ThansgivingS

Early Thanksgiving

Paul and Janice were going to Arizona for Thanksgiving so we celebrated with the Days a little early. Jon and Emmalee came up from Iowa and Phil and Chantel came down from Minneapolis, and of course Mike and Lisa joined us for our dinner. Janice's oven broke right after the turkey was done! Good timing! Bad luck! It was a bummer they had to get a new oven, but I think we were all glad the turkey was cooked before it broke.  There was a lot of really good food and desserts. We ate until we were silly full in true Thanksgiving fashion.

I made mashed potatoes and Emmalee made some really delicious yams

The whole gang hard at work

 Thanksgiving in North Carolina

Mark and I flew into Charlotte, NC on Friday 11/16/12. We caught a shuttle to a hotel where my sister was going to pick us up. Ashley couldn't make it right when we got there for some reason so Mark and I asked the hotel to hold our bags and we went and "explored" downtown Charlotte. While we were exploring we stumbled into this little gem:

Strike City Bowling in downtown Charlotte, NC

Who doesn't want to bowl in this place?

Strike City bowling was not just your typical bowing alley, it seemed like an "up scale" bowling alley with waitresses that came around to your lanes and served you food/drinks. Mark and I just got drinks and our waitress gave them to us for free. She was really nice! We were about to bowl round two when my sister called and said she was getting close to picking us up! As fun as bowling was, the real fun began when we met up with the Walbruch's! They are so much fun! I always love to be with my sister and it helps that Mark and Nate were friends from High School. It makes for good times! My sister and I basically laughed the whole time!

Saturday 11/17/12 Mark and I got up bright and early and went and ran a 1/2 marathon. I did good until about mile 8 and then Mark basically had an emotionally/physically tired girl on his hands! Needless to say Mark was a total trooper for putting up with all of my crying/whining/complaining. I do enjoy the feeling of accomplishing something that is so hard for me, but while I'm doing it, it's not a pretty picture folks. The breeze was actually a little cool for NC. Mark ran the whole time with his sweatshirt on. I thought it just felt wonderful, but in true race fashion the beginning was FREEZING! Mark and I planned it just right and we got to the starting line about 2 min after the gun went off so after all the fast people got on their way, we joined in with the crowd that looked a little more our pace :) Ashley and Nate brought the girls up to Charlotte and met us at the finish line.

How do some people look so good after they have run 13 miles....

 Once we got the race out of our way the Walbruch's vote was pizza hut....um my body was in SHOCK! 13 miles, seriously greasy pizza? This was bad folks!

Ashley and I went to lunch a couple times while Nate was at work and Mark stayed home and babysat. We had such a good time! Our whole week involved a lot of SODA (I mean A LOT), a lot of food (especially Mexican food). Did I mention my body was in SHOCK! Pedicures at Walmart with Teressa, LATE night movies, Tiger World, and bowling in no particular order.

Corey and Teressa Johnson came from Ohio to meet us for Thanksgiving. It was fun to have Mark, Nate, and Corey all together again (they are all HS buddies).

Mark and I slept in the garage where it was nice and cool...the girls knew where to find us every morning

Ellie eying the turkey

Mark dominating the dishes for 6 adults and 7 kids...there was a lot of dishes

Ashley, me, and Teressa

The aftermath, I think Teressa is the only one not asleep

We played dress up every morning

Bowling with the family, there was a lot of tears and smashed fingers but we had fun