Thanksgiving

We visited West Virginia for Thanksgiving. Evan did great on the drive both ways. We've figured out that the trick is to travel during nap or bedtime. I worried because this was his first roadtrip in his forward facing convertible car seat. It's far less reclining than his bucket seat so I was worried about how he'd sleep. He slept pretty well except I kept looking back and cringing at the stiff neck he must be getting. David assured me that stiff neck was an old person thing. I'm not so sure I believe him.

We got to WV around 5 on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve. We spent some time with Grandma Janet and Grandpa Mike before heading to dinner at our favorite hole-in-the-wall with Rayan. Rayan, my bff from high school, had never met Evan. We had a fun dinner getting caught up. Evan was super cute but refused to eat anything but french fries for dinner. A healthy start to a healthy trip. Not.

Evan and Cosby reuniting

Thursday was a busy day of visits. We started the day at Grandma and Grandpa Jackson's. Evan got to play with his cousins, Mckenna and Landon. Well, not so much Mckenna. She's a jealous little girl and didn't want much to do with Evan. He had a blast with Landon though. Landon is a great cousin. He mad Evan laugh and laugh and laugh. I got very few pictures this trip (too busy chasing crazy man around) but was glad I got a couple of these cousins-- the only two boy cousins.

I'm usually very happy to be in Ohio but it's times like these (and when we get to see Michaela!) that I wish we were closer to family. I would love Evan to have cousins around to play with all the time.

Our next visit was to David's family. There were a lot of strangers (to Evan) there. I was shocked how he warmed up to everyone. It was only minutes before he was running all over the house. The funniest part was when Evan went up to Ed (not Grandpa Ed, cousin? Ed) and stood in front of him staring while he was eating. And then he signed "please." Ed gave him a bite of brownie and Evan proceeded to attempt to climb onto him-- a complete stranger. Apparently he's over his Stranger Danger issues.

Our last stop of the day was my Aunt Karen's. There were a lot of strangers there too (even strangers to me.) Evan wasn't fazed. He played with the strangers, ran all over the house and practiced his step climbing which resulted in lots of help from everyone.

He was mostly super cute everywhere we went. He's so good in public and around new people. Grandma Janet and Grandma (Mamaw?) Barbi both got to see the other side of Evan though. He's not all rainbows and sunshine.

As I said, I got very few pictures. In fact, the two above are pretty much it. I love this video though. My intention was to capture a glorious reunion between Evan and Cosby after Cos returned from his walk with Mike. Cosby was far less enthused than Evan. I love the end though-- just Evan and Papaw, strolling and shootin' the shit. <3 Too bad Papaw wasn't wearing his T-Rex Racing pants too. Hehe.