Thanksgiving

Got some catching up to do...

Thanksgiving was was great this year.  The only sad part was that Erik had to stay home to work so Elaina and I went to Nashville to spend time with my side of the family.  I am NOT a fan of spending holidays without him.  Hopefully, that will not happen again.  But, we had a nice visit to Nashville.

I had the whole week off with Elaina (she was out of school).  The weekend before, she and I went to Chattanooga to visit my dad while Erik went to Notre Dame with is brother and nephew.

Here is some action of our trip to Chattanooga.  We visited the aquarium... Scuba Santa was there.  We scored a front row seat to him diving down.  Elaina sat there and fist pounded with him for at least 5 minutes.

We went with my cousin, Gabe, and his kids - Tasio (left) and Finn (right).  They have a new baby - Sosie Jane.



Elaina and I in the shark cage

Elaina and Tasio

Sunday afternoon, my dad and Elaina fed the ducks in his back yard pond... Fun times.  Elaina took a liking to the white duck and only wanted to feed it. 

Elaina with her Pappaw with the gray hair (as she calls him) since she has 2

She helped Pappaw water his flowers

Thanksgiving Day, Elaina and I traveled to Nashville to celebrate the holidays.  I got to see a lot of family who I have not seen in a long time.  Lots of cousins - all my cousins have kids around Elaina's age so a good time was had by all...

 

We had a talent show in which everyone participated in....

Celia, Elaina, and Sadie started it off with a cheer (video later in the post)



My sister, Abby, plays the dulcimer and we all joined in the band complete with a saw player, bottle flute, recorder, spoons, washboard, and tupperware/wooden spoon drum.  What did we play??  Rocky Top, of course!

We had a stilt walker (cousin Taylor)

My aunt Maria did a headstand....

I balanced a spoon on my finger while standing on one leg - you are impressed aren't you??  I did it for as long as it took to snap this picture.

Afterwards, Elaina was pooped.  She crashed on my uncle Doug's lap.

Now to the promised video....

 

My favorite part - "give me space" :)  

 

Elaina decided at the end that she wanted to do a talent.  This was completely impromptu and I was pretty proud of her for wanting to stand up and be a part (by herself).  She normally is pretty shy and reserved. 



 

A picture of the whole gang... this is MOST of my mom's side of the family.  And, yes, we had shirts made.  Awesome.