I found some cheap tickets and had some downtime at work, so we decided to head back to Indiana for a long weekend. Nolan and I flew out Thursday afternoon and Brad came in late Friday night.
We spent Friday morning Christmas shopping - all the presents are wrapped and ready to go under the tree once Mom gets it put up! I think that's a record for me :) Friday afternoon we hung out at home with Collin, Molly, and Mackenzie. We baked sugar cookies and played games and had a really good time with the '4 babies' as Nanny calls them!
Nolan & Collin (everyone is always calling them the other one's name...they're too close!)
Molly & Mackenzie
Nolan & Kylie
After Brad got in late Friday night, we got an early start for a big day. First we got the catch the Clay City Elementary School 5th & 6th grade girls basketball game in Spencer. It was highly exciting!! Kylie did a good job and even though she didn't score any points, she made a couple good shots. And as you can tell from the video, Papa thinks she needs to work on rebounding!!
After the game we headed back to Clay City and met up with Cary, Collin, and Mackenzie to eat lunch at Glory Days, the new restaurant in town. Nolan loved Collin & Kenzie's little chairs! Looks like we'll have to let Santa know this would be a good idea for Christmas!
After lunch we had plans to visit my friend Meghan that I grew up with, her husband Treg, and daughter Olivia at their brand new house! They were still in the process of unpacking and Nolan and Olivia had a blast playing in the big closets. We got some good pictures to embarrass them both with when they're older :)
I can't say this too many times - Nolan is such a good traveler! Not only did we have a good flight out (which I was worried about since I was by myself with him), he was really good about taking naps in the car while we were visiting everyone. Here's a video of him - he does this a lot in the car and we say he's "singing" himself to sleep - too cute!
We stopped in at Nanny & Papa's to regroup for a minute (literally!) and then headed to Monrovia to visit our friends Sarabeth and Mike and their kids, Emily, Sam, & Lucy. Lucy is a week younger than Nolan but she's already taller than him! Poor guy, hopefully he won't be short like his mommy. Lucy liked pushing Nolan around in the dump truck. She kept walking over to him and saying, "Hiiiiiiiii!" It was too funny!
Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family. It was so good!! We even got a visit from our good friends Ruth & Lyle! We all just relaxed for awhile after lunch and then got all cleaned up for family pictures. This was a last minute kind of thing, so luckily we had brought something decent to wear! Not everyone was too excited about getting pictures taken, but they didn't really have an option! haha Even though we had a long wait, the kids did such a great job. No one threw a fit or ruined the pictures, and everyone looked at the camera. Collin and Kenzie didn't smile once, but at least they were looking! They turned out really well. Another year before we'll have to do that again, woo hoo!
I think I might have played with this toy when I was little....and it's still a favorite! Kenzie and Nolan had a couple of arguments about toys over the weekend - we had the sharing lecture a few times!
The big kids and Brad, the biggest kid, riding bikes (Collin, Molly, Kylie, Nicolas, and the neighbor kid Lucas)
Nolan playing a game with Rhiannon and Molly
Monday morning we visited Fern, and old friend of my Granny's. She's in a nursing home in Terre Haute and we always try to stop in when we're in town. Then we drove down to Clay City to visit an old friend from New Hope (my old church), Brenda Shidler. Her mom, Ruth Culler, just passed away and she was really a special lady, so we wanted to stop by to say hello since we weren't able to be home for her funeral. They made Nolan a quilt after he was born and Ruth always sent homemade noodles out with my mom for me. Here's a picture of Nolan laying on the quilt from last Christmas - I can't believe how little he was! The other side is yellow, and it's the best blanket - not too heavy, not too light.
Ruth was 98 year old and still right on top of things until she passed. We had a nice visit with Brenda, and Nolan loved the old farm toy she brought out for him to play with while the grown-ups talked. :)
Monday afternoon and night we were able to relax a little bit at home....Dad even watched a little Monday night football with us!
Long day, I guess
Ice cream from Papa - Nolan started saying 'Papa' the day we left!! He was so excited!
Nolan loved my parents' cat, RatCat (or Peaches, depending on who you ask). He was really verbal every time she came around. She swatted at him the night we got there and I think it just scared Nolan, but he was telling her all kinds of things when she was running away!! It was really funny.
Another first for Nolan over the weekend was pooping in the bathtub! Luckily Nanny was giving him a bath instead of me....I'm glad it happened at her house and not mine!!
The new Indianapolis airport terminal opened a few days before we flew in, so we got to check out the new place. Nanny and Papa came in with us when we left on Tuesday to hang out for awhile. We like to have Nolan burn a lot of energy before we get on the plane, so he walked around for a good hour or so in his jammies! One lady asked my dad how old Nolan was because he looked so little and was walking so well....I was so proud!
Nolan was enthralled, to say the least, with the moving walkways at both airports this time around. This is really the first time he's noticed them. While he and I were killing time in Denver before we left, we'd get on the walkway and ride it to the end and get on the other one going back. We did that A LOT. But he was occupied and happy! It was funny though - I thought he'd want to walk on them but he sat down and rode on it every time!
Hanging out with Daddy at the new airport
Bye!
We had a great visit and had a lot of fun catching up with lots of old friends. As always, it was too short a trip and we can't wait to go back for Christmas! We'll be home December 19-27, so hopefully we'll be able to see everyone again!
