The Young and the Restless

A happy unconventional Thanksgiving

Instead of packing up and heading to visit family (which still would have been fun), we decided to go against tradition and eat our Turkey on the beach.  The trip got off to a rocky start when we got stuck for a grueling 3 hours in traffic right outside Phoenix. It didn't get any better when Jayden started whining about being carsick.  This happens pretty much every trip and since he rarely throws up I sometimes wonder if it's all in his head (especially since he complained about being sick while we were completely stopped in traffic).  So being the good parents we are, we handed him a plastic bag then turned the radio up so that we couldn't hear him whine for the next 4 hours.  Then we were filled with guilt when he started throwing up and decided we were the worst parents ever (we tried to make it up to him, and ease our guilt, by telling him all about the great Christmas presents he was going to be getting).  We finally made it to Newport and thankfully it only got better from there.  The kids woke up early and spent the morning collecting a whole family of snails on the patio (Maddox was especially fond of the "tute bebe nail").  In an effort to redeem myself from the night before, I made them hot chocolate then snuggled up with them in the blankets and enjoyed a cozy morning.

We spent Thanksgiving being lazy, playing card games, having popcorn movie parties, exploring the resort, swimming and napping.  And of course, the big feast. I have to confess I LOVED the simplicity of it.  I usually spend all morning cooking then all afternoon cleaning.  This time we kept it so simple and I loved spending time with the kids and not slaving over a stove. Jason did the turkey and I refused to even be in the same room with the raw, gizzard filled bird; I made potatoes, we bought rolls (which we ended up eating a total of 3 dozen rolls in 2 days, Jason found a winner with the "King's Hawaiian" rolls); bought jello salad and took 2 minutes to make the stuffing. It was definately a starchy carb filled spread, considering the only thing on the table that's not a golden brown hue is the Sprite.  That may be the reason for the later episode we'll refer to only as "the Wal-mart tooter"...

The next day was the beach.  It was the perfect weather with no crowds and I wish we could have stayed there all day.

 The kids have recently started tennis lessons and were so stoked that they got a chance to try out their new rackets. It was nice that there was so much to do at the resort that we didn't really have to go anywhere (except for the infamous Wal-mart trip and an outing to our new favorite "Sweet Tomatoes" where Jayden can eat his staple food, bread and cheese, for dinner and we don't have to hear him complain about what we order).  We did have to endure a 90 minute presentation where they tried to convince us to sell our souls and get a time share, but it was worth it for the steal we got on the room.

We were originally going to go to Disneyland, but then we found out that Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest time to go, so we axed that idea.  Knott's Berry farm was our next plan, but I think we were all amusement parked out and I'm glad instead that we spent the weekend relaxing.  On the last day we did go to a children's museum (which cost nearly as much as an amusement park) and the kids loved it.  Thankfully the trip home was much faster and not a single complaint about carsickness.  It was a happy Thanksgiving indeed.