The One with the Epic Trip to My Parents'

This year was one of the most relaxed Thanksgivings of all time. At least the Thanksgiving day was relaxing. We started our holiday at 7am Wednesday morning. With the car loaded with pies and bags of who knows what, we hit the road. I drove the first 4 hours while Kevin read his library book on his iPad (yay, Kindle app) which was due back that day. Good thing he can read a million words a minute. 

I occupied my time with a book-on-mp3--Pride and Prejudice. It was entertaining to laugh out loud and have Kevin not have any clue what I was busting up about. We drove past my parents' exit from the freeway as we were making the drive all the way to Michigan. At 11:20 (yes, I'm precise) we pulled off at a Pizza Hut, because my husband has a thing for their lunch buffets. We almost died when a telephone pole jumped out in front of me in the middle of the parking lot. Seriously. It would have done irreparable damage. (I blame Kevin for distracting me with the Chinese restaurant.) 

We ate our delicious lunch and Kevin took over driving. (He definitely didn't want me behind the wheel anymore.) At this point, I became a Chatty Cathy and talked Kevin's ear off. Poor guy. Just before our exit in Michigan, a semi truck nearly killed us when he pulled into our lane without seeing us. sheesh. Thanks to my husband's reflexes and the lack of cars behind us, we survived.

From the freeway, we headed to our former hometown's downtown to meet Josh & Amanda and take their engagement pictures. What a blast! (I already talked on and on about this experience here.)

After the photo session, Kevin and I began receiving text after text from our former youth group students who were eagerly awaiting our arrival in the mall food court. We thought it'd be the perfect place to meet up and hang out for a couple hours without getting in trouble or having to spend money. It worked! Four of the girls almost tackled us to the ground and just about blew our eardrums out with their shrieking. aww. :)











We had a fantastic time with those teens, but our time together quickly ended as we were meeting Kevin's family for dinner. We were so thankful the three of them were willing to make the long-ish drive to the restaurant to spend a little bit of time together for the Thanksgiving holiday. As per usual, we had a wonderful time together. (I even brought a pie for dessert. :D)

We could have stayed and talked for a few more hours, but we needed to get back on the road. We still had a three hour drive ahead of us. *whew* Preparing ourselves for the remaining 3 hour leg of our 18 hour trip to my parents' home. Longest. Trip. Ever. But worth it.

AT 11:30pm we rolled into my parents' driveway after having almost died a third time. An 8 point-ish buck ran out in front of our car and stood dead still in our lane as we were driving 65 mph. Kevin slammed on the brakes and I nearly screamed. When I looked up, though, I couldn't see what he was stopping for. The dear was nearly invisible. SO THANKFUL Kevin saw the glint in that buck's eye. *whew*.

The remainder of our holiday was much less eventful, filled with good food, lazy mornings, and fun conversation (oh yeah, a few technology lessons for the parentals. You'll get it eventually, mom :D)

Oh, and check out the beautiful table that my mom set for the big meal--she even folded the napkins all fancy style with the tips she learned from her napkin folding class on their cruise. Yep, she took a napkin folding class. Pretty cool, right? Those fancy-pants napkins really do make the table look a million times more awesome.

 

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