Thanksgiving Roadie

We took the Alan Family Thanksgiving on the road this year, thanks to the gracious hospitality of the Peterson/Thuma clan in Seattle. We really didn't have any plans on our own, and after years of guilt of not seeing their new home yet (with gorgeous views of Puget Sound). We loaded up the kids in the Suburban and headed out Wednesday night.

We hit a massive snowstorm coming over the pass into Oregon, slowed down to about 5 miles an hour, had me leaning with head up aginst my window and Marisa's head up against hers trying to see if either of us could see the guard rail, or the center rail, or the lane lines, it was REALLY FUN. Marisa called her sister to give our approximate coordinates in case we ended up like the Donner Party (never mind the other 900 cars on the road with us....). We could have driven straight thru, but Jake just couldn't get to sleep in the car, so we stopped in SE Washington for the night. At this point, Tanner, who HAD been asleep was WIDE awake and ready to play. So we didn't get to sleep until 11:30 or so and Tanner, who was still on Mountain Time, woke up at 5:15 and was ready to move. I took him out ot the 24 hour Walmart behind the hotel to kill some time. When we got back, Marisa and Jake were wide awake and we were on the road again @ 7:30 AM. So we rented a hotel room for about 8 hours....

We hit a snowstorm again coming over the pass down into Seattle, but in daylight it wasn't so bad. We got to Lisa and Johns' at about 12:00 or so on Thanksgiving Day. Jake had a great time with his cousins and Lisa fixed an amazing Thanksgiving Dinner.

The next day we went to the Seattle Christmas parade downtown (photos above) it was FREEZING cold but all of the kids, Tanner included, had a great time. Quincys' pink cowboy hat was the hit of the parade and the kids hoarded about 9 lbs. of candy canes, chocolate and other treats that were being passed out. The parade was a lot of fun, marching bands, unicyclists, cheerleaders, it was great. We hit the doughnut place and then back home.

We also visited the botanical gardens light display the following night which was very cool and the kids had a really good time. But I think that the best part of the trip was just the visit. We had a really good time, Jake played great with his cousins, Tanner amused himself for the most part and we were able to talk and catch up with Lisa and John. Their house is amazing and they have some grand plans in mind, best of luck, I know I couldn't go through it again just yet. We just had a good visit and it was really nice to spend time with family.

We awoke to snow on Sunday and set out for the trip home before 8:30. Based on the weather forecast, we went south through Portland and across the Columbia River back home to try to avoid one of the passes. The other, which we can't avoid, wasn't snowing but was very icy (trucks had to put on chains) so the going was very slow. The drive home, including stops took about 13 hours Jake was a trooper and watched about 10.5 hours of movies the ENTIRE way. Tanner was back and forth between asleep and upset so Marisa had her hands full. Aside from the inevitable argument about why the stereo volume NEEDS to be that loud, it was a nice trip home.

Thanks to Lisa, John, Quincy & Jessa for a great visit and a great Thanksgiving.