Thanksgiving Part I: Justin & the Arch

We had a great Thanksgiving! We traveled to Kentucky and then on to St. Louis to visit with family. Its been a long time since I spent Thanksgiving with all my cousins and it was a blast. The first day, we visited Rob's brother Justin who is in medical school at SLU. Charlton had too much fun with Uncle Justin. We walked over to Lafayette Park and Charlton ran around, tried to feed the ducks rocks and hugged some random kid. After the park we headed over to the Bread Company for dinner and then ran Justin over to the airport so he could catch his flight to Arizona.

After dropping Justin off, we headed over to my grandma's house and stayed there a few days and celebrated Thanksgiving. We started off T-day by going to the Kirkwood-Webster High School football game with my cousin Lori and her three kids. When I was growing up we use to go to this game every year that my cousins lived in St. Louis. I have very fond memories of those times, not any memories of the games but memories of being with my cousins so I was excited to go. Lori's family lives in Webster so that is who we were rooting for, and they won. Charlton had a blast with Bella (8) and Solomon (5), who are so sweet and play so kindly with him

After the game we headed back to Grammi's for dinner. John and Erin arrived first, and over the next 30 minutes everyone else arrived, 31 of us altogether. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of this part. I guess we were too excited with visiting that we forgot about the camera. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on some of the pics Aunt Becky took and can post them later. In the meantime, let me just tell you that we feasted! Grammi and Aunt Kathy did a fabulous job and dinner was scrumptous, the tables were beautifully set and decorated, and the atmosphere was right out of a Charles Dickens novel. Needless to say we had a great time.

After dinner we played a huge game of Bunko with teams and table switching. There were 6 teams of 4 each with the losers rotating tables. AK organized it and there were prizes and everything. The winners of each round picked a wrapped present and the overall winners would win the grand prize, a wooden super Scrabble edition that included 7 other games. My cousin Kim and I were a team and while I shouldn't brag, I have to say we were AWESOME! Even with her holding baby Jason the whole time. When all was tallied up we were in a tie with Rob and Aunt Becky so we had to have a Bunko Roll-off to determine the champion. I knew it would be hotly contested as they were a menacing foe but I felt confident we would win. I stretched my fingers and prepared myself mentally for the game. Rob had that determined, somewhat dubious look in his eye that told me there would be no mercy. AB started the roll. Rob and AB took an early lead but then Kim came back with an incredible roll and it was tied 5-5. The dice were moving from player to player with quicker and quicker speed and the score was tight, with the teams alternating the lead by 1 or 2 points. The dice ended up back with AB and she rolled a couple sixes. They were at 19 and we were at 18. She rolled again and I felt as if time were in slow motion. I watched with heated anticipation while the dice bounced across the table, finally settling with a score of two sixes, a three and a two. It was over. They had won. And boy did Rob let me know it. Still, I couldn't help but smile because it was kinda a half win for me since Rob won the grand prize and I still get to play with the fancy Scrabble.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the top of the Arch. Rob had never been up there and really wanted to go. Apparently Paul and Lisa (who were staying at Aunt Becky's) had the same idea and we saw them there. There is a small museum there about the westward expansion which we toured before we made our way to the top. Charlton thought it was so fun! And he left with a miniature Arch thanks to Grandma V.

After the Arch we went home and Charlton and I napped while the others went to a movie. When they returned we ordered pizza and played Scrabble, which the shark Grammi won as usual. We always have such a wonderful time at Grammi's, especially the kids. She has all kinds of treasures in her house and actually allows the kids to play with them. She has few kid friendly things too, like tons of toys and a stuffed dragon that sits on the back of her couch, begging kids into his lair.