Thanksgiving in Missouri

This will be a super long post with a ridiculous number of photos because I'm doing one post for the 6 days we spent in Thanksgiving with the Surface side of our family. It was a pretty packed visit, but both boys handled it fairly well. We flew to Missouri on Saturday and unfortunately had a layover, which made the trip that much longer. Nathan didn't enjoy the 8 hours of travel, but once we got to Jefferson City, he was his smiley self just about the entire time. Tyler, my shy little guy, loved spending time at Grandma and Grandpapa's house with his grandparents and cousins, but meeting all the extended family was a little overwhelming. Like usual, our visit to Missouri went by quickly and we all enjoyed the time spent with family.


On Sunday (before Thanksgiving), the Loesch side met at Tim's aunt Marlene's house for lunch. It was the first time in several years that all of Tim's cousins were together, which meant that there were lots of little people running around. I think there were 12 great-grandchildren, 9 of whom were 3-years-old and younger. Even though Marlene has a nice big house, we had to really watch where we were walking so we didn't bump into a toddler or baby.

Nathan and Great-Grandma Loesch

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandchildren, spouses and great-grandchildren

The Surface and Yanskey cousins with Grandma and Grandpa

On Monday we stayed at Grandma and Grandpapa's house most of the day. Tyler and I helped Grandma make white chocolate covered pretzels, which were in Christmas shapes (bells, trees, stars). Tyler caught on really fast and was a great little helper. After dipping the pretzels very carefully, he sprinkled them with red and green sugar. As you'll see below, he got a little sprinkle happy with the red.

On Tuesday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Loesch's farm for a visit. Tyler loved seeing all the cows and running up the long drive with Grandpapa. I personally always love going out to the farm because it's so quiet and peaceful out there. Grandma Loesch always outdoes herself in the kitchen, making all kinds of yummy food--all from scratch, of course--and Grandpa always has interesting stories to share. This time we got to read a paper that Tim wrote in high school about Grandpa's life and how different things were for him growing up, such as keeping food in the cellar since his family didn't have a refrigerator.

Since we will be spending Christmas at our house this year, Grandma and Grandpapa gave Tyler and Nathan a few early presents to open on Tuesday evening. Tyler is definitely getting the hang of this whole present thing. He was very excited when we told him it was time for presents. Nathan, on the other hand, hasn't got a clue just yet, but he did have fun playing with his cookie jar shape sorter (and still does).

Kayla and Morgan didn't have school on Wednesday, so they spent the day with us at Grandma and Grandpapa's house. Tyler enjoyed having them around all day, especially since it was a nice warm day and they got to play outside for a while. Brooke joined us after preschool, but Tyler was still napping when she arrived. She just kept asking, "Where's Tyler? " She was so ready to play!



That night Christy and Kevin came over for dinner and we tried our best to get a decent photo of the cousins with each other and with Grandma and Grandpapa. (I'm still not sure we succeeded). It was definitely an ordeal, mainly because of Tyler, who would not stand or sit still for more than 3 seconds at a time. Nathan was great--he just kept smiling. What a sweetie.






On Thanksgiving Day we met the Surface side at Johnny's, a local BBQ restaurant, for lunch. Grandma Surface, who usually does a bang-up job hosting Thanksgiving dinner each year, recently fell down some stairs and is still recovering. Needless to say, we had to find an alternative since she was in no shape to cook her usual feast. It was another beautiful day, so we waited outside before being seated. Right out front were three or four deer figurines (strange, but true). Almost immediately Tyler made friends with one of the deer, the one missing an antler. At least we can say our son doesn't discriminate against the handicapped.

Here he is saying, "Dis deer is my best friend."

And here he is riding his new best friend.

After lunch, we all went to visit Grandma Surface, who was waiting at home. While there aren't as many great-grandchildren on the Surface side of the family, it was still a full house with all Tim's cousins present.

Grandma and Grandpa Surface with their great-grandchildren

Kayla and Nathan
Four generations of Surface men -- I think this is such a special picture.

We flew back home the day after Thanksgiving, which was a great day to travel because most people were probably out shopping. The airports weren't crazy at all, which we fully appreciated now that we have 2 munchkins to keep happy. After a 2-hour drive to St. Louis and an hour-plus flight to Memphis, we were all pretty exhausted by the last flight. Tyler finally passed out and even though Nathan did not, he sat contentedly on his daddy's lap for most of the way. From this mom's perspective, it was a nice conclusion to a fun-filled trip.