Days with the Dorans

I was glad we were able to go to. Saginaw for Thanksgiving. I bought some pice my friend was making as well as some cookies from a different friend. After our make-shift turkey trot we were on our way! Grandma always makes a point to have fun games or activities for us to do when we get together. This year, we were making gingerbread houses and it was fun! The kids and I made them and then Jeff judged them. As always, the process is what I love the best. HERE is a video of the results and the judging! After that, the kids painted the cookies that I got for them. I am more thankful for family than ever! The food was wonderful but the company is always my favorite part!  

 After we got home from the race, we showered and were on the road to Grandma's! We Turkey Trotters sported our shirts and medals (tradition) and we had fun seeing the Doran cousins. The Gillespie boys weren't there but we were excited that JD, Mary and Abby were! We haven't seen JD in a while, so it was really good to see him and catch up for a bit. I had to laugh when I saw the boys all on the couch doing this! The good news is they weren't really like that the whole time! Dinner was super yummy as always, but I forgot to get any pictures of the yummy food. Needless to say it was all very delicious and I ate more than I should have (even WITH the run). After dinner, we cleaned up and Grandma had some games planned! She's always got fun games that we play whether they are board games or card games. This year it had a "Minute to Win It" type thing. The kids stacked cups and then later moved them down the table with balloons. That was toug...

On years we don't go to Saginaw for Thanksgiving, we go the next day. This year was fun because the Gillespie boys were there. The boys had fun playing together. And Al had fun finishing her book! Tyler hung out in the house watching football, but the rest of the boys got outside and played. The weather was great and I was happy they could get outside. The highlight (for me) was meeting this little guy! I still can't believe that Mary is a mom! Little Zeke is named after his dad so Jim decided he's going to call him EJ (since having the same name as your dad can get confusing...). I loved watching Jim and Trish with their Grandson! Great-Auntie Laura also got her baby fix. I loved holding and smelling EJ but I think I liked more just looking at him and getting him to smile. He was a sweetie but slept a TON and was only awake for a short time. It must be a growing day! Speaking of growing~ our bellies were growing too! We had a yummy dinner and dess...

 After our 5k and nice, long, hot showers, we were off to Saginaw to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Dorans. Joe and I were sporting our new Turkey Trot medals and shirts.  We can eat guilt free (kind of) because of our exercise, which is a good thing because Grandma is an amazing cook!! The food was delicious and the company divine! Unfortunately, Christie couldn't join us. She was on a cruise and Mary's finace' also wasn't able to join us. This year Grandma opted to sit at the kid table because she said Joe was older now so graduated to the big table! I think he was pleased with this and his sibs didn't mind at all because they got to sit with Grandma!  Sean was so cute and told us we needed to take turns to tell everyone what we are thankful for (a tradition but I was pleased he was the one who voiced wanting to start). He was thankful for the "whole wide world" and the rest of us also had much to be thankful for... mostly for those seated...