Thanksgiving trip to Illinois!

The kids and I took off on Friday after Thanksgiving and headed to Illinois.  Sadly, Matthew was really sick for the trip.  He had a high fever the night before the flight and we started him on antibiotics because we suspected his cold had turned into an ear infection.  Andrew had a bit of a cold too and we had a pretty rough flight to Illinois--I had my first experience changing a diaper on a plane and my first experience with a crying child during landing.  But, as I always say--once they shut those doors and you take off, you have no choice but to make it to the other side!

Once in Illinois, we had a wonderful time!  On Saturday, the extended family came over (we counted over 50 people) for the 15th Annual M.I.T. (Maggie's Institute of Tortellini).  We all get together Thanksgiving weekend to make our homemade tortellini that we use for Christmas Eve Dinner.  I look forward to this gathering all year.  It's the only time I get to see a lot of my 2nd cousins and my mom's cousins and it is just such a cherished family tradition.  Andrew was pretty excited to have so many cousins to hang out with--13 of his 14 cousins were there!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Papa working to get Matthew to take a nap so that he's healthy for MIT:

We managed to silence about 30 people to get this little sleeper inside after his walk with Nina:

The food spread for MIT was amazing!  I got a lot of pictures around this table because I spent most of the day happily sampling:

While I was sneaking food, others were hard at work:

Farthest commuter award winner (again)--Katie and Steve here from Zurich!

More snacking...

Relaxing in the Living Room:

"Uncle DJ--Will you be my crane?"  ~Andrew

Post-MIT cousin party--15 of the 16 grandkids were there!

Andrew and Matthew Loved having all their cousins around!

Everyone but DJ's family left the night of MIT.  Here's the 3 remaining cousins the next morning:

After DJ and Dawn left for Baltimore, it was very quiet at my folk's house.  We still enjoyed ourselves and it was nice to get some one-on-one time with the parentals.  

I had to include this last picture.  I share a room with Matthew when we are at my folk's house and I got to see him sleep, which I never get to see at home.  Does it get any sweeter than this?  Butt in the air and his little feet crossed and arms tucked under?  He's like a well-trussed chicken! :)