Thanksgiving

Diane and Peter hosted Thanksgiving for the Grinnells as well as one of Peter's brothers, Paul, and his wife Jen and kids Shea and Will. There was plenty for the boys to do, from playing Uno with cousins to ping pong, after a long day in the sun at the Ponte Vedra Club where the boys played in the pool and enjoyed the water slides.

Here are all the kiddos of the same generation, my kids and some of my cousins' kids.

And here's the older generation: me and Jeff, plus my cousin Barbi, and cousin Diane, with her husband Peter and Peter's brother and his wife.

And the next up generation: my mom, dad, and Aunt Lucy.

In a fit of the spirit of Thanksgiving and togetherness I agreed to participate in a 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I have been running for about two years, usually 2-3 times a week for 2-3 miles each time. I run in all kinds of weather, cold and hot, snow and rain, and my neighborhood is fairly hilly so I get a lot of hills in on my runs. This 5k course was entirely, completely, in all ways FLAT. Temperature was about 65 and sunny. So yes, I made a lifetime 5k record. Of course, I've only ever run one other 5k, and it was when I was 16 and didn't run. But nevertheless, I shaved 5 minutes off my time!

Jacksonville trip

This Thanksgiving holiday we traveled to Jacksonville Beach to spend time with some of the Grinnells. We stayed with Barbi, Sawyer and Lucy and spent time at Diane's house with Great Aunt Lucy, along with the rest of the Burches and Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu. We also had some awesome beach weather. The first day after we arrived, we went to the beach near Barbi's house to "check it out." The boys were soaked within 10 minutes, and loving every minute of the surf and sand and sun on their skin.

Later that afternoon we headed back to the beach with Sawyer, who showed us some great sand digging techniques while Beckett entranced us with dance moves.

When the boys have some video game/iPad time, this is how they often end up--on the couch, all touching each other.

The boys have been taking swim lessons on Tuesday evenings and we often stop for ice cream at Gannon's on the way home. We are forced to drive past not one but TWO ice cream stores on the 5 minute drive home, so it's hard not to stop.

Beckett and Reed came with me a few weeks ago to a community meeting about nonpartisan redistricting. Shockingly, the gerrymandered demonstration map and scintillating conversation about electoral map redrawing did not hold their attention, so they took the car keys and went out to the van, where I found them reading books together in the front seat.

In October there were two weekends when Daddy and I were invited to weddings so Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu have been holding down the fort. Theo and Grandma Joanie have been having a great time playing the piano together.

Leaf Jumping

Virgil Playground

A couple weekends ago Jeff was practicing with the trial team and so after I picked the kids up from Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu we stopped in Virgil to go to Hollenbeck's Cider Mill. The cider mill was fun, and we got some awesome cider and doughnuts, but the real hit was the playground in Virgil.  Beckett had seen it on the way to the cider mill and recognized that he had a lot of energy he wanted to get out, so he suggested going back to the playground after we ate doughnuts. It turned out to be a great playground with lots of great equipment, plus a walking trail. We stayed for about two and a half hours, on a beautiful fall day.

Eating doughnuts and watching them press the cider, exactly as I used to watch when I was a kid.

The cemetary walk prompted a lot of interesting conversations about death, heaven, what happens after we die, how we are remembered by those who love us, and why we mark death in the way we do.