Memories and soon to be memories...

I have been slacking some on writing posts lately. :) Everything is going good around this household. We are very much anxious to leave in the morning. We are headed to Minnesota, where my family lives, for Thanksgiving. I cannot wait to eat Turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing and all the other good stuff that goes with it. Oh yum. We are excited to get out of Ohio. All i can say is that vacations for us always seem to come right at the time we need them! Thank goodness for that. And it isn't necessarily OHIO that we want to get away from...we just want to get out of our usual routine. We need a change, a little mix up. It gets tiring having the same routine everyday. After awhile it is like, oh my goodness i need a change of pace. We are excited to see my parent's and my big brother. They CANNOT WAIT to see Gavin and Tanner. It is exciting to hear how excited they are to see them. AND it is exciting to hear how excited Gavin and Tanner get when they know they are going to see them. Plus, just that feeling of being home away from our home here. It is comforting.

We have a long 11-12 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow. We bought plenty of food and snacks so that we don't have to stop and buy anything. We will just stop to pee and fill up the car. We are heading out bright and early at 5:00 a.m. It reminds me of growing up. We drove EVERYWAY when we went on vacation. We never flew. Our most popular drives were drives to San Diego, California to see my Grandma and Grandpa Bates and the drive to Quincy, Illinois to see my Grandma and Grandpa Seifert. As a kid, those rides were the best memory makers i could have had. It was fun. Our longest trip was from South Carolina to California, driving. Yup. Very long, but so fun. I look back now and i could talk someone's ear off about all the memories. Anyway, i am sorry. I am in a very memorable mood right now. A little home sick. :) I hope that we can build memories like that with our kids...traveling memories.

We will get their right around dinner time. Ohhhh the house will smell of homecooked food- lasagna and broccoli. And the house will be warm and cozy, very much unlike our 60 degree house. There will be Christmas music playing, and the lighting in the house will be perfect. I know, that is a weird thing probably to some people, but there are so many different lights in the house and the way they choose to turn on certain lights helps bring in a more cozy atmosphere. There will be Salt City candles lit and the scent of the candles is so inviting... warm, christmas smells that fill up the entire upstairs of the house. That is what i know my parent's home as. Homie, warm, comforting, and spacious. Madison, my mom and dad's dog will be there to happily greet us at the door. She jumps all over and gets so excited. Eeww, i can't wait. By the way, did i tell you i (we) am excited to go to see my family. :) jk. Unfortunately, Holly and Brion won't be there. Holly can't leave her work here for that long and Brion is in Europe, sooooo we won't have the whole family together. More food for me. :) haha.

Then the day we have to leave will be a sad one. BUT it helps me keep going knowing that a few weeks from then we will be headed to Idaho to spend Christmas with Shane's family. That is a whole other story i will talk about before we head there. :)

Aaaahhhh, life is good.

Gavin is so funny. Every evening he gets a lot of gas and toots a lot. Well, if you know me, farts make me laugh. I can't help it. They just do. It may be gross, but for some reason i get a good laugh out of one. Unless someone does it more than a few times within a few minutes, then i get grossed out. Well, that is what happened with Gavin. Sometimes when he does it i laugh...honestly i try not to laugh b/c i don't want to teach him bad manners. BUT there are times where the situation is just too funny and i can't help but laugh. For example, Gavin and Shane were having a bonding moment. Gavin said the sweetest thing, "I am going to be just like Daddy!" One second after that he toots. It was too fitting so i had to laugh. Anyway, you get the picture. Well, the the other night it was becoming too much. I was ignoring it and finally i couldn't take hearing it anymore. I said, "Gavin, if you are gonna do that then go in the other room where i don't have to hear it." He said, "But i am Gavin, i am a boy. But mom, everybody does it(toots)." He is too smart for his own good. Where did he learn that?