Minnicks On Their Road To Ever After: Thanksgiving in Blue Ridge!

So much to be thankful for this year!

Especially being able to celebrate with my family all together and doubling the fun and memories by making it a vacation was something we felt so fortunate to do! I love the holidays, i love the traditions and I love having everyone all together! As most of you would assume we are absolutely MOST thankful this year for our little girl Lola who is healthy and growing, kicking away in my tummy this year!

The word thankful is just not enough to describe how fortunate we feel!

Oh yes and have I mentioned I am in love with my job. In love. Alex and I have been so fortunate in that department and that is of course something we are also extremely thankful for this year!

When your a holiday lover like me it helps to have a school schedule which promotes not working over holidays!!

I got to work from home the week of thanksgiving and get ready for our visitors: mom, dad and Billy who came up early to get ready to go to the Cabin with us! Tucker and Milly were pretty much in heaven all week with me at home and then having their visitors!

I couldn’t get enough of Mill’s cuddles while I was home! She just had to be “touching” me and i was so excited for Alex to get home to tell and show him how cuddly she had been but he kindly reminded me he already knew since i had sent about 50 snapchats of her foot on me… SORRY!

Anyway, Alex surprised us all and got home about lunch time on Wednesday so we went into panic mode and packed up to head out to make it to the Cabin before it got dark!

After 51 stops with only an hour and a half drive we made it to the beautiful blue ridge mountains!

Mom did an amazing job finding us a cabin that was just the right size and had some amazing views!

This was the back porch that over looked the river :)

Tucker was so happy when we arrived (Milly too can’t ya tell?) and he had everyone all together… it makes the life of a guard dog who constantly stays “on duty” much easier when he has everyone all together!

FYI: My little man has also been promoted to “Dream catcher”. His mom has had some pretty crazy dreams while pregnant so we decided Tucker would be the perfect one to protect us at night from our bad dreams! Thanks TJ!

Oh and the best part! Their was snow on the ground the first two nights!

I was all bundled up and Alex was stripping down…. him and Billy took full advantage of the hot tub on the back deck!

Poor guys, apparently the first night it wouldn’t heat up all the way so they got in with it only being 85 degrees and with snow on the ground so obviously that was not cutting it- they froze! Mom, dad and I stuck to the puzzles inside and baking up some hot chocolate chip cookies for when they got out!

Tara arrived late that night and the next morning (Thanksgiving day) we ALL went out for an “adventure” to the grocery store to get “one more thing”…..

Well 2 hours, 2 grocery carts and 150$ later…. we were done!

On the good side we did get to compare Lola to the fruit/veggie she was currently measuring as of that week…. “a large head of cabbage”! she sure has come a long way since her blueberry days!

Last stop…. “Mr. Jerry’s” of course to get some of that there firewood! Gotta love a small town!

We’re back and ready to start a fire and cook up a feast!

The lady in charge!

Lola and I don’t do so well standing to cook anymore… Daddy, Lou and TJ stuck to what they were good at…. staying out of the way!

Aren’t they pretty doing so in the process though!

don’t let Mills fool you, she maybe walked away from the kitchen for an entire 30 seconds the whole weekend!

Bless her hungry little self…

I should add he was TERRIBLE at it. The boy doesn’t do well with triangles…. this may have been intentional so he could eat the dough. In all honest i guess i can’t say much…

I was in charge of deviled eggs and the plate on the right is the “rejects” plate… oops!

Smile if you’re ready to set the table and eat!!

Our last year not “needing” an extra place setting at the table for Lola… Lou came up behind me with a smaller plate and requested we still give Lola her own plate and spot at the table…. Ok then I will put her right next to me!We don’t blame you for not leaving the window TJ, it’s beautiful out there!Notice the first ones to the table… yes that is daddy’s arm- (that counts)… Men.

mom made sure to get our cute labels again this year! We like to use them to decipher what’s “legal and not legal” for Billy to eat! Tofurkey is ready! Time to eat!

We still aren’t sure why mom actually puts sweet potatoes in the sweet potato casserole…

Milly is ready and waiting!

We came, we ate, we conquered and it was soooo good!

Notice milly is not in the den “resting her belly” like everyone else that would mean that she actually had the ability to be full. She was ready and waiting for clean up duty!

That night we played card games until we passed out and had Oreo Milkshakes for dinner!

Mom and I were actually winning so Tara advised that i take a picture of the score board before the tables turned….

She was right… mom won… even though mom had no clue what she was doing… typical!

The next day was full of exploring at the cabin and a trip to an apple vinyard both inclusive of several pics of course!

Could Tucker be any closer?

Lola and her Gigi :)

We had Lola all bundled up!

Ok Lou took over the photo shoot, time to end it and head to the orchard!

Isn’t it beautiful….

While i snapped away Tara and the boys quickly began a rock skipping tournament…. Picture time!

Ok, ok we will maneuver inside!

Is this not the cutest owl for Lola… no one else agreed with me. Kid pic!

So a cabbage is what they “say” Lola weighs but i felt more like a bag of apples is equivalent to what i am carrying around!

Mildred…..

YUM.

We got to do a apple taste test and the winners were Fuji and Red Lady (i think) so we bought way too many bags and started into them before we even got into the car!

We had one last stop in civilization before heading back up the mountain.. WAL-MART of course… we were out of puzzles!

Score, we got more puzzles!

The next day we decided to explore downtown Blue Ridge which was absolutely adorable and so busy with a Christmas parade inclusive of Santa Clause!

The parade was about as long as Statesboro’s, Wohoo, now it’s time to shop!

Santa, next year you will have a 10 month old sitting in your lap!!

I scoped this place out before we got there and was more than pleased to find they had Praline fudge and cookie dough fudge! We got home and Tucker was a bit “wound up”.

He was EVEN more excited when he found a bone….. we have no idea what kind it was but he was so proud of himself!

Inspection over… TJ won the bone back!

Milly felt left out with all of TJ’s photo shoot but honestly when he gets hyper or excited she just tries to stay out of the way because he gets on her nerves when he gets wound up!

Since this was our last full day Tara decided we would do a family photo shoot for mom and she set up the most adorable setting in front of this home grown Christmas Tree we found!