A Long Thanksgiving Post

You may remember this post and this post from Thanksgiving last year.  Well, we did it again. We made the 11 hour drive down to North Carolina, and it was a fun weekend.  I actually enjoyed the drive down there. Dallin is good for long car trips and I love getting to talk with Russ for so long.  There were a couple of incidents that didn't go so well, but I couldn't help but laugh. It started when our drivers side window stopped working right before the West Virginia turnpike and all its many tolls. Not long after that we used the GPS to find a nearby gas station. It led to someone's backyard about 5 miles off the freeway.  It then led us to what was suppose to be a Marathon gas station, but instead was an old, run down, single pump from the 70s station.  We didn't stop there. Russ was getting so mad, but for some reason I couldn't stop laughing. Trust me, that didn't help the situation. During all of this there was a funny moment when Russ tried to pass a car and splashed water into their open car window. Opps. Well, smoking wasn't good for them anyhow. 

Thursday morning we went to watch Blake play a Turkey Bowl with his ward. Dallin was the photographer at this event, in case you couldn't tell.

Can you find Blake?

Dal's self portrait

For Thanksgiving dinner we went to Mimi's Cafe. It was not too bad. The rolls where still cold in the middle, but the dessert was wonderful. It was nice not having to clean up after. We left the dads inside to pay while we went outside and let the boys run around. It was wonderful weather the whole time we were in North Carolina.

Thursday night we went to the Great Wolf Lodge. For those of you who don't know what that is (I didn't before moving to Michigan) it is a hotel with a large indoor water park.  It was a lot of fun. Russ even enjoyed it even though he didn't go swimming.  He enjoyed getting to sit in a hotel room all alone and read without any interruptions.  That doesn't happen much at home. Since I stay home with Dallin now, when Dad is home he is the only one Dallin wants to play with.

Let me explain the pancake picture in case you couldn't figure it out. The boys both ordered baseball pancakes from Denny's. Dallin's came out first (the one on the right) and a few minutes later Adam's came out (the left one, obviously). Apparently the raspberry squirter got lazy during that time.  I still laugh looking at the picture, but I am betting only the Shulz family is going to find this picture remotely funny.

At the Lodge we spent some time in the arcade. Both Dallin and Adam are extremely fond of arcades.

Dallin wanted to play some magic quest game they had, but it was more than I wanted to spend on a game, so we promised him he could get a stuffed animal to bring home instead. Dallin got a red dragon.

Then Adam wanted a red dragon too, but his had a hole in it and they didn't have any left. Like all little kids, no other one would do. He left without one. He handled it rather well, better than Dallin would have. Obviously the dragon is cheap. I think three of them got holes while trying to fill up two for us. Only one survived, though Dallin pointed out a hole forming in the arm. Nothing like a cheap quality stuffed animal to remember a vacation. :)

Adam and Liv loved the water park. I am pretty sure Adam's parents had to make him leave when it was time to go. Dallin liked it OK. He played for about an hour the first night and was done. The next day is was almost two hours before he insisted on leaving.  He hates water in his face. Makes it hard to enjoy a water park. Adam was fearless. Dallin was content to watch Adam go down the bigger slides.

Back at the Shulz home, we spent one day out at Old Salem where the best photographer ever (Miss Aly) to family pictures for us. She's awesome! After pictures we walked around. Adam and Dallin insisted on bring friends. I think the moms ended up carrying the friends most of the time.

They had a working water pump the boys loved. He visited it a couple times.

Aly bought us some sugar cake. It was delicious! It was like croissant dough with caramelized brown sugar all over it.  So good!

We did learn that Adam takes after his mom in love for photography. Not only did he want to try and be in all the pictures she took of our family, but he took the time to pose himself and Buzz for some impromptu shots. Well done, Adam.

The weather was so good we visited a park. Who wants to play on playground equipment when there is a large concrete storm drain to run it?

The last night we were there we tried to get a picture of all three of them. There was no cooperation. One had two of them looking good (No, I do not know what what Adam is doing.) :) 

The two boys together where a bit easier to deal with. They are both so cute.

The final video is of a ride the boys went on in the arcade. Aly, I know you didn't get to show Blake, so now you can. The best is the beginning when their cheeks are shaking from the movement, They loved it.