Thanksgiving 09

This year for Thanksgiving, we broke with the tradition of spending the day with Jeremy's family, and instead drove to Tennessee to stay at a camp where my uncle works.  It was wonderful!  We had about 50 people in all, which accounted for six of the eight siblings from my mom's generation.  Lots of cousins for the boys to play with!  Iain LOVES his cousins (Cory does too, but Iain is more vocal), and said several times on the drive home that he wanted to live there with his cousins forever.

My mom brought supplies for the kids to make turkey cupcakes.  Cory learned that he could jam a bunch of candy corn (feathers) on his and then eat them right back off.

Love this picture!

The camp has restored part of the Tweetsie Railroad, and has a train they run along part of it.  The boys loved it!  Cory said his favorite part was "the tunnel and spittin' " which he did every time the train stopped.  

Cory spittin'.  I promise this was safer than it looks. :)

And through the tunnels, they raised their arms and yelled "Pizza cheese!"  Don't ask me why.

Of course, Iain wanted to take Bunny.  We made sure he wouldn't fall out.

Cory kept burrowing into me and saying, "Teep me warm!"

And the gang's (mostly) all here.

My favorite part of the trip was our hike up Roan Mountain.  It was SO COLD.  I drove on ice for the first time.  Those of us without four-wheel drive or who were less confident about their driving on ice skills parked part way up (took pictures by the icicles on the side of the road) and drove up with the safer vehicles/drivers.  Then we hiked to this amazing spot - a geological (?) anomaly where it is grassy and open at the top of the mountain.  The hike itself was gorgeous.  At the top, it was windy, but there were little patches of snow all around - perfect for a snowball fight!  (I have pictures of some of that, too, but they'll have to come another time.)

Side of the road:

Is it an icicle or a sword?

We took our annual family picture by the icicles, too.

Cory really wanted to eat snow.  He liked it! (At the top)

On the way up:

Jeremy with Iain, Uncle Randy with Cory:

Thanks Aunt Steph, Uncle Randy, and family for a WONDERFUL holiday!