Thanksgiving

Since it's only a week until Christmas, it's probably about time I post about Thanksgiving!

We spent the holiday in Raleigh with Brian's parents and uncle and my mom, sister, and brother-in-law.

After Carter and I ran the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot, we helped get food prepared and cooked.  As usual, we fried a turkey, so we got to spend some time outside where it had warmed up a lot by midday!

Carter got a new Stomp Rocket for his birthday from one of his friends and we had brought it along. 

There was traditional-style stomping ...

And then a little help from Uncle Dale (Cinda's brother).

Dale's a bit of a troublemaker :)  Besides teaching Carter how to give wet willies, he also showed him a new way to shoot the Stomp Rocket.

Luckily this is the Junior version and it doesn't hurt!

Brian had his normal job of managing the turkey fryer.

He did great!  Not overdone at all - the turkey was falling apart on it's own.

As soon as food being ready was mentioned, the boys went to the table and waited as the turkey was carved.

Rylan tried to sneak in a bite or two!

We didn't do too much the rest of the long weekend.  On Friday my sister and brother-in-law left around lunch and Brian, my mom, and I took the kids to a park.

Carter was really good at climbing this huge maze of ropes.  Rylan climbed some too but I wouldn't let him get out of my reach.

After playing for awhile, we found a letterbox in the park.  We were at Walnut Street Park which is only a year or two old and a really nice little park.

On Saturday, we went to the North Carolina Museum of History.  First though, we had breakfast.

"You've got a little something on your face, Buddy."

This was the first time we'd taken the kids to this museum.  It's across from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences which we've gone to with them a few times and is also free to the public

Carter really liked the dugout canoe.

And liked the canon even more.

Rylan loved pressing the buttons on this exhibit and making the train make sounds.

Military guys ...

And part of a postcard ...

Before leaving we found a replica dugout canoe and Carter practiced rowing.

We drove back to Tennessee on Sunday and luckily didn't hit any bad traffic.  We also made it in about 2 hours less time because Carter requested way fewer potty breaks and the boys slept a lot more - always good!