pack for Collin's train set he got last year for Christmas (it was all that would fit in our luggage).

Our real goal though was really to scout the place out to see if it was worth taking the van up to Chicago one Saturday for furniture or something. All in all, it was just a way to get out and about.

Stardust Diner
Saturday morning we all went to Uncle Tracey's diner. He bought it a few years ago, and I just love the ambiance. It's the classic 1950's silver, railway car-looking building with advertisements for toothpaste and "Uncle Same Wants You" posters on the walls. I just love diners like that, and the fact that it's his uncle's makes it a 'must' for every trip.

If you live or travel to the Vancouver/Portland area, stop in - It's in Camas. Oh, and the food is delicious too!

Ohio State-Michigan Game
I was pretty sad when I found out we'd be watching our Big Game Thanksgiving weekend instead of the weekend before, but it turned out good in the end. Go Buckeyes! We even went and bought all the stuff to make Buckeyes and they were a real hit with the family, who'd never tasted homemade peanut butter cups. They had Ryan and I do all the work, but they helped with the consumption. I did have the one condition that each person swear their allegiance to my team before eating, but none of them seemed to mind.

Four-Wheeling
What would be a trip to Nana & Papa's without some time on the Four-Wheelers? It was cold and either rainy or snowing the whole time we were there, so the only adult brave enough to take the kiddos out was Papa. I also managed to pull a muscle in my belly the first day we were on the road (lugging luggage?), so I wasn't quite up to all the jostling they offer (I did survive the week by buying an expensive belly band). Collin was a little terrified at first, but I think he loved it still the same.

Conclusion
We had a great trip. Collin slept great (always a worry of mine when we are on the road in different places), and he was super flexible. It was great to see all the family, especially since it will be quite some time before we venture "up in the skies" with two children. Thanks for Nana & Papa, Megan & Chris, and Grandma & Grandpa for each hosting us for a night or two... or lots! We love you guys!