Catch Up - Part Trois: THANKSGIVING!

Our plans for Thanksgiving were to go to visit my mom in New Mexico.  A month or so before the big trip, my brain hatched a great plan!  Jim, the big Texas Tech fan that he is, loves to go to Tech football games so I got to thinking.  Since Lubbock is half way between Dallas and my mom's place, why not drive to Lubbock the weekend before Thanksgiving (which would let Jim see a game), then head to New Mexico on Sunday, spend a full week with my mom and head back home the following weekend, again stopping in Lubbock (which would allow Jim to see yet another game) on our way back home.  BRILLIANT, right?!?  True, but I think if you asked a member of my family, their first, second and third response to my plan would be, "Huh?"  "Convoluted!" and "Huh?" again.  Here's why:


Erin = E, Jim = J, Clay = C, Granny (Jim's Mom) = G, Poppa (Jim's Dad) = P, Yaya (My Mom) = Y


Thursday:  J, E, & C drive from Dallas to Abilene for the night; P knows but G doesn't.
Friday:  J, E, & C drive from Abilene to Lubbock.  P knows J, E, C are on their way and we meet P & G (surprising G) for lunch.
Saturday:  Y flies from Albuquerque to Lubbock.
Sunday:  E, C & Y drive from Lubbock to Pecos, NM and start their week together.  J flies back home to Dallas.
Wednesday:  J flies from Dallas to Albuquerque, picks up Y's car from the airport and drives to Pecos
Thursday:  Thanksgiving in Pecos!!!
Saturday: J, E, & C drive from Pecos to Lubbock to see G & P!

Sunday: J, E, & C drive from Lubbock back home to Dallas.

W.H.E.W.!
So basically, our family of three drove to Lubbock, Jim flew home to Dallas to work while my mom met Clay and me in Lubbock so that she could help entertain Clay while I drove us to her place. Jim met us in Pecos later in the week, we celebrated Thanksgiving and then we stopped by Granny and Poppa's on our way back home. Yes, it was a little complicated and at times I thought I'd need visual aids or cheat sheets to make sure everyone was where they needed to be but it made for a great first Thanksgiving for sure!


Given the intricacies of that story, I think I'll tell the rest of the story through photos (with or without captions). Enjoy!

Happy with Granny and Poppa (and his pointer finger which is oh, so good for chewing - I'd sterlized and washed all of his teethers but was brilliant and left them in the sink in Dallas)!

Playing with Nana and Gramps; it's special to see him look at them - especially Gramps - it's like he already knows he wants to make Gramps so proud.

Cousin Joseph and Cousin Lauren are so great with "Baby Play" (as Lauren calls him).  They love to play with him and they are both such big helpers with him!

We stopped at this park in Clovis, NM to eat Subway both on our way to and from Pecos.  Clay liked "climbing" the rocks and enjoyed some of the slides.  The smaller slides were totally fine by him but he had an "uh-oh" worried look when going down the big slides (he was in some body's lap every time, btw!)

Yaya has a cabin on her property which is were we stayed.  We woke up on Monday to find that it had snowed!  That was Clay's first time to see snow and he was impressed!

I know the picture is blurry but I LOVE how excited he is in the picture!

We had a little photo shoot with this charmer and got several good shots for our Christmas card!

Granny let us borrow this Little People horse - Clay had / still has some special attachment to it.  Probably because he was able to teethe on it when I was a bit oblivious to the fact that he was teething and just thought he was a bit fussy from all of the traveling we were doing.  He got his top two teeth while we were in New Mexico!

We took some family photos while we were there too - also for the Christmas card.

Yaya played and played and played with this boy.  This sweet photo was taken after a good 5 minute session of Clay "flying" on Yaya's shins.

Happy Thanksgiving AND Happy 8 month birthday, sweet boy!

Clay tried meat for the first time on Thanksgiving.  It was hilarious and this picture does not begin to do the experience justice.  My mom ground up the turkey from our dinner super fine and we mixed it with sweet potatoes.  He had his mouth opened wider than wide and was so ready.... until he realized the texture was WAY different than anything he had before.  He looked around the table to everyone as if to say, "Help me", gagged himself and by the time we tried bite #3 refused to open his mouth and cried. Sad but still funny!

Decorating the tree with Yaya.

Checking out an ornament with Mommy.

Adding another ornament to the tree with Daddy.

More decorating with Great Aunt Jannie!

Chair dancing with Aunt Dree

Driving back to Dallas after 10 days away from home.  Well, not really driving.  We stopped at DQ for a bathroom break and I thought that this would make for a funny picture, and I have to say.... I thought right!

So what do you think?  A pretty good first Thanksgiving?  I totally agree.  I can't believe all of the milestones that we had in that action packed 10 day trip:
- First Trip to Yaya's
- First Snow
- Top Two Teeth Broke Through
- First Thanksgiving
- First Meat (Turkey)
- First Christmas Tree Decorating
- Last car trip with the infant car seat (Clay's car seat can go up to 32 pounds which he is still far from but after spending over 30 hours on that trip alone we decided to get his next step car seat for the next long trip)

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and we had so much for which to be grateful - I can't believe how much has changed in the last year; we were certainly blessed to have God's hand directing our lives with each change.  Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!