The Breuers: Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Pittsburgh to visit with my parents and see my extended family. We flew up Tuesday afternoon, and we spent the evening hanging out at my parents' house.

One huge improvement over our last visit is that my parents bought a crib for Lola - it made such a difference, and she slept so well the whole time we were there. I was very nervous our first night, but she was great. Thank you, Mom & Dad, for buying a crib!

Wednesday morning my Aunt Maggie, cousin Kristen, and Kristen's son Tyler came over to visit. They weren't coming to Thanksgiving this year because they were going to Kristen's side of the family (she's married to my cousin Charlie), and I really wanted to see them, so luckily they were free to come by. Tyler is getting so big! We first met him in July when he was only eight weeks old. Now he's seven months old. He is a very happy and smiley baby, although Lola seemed to anger him a bit. I guess she's used to playing with older kids because she was pretty rough with him. But we got some good playtime in, and it was great to see them.

In the afternoon, Joseph, Lola, and I went to the mall. That seems like a strange thing to do on "vacation", but we rarely have time to shop at home with all the housework and errands, so we took advantage of the free time to buy some much needed clothes for ourselves. Lola enjoyed shopping, although she really just wanted to run around everywhere.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. My parents were hosting, so of course my mom was up early and going crazy trying to get everything ready. We had set up the tables and dishes on Wednesday, so at least that was taken care of and we could focus on the food. I didn't help out too much as I had to keep Lola occupied, but Mom, Dad, and Joseph prepared a lot of food. Everyone arrived around 2 - my mom's four sisters and their families, about 20 people. It was fun as always, and so nice to see everyone.

Lola was so overwhelmed with all the people and noise that I don't think she took a single bite of food. She loved playing with my cousin Katie's daughter Leah, and she also loved hanging out with my cousin Derek. I could tell she had a great time, as she passed out pretty quickly at bedtime.

Friday morning my mom and I went to her yoga class (at the senior citizen's center). It was nice to get some exercise. After class, we went to the local coffee shop, where Lola and Joseph met us. We had a snack and then walked home for lunch and nap. The rest of the day we just hung out at home. I decided not to make the trip too hectic with plans because we always feel so rushed when we visit. It was really nice to just relax and spend some quality time with my family.

We went out to dinner at Eat 'N Park (our local diner-type place), and then Joseph and I went to the movies. How nice to have family to babysit! My mom bathed Lola and put her to bed, and she said she went down very easily. Joseph and I saw Gone Girl, which he pretty much hated and I only kind of liked. I loved the book, but seeing the movie version was just depressing. Oh well, it was still a date night.

Saturday morning we headed back to Atlanta. Lola did very well on both flights. As long as we kept her supplied with snacks, she didn't get too upset.

It was a great visit home, and I miss all my family already!

Here are some photos, although I realized I am not in any of them, nor did I really take any photos of adults. I need to work on that, but it's hard when I have such a cute kid :)