Thanksgiving Tour

This has truly been a roadtrip about thankfulness.  Although full of its ups and downs, the resounding thought in my mind is just how blessed we are in terms of how the Lord has graciously given us loving, lasting family and friends.  So join us on a review of our Thanksgiving Tour of Loved Ones in the PA/NJ/VA area.

Stop 1: Nana and PopPop's - Carlisle, PA
This year Doug's parents (affectionately now referred to in our house as Nana and PopPop) invited us to join them for Thanksgiving.  This invitation is what started it all and we were so grateful for the opportunity to see Doug's parents and his brother, David and his 3 kids.  We left Pittsburgh a little after 8am and made fantastic time (hardly anybody on the roads, we were so surprised!) and arrived in Carlisle around 11:15am.  This gave the boys time to acclimate with their new surroundings, get out some energy playing before the meal and have a light snack to tide them over.  Penn loved the veggies, particularly the orange peppers.

Just like all the other grandchildren, Penn claimed the old school bus toy from Doug's baby days as his favorite.  This perch on the couch was also his favorite place to be when the dogs would get overwhelming.

Dave and his kids arrived around noon.  Michael led Koen to the Legos straight away and Tav, Koen and Michael built all sorts of creations until dinnertime.  

Doug and Dave got called in (very willingly as they both love to help in the kitchen and appreciate giving their mom some aid) for turkey carving duty.  Looks like Doug is mostly sampling and Dave is doing the carving though.  Did you happen to notice how they are wearing very similar shirts?  Ha!

The meal was delicious.  Sally, Doug's mom, did a beautiful job with everything.  The kids all did great at the table and Penn hung in like a champ even though it was close to his naptime.  We did send him to nap right at the close of the meal (and then he fought nap for awhile due to his new surroundings, but thankfully eventually crashed).  Tavin also didn't last much longer and he was down for a nap by 2pm.  Amazing that he would willingly go to bed amidst all the cousin fun.  Then it was time to get the big kids some fresh air.  I caught these pictures of Koen and Kiersten playing with Kenzie out in the backyard while I was doing dishes.

After Sally and I finished the dishes and Sally got to sit and have a cup of tea, she and I took a much needed walk for some fresh air.  Turns out all the big kids wanted to join us and the two dogs.  The walk wasn't relaxing, but it was refreshing and entertaining.  Dave's kids are all great and I especially really enjoyed hanging out with Kiersten.  She has such a fun personality and is so easy to spend time with.  And it was great to watch Koen with Daniel and Michael, the three of them got along great this time.  Sally and I spent most of the walk laughing our heads off.  Good for the soul!

After Tavin's nap (well, I had to wake him up despite the fact we were making a racket in the room beside him, he was out cold!), PopPop had a surprise for all the grandkids...BINGO!!  This is a Melder tradition now.  When we get together the kids/grandkids all get to play bingo and whoever gets bingo, gets to pick a prize.  And these prizes are no joke.  There's something for everyone.  Little, simple things, but just right up everyone's alley.  Good job, Nana and PopPop, this one is always such a hit!  All ages get into it too, so it brings us all together and is a lot of fun.  Here's a look at the prize table and some of the grandkids.

Koen was having a blast.  Doug was the caller (which always makes it really hilarious).

Tavin was having a rough time waking up from nap, but he enjoyed putting the pieces on the numbers that were called.  He also definitely got into it once he got his first prize.  The poor guy had quite a bout of the sniffles/sneezes/coughs going on that evening, so I don't think he was really himself (plus all day he seemed a little overwhelmed with the new surroundings and so many people around, etc.).

Just another attempt of a picture of the cousins that evening before Dave's kids had to go shortly after we wrapped up the bingo game.  Koen admires them so much!

After Dave and his kids left the boys had a small dinner and we enjoyed some quieter time with Nana and PopPop to ourselves.  We brought a few small Christmas gifts and enjoyed giving those to Nana and PopPop around the kitchen table.

Tavin and PopPop worked on Tav's Thomas puzzle (a bingo prize).  It was sweet to see them working together.  Tavin loved the attention and the hands-on activity.

Penn was surprisingly confident with the new surroundings, all the family members and two dogs afoot.  Sometimes the dogs would be too close and he would squeal in fear, but most of the time he was curious or just doing his own thing playing underfoot the rest of us.  It was a relief because I was a little nervous he would spend most of the day in my arms, but that was definitely not the case.  He was especially interested in Kenzie, the little dog that Koen adores.  Nana and PopPop wanted to give him a chance to check her out close up.  Now I have to say as a mom of a child who was recently attacked by a dog, this was a little nerve-racking, but Penn loved it and Kenzie is such a gentle and patient dog.  Here they are socializing.  We should've taken a video because the photos just don't capture all the adorable noises and expressions Penn was doing to interact with the dog.

Now I mentioned that Koen adores Kenzie.  That might actually be an understatement.  He had been talking about playing with her since we told him we were headed to Nana and PopPop's for Thanksgiving.  And then the whole time we were there he never really let her out of his sight (and I think Kenzie has a special place in her heart for him).  It was really good to see that Koen's negative experience with a dog a few weeks ago has not scarred him (no pun intended) for life against all dogs.  Here he is with man's best friend.

He also took a few photos of his dog buddies, Kenzie and Sadie.

While I was getting a few things ready for bedtime, Penn played trains with Tavin.  

Penn also had some fun time with Nana before bed.  It was so nice to see him all warmed up to her.

All 3 kids were just so content that night we felt like we could've just let them play well past bedtime.  But we knew they really were exhausted, so we got them to bed pretty close to the usual time.  Nana was helpful as we coordinated the bedtime routine by reading to Tavin and then to Koen.  Here she is snuggled up to Tav (by the way, the book I had brought from the library is really bizarre, so don't write down that title...oops).

As I said, our trip was full of ups and downs.  Well, one of the downs was that after a few days of having a scratchy throat and wondering if I was coming down with something, literally right after the Thanksgiving meal at lunchtime I completely lost my voice.  Couldn't speak at all.  So frustrating!  Here we are with my kind, hospitable in-laws and I can't even carry on a conversation!  Plus, we were just at the beginning of our journey, I was contemplating if it was even worth continuing on.  Another bump in the road was that Penn had a really, really weird night that night.  We don't know if was struggling with what I was coming down with, was just put off by being in a different place and all the stimulation or what, but starting at 9pm he started crying and was really upset.  We were supposed to share a room with him, but after two hours of trying to sleep in there while he woke up every 20 - 30 minutes to cry I made us sleep in the living room for the night.  Penn continued to wake up on and off until a little after 1am!  Who knows what on earth the problem was, but thankfully he eventually conked out and so did we (on the sofa and floor).  So, not the best night's sleep, but totally worth it for the the day we had previously with family.  The next morning the big boys (who had slept quite well except for Tav's in-sleep incessant coughing) were well-rested and happy.  Penn did well at the beginning of the day and here he is enjoying Nana's sunny indoor garden at the corner of the kitchen after breakfast.

Penn had a lot more of those ups and downs in store for us on Friday though.  Around 10am we headed out from Nana and PopPop's and on towards Philly.  I have to stop here and so how lovely a visit it was though and I am so thankful for Doug's parents and how much they care for their grandkids.  The boys loved being with them.  Thank you so much for the wonderful Thanksgiving feast, the hospitality and your faithful prayers and support on a daily basis.  We love you two!  (And PS - thanks for putting up with the silent treatment for me.  How bizarre!!).

Stop 2: Rick & Becki's - Outside Philly, PA
The car ride was about 2 hours between Doug's parents and Rick and Becki's.  Rick and Becki are dear friends of ours from back in our college days.  Doug met them first as his roommate's parents, but they grew to become mentors and friends to us both over the years.  We have always enjoyed any opportunity to spend time with them as we always take away things that challenge us and encourage us and this visit was no different in that respect.  Now, in respect to how many children we now have, that was different.  The last time I had been at their home we only had Koen.  Time has flown and we had much to catch up on obviously.  So, back to the car ride.  Penn was exhausted from his weird night and ended up falling asleep hard for the last leg of the trip.  He was so cute passed out in his car seat, I couldn't resist (no flash of course).

That catnap gave him a burst of energy to get through our visit with Rick and Becki and he was in fine form to show off.  When we arrived right at noon, Becki had a lovely lunch spread out for us.  Amazingly gracious.  Thankfully after much rest for my voice (being silent is soooo hard for me, it took A LOT of willpower not to talk to Doug in the car, especially since I've been making notes of things to talk about in the car for weeks) and a lot of prayer, I was able to squeak out words and participate in conversation.  I was so thankful and relieved!  After lunch, the adults sat in the living room to chat and the boys just played quietly at our feet or in the playroom (Rick & Becki have 9 grandchildren of their own, so they are fully equipped for little visitors).  The boys, especially Penn actually, loved this old school marble game from Rick's childhood, he said it is always a favorite with his grandkids too.  

After playtime, we put Tavin to bed in one room, Penn in another and Koen got to watch a movie in the basement.  Rick and Becki were so generous to let us camp out so the little guys could nap.  Unfortunately, Penn had a really, really hard time settling down for a nap since he had slept in the car a bit.  So frustrating!  He didn't fall asleep until a little before 4pm (we laid him down at 2pm).  Ugh!  We ended up staying a little later than anticipated to let him sleep and to savor the time with these special people we appreciate so much.  At 4:30pm we took off for our next stop, just over the bridge in NJ.  Thank you so much, Rick and Becki.  We loved being with you and sharing our kids with you.  Thanks for sharing your home with us and for providing us a lovely lunch.  It was the best pit stop on a roadtrip that you could dream up.

Stop 3: Scott & Jenny - NJ
So where were we headed to in NJ??  My college roommate, one of my bridesmaids and still a dear, close friend, Jenny's house!  She and Scott have two girls that our boys have had the privilege of seeing about every 6-9 months the last two years and it has been such a blessing to me to remain in touch with Jenny and then have these catch up sessions face-to-face.  I had again rested my voice on the way to Jenny's and the Lord was so gracious in giving me enough strength of voice to again participate in the conversation.  Jenny, unfortunately, was in the middle of a bad cold and her voice was raspy as well, so we were quite a pair squeaking and squawking to one another, but it was worth it.  Here are a few pics from our stay.

Our boys loved running around with their girls.  After dinner and some more playtime, Scott offered to read all the kids a book.  You can see that Koen's attitude is starting to get a little stand-offish at this point.  Check out this huffy faces!  Otherwise, super cute to see all these little ones cuddled up together for a story.

The next morning was actually Jenny's oldest daughter's birthday!  We had fun watching the kids play (and we made them get out all their energy outside for quite a bit of the morning), 

we had a delicious brunch as a celebration of the birthday

and the kids had some final fun play indoors before we were off to our next stop.  Penn even got a chance to play with a princess castle.  Ha!  Not something we have laying around our house for sure!

Right before leaving Tav wanted to get a picture with Clifford, a favorite toy of his friend's that he obviously had to leave behind (they had let him sleep with it the night before, so sweet!).  Lucky for Tav I know that Santa (well, Gramma) has a Clifford the Big Red Dog already ready for him on Christmas morning.

Jenny and I got a quick pic before we took off.  It was so great to be with you, Jenny.  Thanks for feeding us, dealing with our loud, rowdy boys and putting in so much effort even though you were under the weather.  Love you!

Stop 4: Rich & Sarah's - VA outside DC
So we left Jenny's at 1pm and headed South to DC on 95.  It was supposed to take 3 hours, but due to a major accident and some stop dead traffic, it took us 4 hours.  The boys were troopers (have I mentioned how great they've done with all these car treks?) and we made it to our hotel a little before 5 to unload, set up for bedtime, refresh and then head to my friend (and another bridesmaid), Sarah's, for dinner.  The boys were so happy at Sarah and Rich's.  They have a son, Richard, so they had plenty of trucks, cars and trains to keep our 3 totally content and busy.  The boys desperately needed to run off some energy and that they did (thank you Sarah and Rich for your grace!).  Here's just a moment of the noise and activity that was our evening together.

Sarah made a beautiful (pumpkin-themed) dinner that we all enjoyed.  Penn has done amazing with all these big people meals and here he is enjoying some turkey next to his dad.

The other boys were harder to get a picture of all together.  They were on the move!  Here they all are over by the Christmas tree and the train.

Sarah spent a little time showing Penn one of the trucks.  It was so sweet to catch a shot of them together.  I'm so happy Sarah got to meet Penn and we could share these few hours together, our two families hanging out (even if it was a little loud!).

We got the boys home a little late for bedtime, around 7:30pm, all in bed by 8pm.  Not a peep.  These kids are tired at this point!  It's a good thing they all got a good catch up rest as Sunday was yet another fun day.  Koen and Doug left around 8am to head into downtown DC to go to National Community Church.  Doug knows a few of the pastors there and wanted to go to a service.  He suggested I stay at the hotel and allow the little guys to have a low key morning and get to naps on time and that was just fine with me.  Here's the little guys at breakfast.  They ate for an hour, no joke.

I think that Tav had 6 bowls of cereal and he didn't leave a drop in his bowl.

It was kind of refreshing to just be me and the little guys for a morning after several days in a row of all 5 of us on top of each other here, there and everywhere.  I think the little guys enjoyed it a lot too.  Check out this video of them just doing their thing.  Could they be more content?

After the downtime in the room, we headed out on a long walk to check out the suburbia we could reach via sidewalk.  On our walk we stopped for a pizza lunch.  Fun lunch date with my little guys!  Oh, this is what Tav says is his "new preschool smile."  Oh my!

 This is just Penn being Penn.  He was saying something.  And yes, I know, his hair isn't even.

I got the boys back to the hotel in plenty of time for naps.  They both didn't nap yesterday because of our road trip between NJ and DC, so they were very ready to go to sleep and they both had marathon naps.  I had a little time (i.e. I worked on some of this post).  Now, the Koen and Doug were having quite a nice day themselves.  They enjoyed the church service together, then went to a bakery.  Then they jumped on the subway so they could do a little exploring.  

They hit a funky market.

And then they had an impromptu picnic lunch with a view of the White House!

Koen really needed the one on one time with Doug.  Although he's really done well on the trip, it definitely has challenged him.  Koen loves adventure, but he also loves routine and knowing what to expect.  I think the combo of the fast pace, the many changes and being cooped up a lot brought on the very difficult moments we experienced on the trip with this one.  This time on Sunday with Doug seemed to be really refreshing for him (for the time being).
Stop 5: Elliott & Annie's - VA outside DC
Doug and Koen got back to the hotel at 3pm and I headed out to hang out with Sarah (from night before) for a little while before our evening plans.  It was great to actually chat with Sarah with no noise in the background!  Such a nice afternoon catching up with an old friend.  Then at 5pm we headed out as a family to our final friend stop, Annie & Elliott's.  Annie is yet another bridesmaid (I had 6!).  I was a bridesmaid for her as well and Doug did her wedding.  Annie and Elliott have Lucy who is the same age as Penn (Lucy was born just two days after Penn, they had the same due date!).  It was wonderful to see Annie and Elliott and finally meet Lucy and get her together with Penn.  Doug and I felt bad because our big boys were quite rambunctious to say the least and Koen was definitely showing off his new found weird attitude due to the "stress" of the trip, but we made it through and it was a blessing to be with these friends and watch Lucy and Penn together.  Lucy is a lot of fun.  She did a great job sharing her toys and also showed us a bit of her fun, spunky personality.

Is someone behind me?

They came up with a little game on their own.  They filled up the dump truck with animal magnets.  So cute!

Annie & Elliott, thanks so much for having us and generously providing us a lovely meal.  We apologize yet again for how crazy it was, clearly our boys need less minivan time and more outdoor time!).

Stop 6: Family Finish at the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum
After another good night's sleep and a huge breakfast (check out Penn's cream cheesy hair and face!),

we packed up and headed out of town by way of the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum near Dulles.  It was fantastic.  The boys were thrilled upon walking in.  Tavin was soooo excited.  He loves planes and was just in awe and kept pointing out things he recognized (we read a lot of airplane books).

The museum has so many airplanes and other aircraft in enormous hangars.  It's beautiful.  They also have some breathtaking exhibits such as zeros and Nazi planes from World War II and the Enola Gay.

Nothing lightens up looking at these zeros than Tav picking his nose in the shot.  Oops!

One of the most incredible things was the space shuttle, Discovery.  It is on display in the same condition it was in upon landing from its final mission.  Amazing.  It was huge!  See if you can find Tav (he's looking at his map)...

Here's a side shot of just a portion of the shuttle, but it shows you the little tiles it is made of.  It looks scrappy and messy.  Scary to think it could really carry people to outer space and back.

As we headed back into the other hangar, Koen took this cool picture of the back of the Stealth jet.

Next we headed up to the observation tower where you have a great view of the planes landing and taking off at Dulles.  The boys loved it (Koen and Tavin were more interested in the fly-bys, Penn enjoyed crawling around on the carpeting).

After we were done observing, we stopped for one last exhibit where the boys were able to get in and were the controls of a Cessna.  They were a cute pair of co-pilots.

It was time to hit the road around noon.  We were all so glad that we did the museum.  It was nice just to have some Melder family time and great to stretch our legs before the ride home.  Not to mention it is an amazing museum and we all enjoyed it very much.  We made just one pit stop on the way home.  Chick-fil-A of course.  After that we loaded back in the van for the final 3 hours home.  Penn fell asleep super fast for a power nap and we were relieved.  Check out how cute this little guy is!  

He did so well during this crazy road-tripping weekend.  They all did really.  We asked a lot of them with seeing new friends and new beds pretty much every day.  It was a fun family adventure, definitely worth the downs for all the ups.  We are so thankful for all our family and friends and this opportunity to reconnect with you all.