our thanksgiving

One of my dearest friends invited us to stay the week of Thanksgiving with them. When it turned out that my family was just going to spend time together at the lodge, my friend invited us to join them for Thanksgiving. Their family isn't even vegetarian but she went way out of her way to make sure everything was vegan friendly for us. All we had to make was our tofurkey. I know a lot of people prefer other options for their "turkey" but Dave makes an awesome marinade (This time he used aminos, OJ, blackberry preserves, agave)  and has cooking a tofurkey down. 

It was such a relaxing day. Hanging out with friends, babies and puppies. Thank you Allison for making a delicious vegan meal for us! If I had to eat one meal forever this meal would be it. 

June Bug roasting by the fire

Baby Bear being adorable

He wouldn't keep his turkey hat on

Elinor is really into these Little People.

Dave and Elinor loved having a puppy around to play with

sweet potatoes with dandies, brussel sprouts, green beans with a cashew cream gravy and stuffing

This looks like a sweet baby about to eat her Thanksgiving meal but in real life right after I took this she threw an epic meltdown for 45 min while we all ate. Thanks to Ashleigh for stepping in and using your professional preschooling voice to deal with this. Dave and I were about to put her up for sale.

So good!!

Oh and Allison made pies! A vegan pumpkin, vegan chocolate cream and regular pumpkin for her Sean :) 

I really miss these friends. Let's all run away and live in a big house together just like we planned in high school, ok??

home

We had so much fun last week. I was able to see my whole family, thanks to a surprise visit from my parents. The night before we left I started feeling a little sick. That morning I was so sick. I ached and could barely talk because my throat hurt so bad. I laid in the back with Elinor on the drive home. It would have been nice but she yelled "mama! get up! wake up, mama!" the whole time.

Dave had things to do yesterday so he took Elinor with him and to visit Mum. They also went to a show and to the grocery store for sick supplies for me. I slept until 2! 2pm! I can not remember the last time I got to sleep in that long. I am still exhausted but feeling a lot better. 

at a rest stop on our way home

I hope I feel 100% this week so we can start decorating our house. I just have to figure out the right spot for everything. We may have to move some records around to fit a tree in our living room. We had so much room in the loft last year. I'm glad we took advantage of all the room and got a huge tree. We may have to settle for a table top tree this year like we had in Salem.

I have so many pictures to go through from our trip. Expect a ton from our night at Great Wolf Lodge and Thanksgiving. And you guys, Elinor is going to be 2 in a week and I still haven't planned a party. Poor baby with a birthday between holidays.

thanks

xo,
Caitlin, Dave and Elinor

day after thanksgiving

We had planned on heading home the morning after Thanksgiving but after talking to Tre and Amanda, we decided to meet up. Amanda found out about a craft fair. We met for coffee and then walked all around Provincetown. It was so quiet and beautiful. Last time we were there it was summer and very touristy. We didn't want to leave this time. Everything was perfect.

 Dave bought a cute Narwhal ornament from this place

 sleepy baby

 the lobster pot tree. They were building/decorating it. The official lighting was the next day. 

 the tree topper

We went to lunch and Elinor took some field notes with her chew toy

I saw this painting from 1930. I wanted it so bad but didn't want to spend so much for it. I think this baby look exactly like Ellie.  

We put the bag in the car and walked to the beach before we left. The camera was in the bag. Good thing for camera phones

 She was trying to stand back up and froze like this. When I bent down to see if she was ok she was giggling so much. 

We didn't want to go back to real life. After the beach we started the drive back home. Elinor hates car rides but we timed it perfect both times with naps. I think she had a lot of fun and we wore her out. We can't wait to go back!

tofurkey day

I was sad we weren't going to be with either of our families for Thanksgiving but Amanda and Tre went out of the way to make it an amazing day. They rented a house in Provincetown for a couple of days and invited us for the day. We decided to get a hotel nearby for the night since it is a 3 hour drive. We got to the hotel just in time to see the very end of the parade and got to see Santa! We got ready and went over to their house. It was just us and Tre's mom. She was so sweet and played with Elinor while we (Amanda) got everything together. Tre and Amanda had just got back from Disney and brought back some gifts for Elinor, including a super cute ornament with her name. Tre's mom also gave her a present. She is so spoiled! Amanda made so much amazing food and I want recipes for everything. I only made a salad..it was a pretty awesome salad though.

 view from the back porch

 salad boat

 tofurkey!

no one told me the parade replayed later in the day! We got to watch a little more of it before dinner

 after dinner we walked to the beach

 trying to run to the water

 sand???

Alabama was there too and Elinor got puppy kisses!

We went back to the hotel and went swimming. Elinor wasn't too sure about it at first since we hadn't been in awhile. After awhile she was climbing out (with help) and jumping back in. She would try to jump, doing a big bend and push to her toes but not get any air. She would just lean in and fall into our arms in the pool. 

Thank you so much Amanda, Tre and Judy! We all had so much fun.