Thanksgiving in Ohio

We really miss being with family for the holidays so we decided to drive to Ohio to be with Sean and Melissa and their family. We thought it best to split the trip into two days. Our first destination was South Beloit, IL (which is a little less than half way). We stopped at Perkins for lunch and took some pictures with the giant mouse and moose.

The kids are supposed to be making mouse faces but McKenna just looks miserable.

RJ gets the father of the year award for cleaning up three unpleasant bodily fluids from McKenna in a 24 hour period. She had a belly ache and diarreahed in her car seat. The next morning, she puked on her sunday dress. That evening she pead her pants in the car. We just laughed when the third attack came along.

The kids enjoyed the hotel stay more than we did I'm sure. We swam, stayed up until the kids could stay up nolonger, and ate blueberry waffles for breakfast.

Reagan always did great the first 3-4 hour leg of each trip.

In an effort to not watch movies on Sunday, I sat in the back and read Junie B. books to the kids.

Hunter liked it more than he is letting on.

Chicago

Originally our plan was to bypass Chicago. We chose another route looking at our road map which we stupidly left at home. Our Tom Tom kept wanting to take us through Chicago so we decided to follow it. We also punched the wrong Milford Ohio into the Tom Tom and drove in circles for about 2 hours. The kids held it together suprisingly well but RJ and I were about to lose it.

We stopped at Dairy Queen to keep our little passengers happy.

We finally arrived at Sean and Melissas and were ready to hit the sack. RJ and I tried to maintain our workout program while on vacation but we were not perfect.

RJ enlisted the children.

Notice that Tony, the instructor, is no longer doing a table top. I made them hold it for the picture.

Tuesday morning I got up early to attend Sean's seminary class. He teaches (as a calling) in his basement. In true Morrison fashion, he asked me to teach his lesson but I was looking forward to seeing him do what he does well. He had all kinds of nice things to say about me when he introduced me which made waking up at 5:40 a.m. worth it. He also did a fantastic job teaching about the temple. For those who have gone through the temple, I would suggest studying Exodus 28. Thanks Sean!

On Tuesday, we went to a fun, free indoor park. On Wednesday, we went to the children's museum.

Children's Museum

We learned about the history and making of Cincinatti.

There were some huge train displays and a little train ride at the end. Josh was too tall to go on it (and really bummed) but Hunter wasn't. Hunter chose not to go and I like to think that it was for Josh's sake.

Melissa had a cute idea to make a thankful wreath. McKenna did a great job tracing the letters I wrote under her direction.

Melissa bought heavy whipping cream and the kids (and Sean) shook baby jars full of cream to make their own butter. They were pretty excited to use it on their rolls at lunchtime. Reagan is probably chasing Izzy (the dog) in the background. She loved that dog!

Sean and Melissa with our delicious Thanksgiving spread.

We were all so hungry and excited to eat but one plate filled us up and we were disappointed that we couldn't stuff ourselves anymore.

The kids made cute turkeys for the turkey shoot. McKenna is mercilessly shooting her turkey at point blank range.

We are really grateful that we got to spend Thanksgiving with family. Thanks Sean, Melissa and kids!