Thanksgiving trip to TN

Whew! What a trip!

We left Florida on Tuesday afternoon and drove until late that night. After staying overnight in Perry, GA, we finished our trip the next day and arrived at Ryan's Aunt Donna's in the early afternoon on Wednesday. It was a fun-filled, although pretty short, trip and we left to come home on Saturday. Ava got to spend time with her grandparents, Aunt Krista, and cousins, as well as some of the extended family on the Bogert side. We are really glad that we made the long drive to spend Thanksgiving in Tennessee.

Ava's first nap in the car on the trip up north.

Hanging out with Grandma and Ainsley on Wednesday evening after their arrival in TN.

Pop-Pop and Ava checking each other out.

GG Bogert loved every second that she got to spend with her great-granddaughter.

Playing with Aunt Krista.

This is the scene that greeted me when I woke up on Thanksgiving morning. Everyone was hanging out on the landing in our condo, watching Baby Ava.

Love from cousin Lane.

Two cute monkey cousins in matching monkey pj's!

On Thanksgiving, Ava and I had a mini photo shoot after lunch.

This is her telling me how she really feels about the photo shoot.

And back to the sweet girl we know and love.

Hanging on with every ounce of strength to cousin Carrie's necklaces.

Ava received her first Christmas present from some cousins. Emily and Megan were very excited to see her reaction.

She loved her present (stacking bath rings with a turtle), and loved the bag and tissue paper too!

This is only half of the shoes on Thanksgiving Day!

Lane and Jack were mountain climbers, using belts as rappelling rope and the stairs as their mountain.

Playing with cousin Megan.

On Friday's family walk. It was a bit chilly, but a beautiful sunny day. It was nice to work off some of the calories that we consumed over the course of three days!

My two loves.

After waking up from a short snooze on our outing.

I love this picture!

On Saturday, the girl cousins lined up to get a chance to hold Ava.

(From the left: Nicolette, Megan, Emily, Katie)

Nicolette and Katie spent much of Saturday preparing a play to put on for the family. It started off as a rendition of 'Nanny McPhee,' where Ava was appropriately cast as The Baby. (All lines are written exactly as found in our official scripts.)

Her script read:

Scene 1: bangs on pots and pans

Scene 2: sleeps and crys

Scene 3: goes to wedding

'Nanny McPhee' morphed into 'The Trap,' and all actors were fired with the exception of Ryan and me.

Ryan's script:

Scene 2: Ryan comes and saves her but first he asks will you mary me.

My script:

Scene 1: Sneeks out with Ryan as friends. Then she gets caught in a trap. Then she yells somebody help me over and over.

Scene 2: She says yes (with pation).

To Katie and Nicolette's delight, we put on a 24 second performance that is sure to receive wonderful reviews. We even sneaked in an unscripted smooch, much to our directors' dismay! :)

On our drive home, Ryan was speaking in his Donald Duck voice and Ava was beaming at me after trying to crane her neck to see him. CUTE!