Thankful

Well, bloggers, the Famous Amys traveling band pulled into Asheville at 5.30 this morning, and the rest of the day was spent attempting to regain normalcy in our house. Because, as some of you may remember, my OCD usually kicks into hyper-drive after vacations. And now that the fridge is stocked, clothes are clean and bags are empty, I’m able to reflect on what a wonderful trip we had up to the farm.

Let’s just start with the drive. The 1080 mile drive. Of the 36 total hours we spent in the car, Taylor slept at least 32 of them. That’s right, she was AMAZING. A+. And for those of you who know Chris’s unreasonable grading scale, that is about as good as striking gold. And, seeing that I only drove about six hours of the trip, I must give major props to Chris for being an absolute rock star behind the wheel. A++ with three gold stars. I also must give a shout-out to Starbucks Espresso Double Shots for fueling us. Or, as we called it, the crack. A caffeine drink so potent it allowed us to drive through the night Tuesday and wake up my parents Wednesday at dawn.

And because we got there so early, we were able to sleep off our driving hangovers and be fully rested for the Thanksgiving feast. Nothing beats my Mom’s turkey dinner, and it was wonderful to have my entire family around one table. My parents, of course, devoured Taylor the entire trip, and my little girl was pretty smitten with her Uncle Will. And between the three of them and my sister and Dirk constantly prodding her for smiles and giggles, today has been a total let down for the Taylor-tot. Hey, where are all those people that do nothing else but play with me?

Not only did Taylor cut her second tooth at the farm, but she also became a speed crawler. Up until we got to Iowa she had only creeped and crawled a few times, but by the time we left the farm she was practically doing hot laps on my parents’ carpet. We were constantly focused on her whizzing from table to chair to couch back to table, pulling herself up on everything and then having the occasional crash-and-burn. And now I understand why some people put their kids on leashes.

The weather for the first few days was fantastic, and because I had plenty of help with my babe, I was able to take long walks around the farm with Chris and Ruby. Ruby’s knee held up great, and she was in heaven running through the fields and pastures. It was like a kid being grounded for three months and having their first time out be at Disney World. She, Chris and Will even went hunting and killed a rooster, which made Chris a little less sad to miss deer season up in Wisconsin. The Fat Tire helped too.

Friday night was the infamous blogger party at the Whitmer mansion. It was great to catch up with long-standing friends and meet their lovely children, most of which I felt like I already knew from their blogs. My parents snatched up Taylor and I proceeded to gossip, drink too much wine with my sister and then meet up with my old friend Gina at the bar. And, Gina, if you’re reading this: Start blogging. I need to keep tabs on you, my dear, and this isn’t that hard to maintain. No excuses.

And, as if my hometown friend-tank couldn’t get any fuller, Saturday night my nearest and dearest MacKinzie stopped by to meet Taylor and remind me why we’re soul sisters.

And because we had a heck of a drive anyway, we decided to stop in Iowa City for lunch on our way back south. We made a nostalgic loop through the downtown, ate at the Hamburg Inn and then showed Taylor the porch swing that her parents fell in love on.

It was a wonderful trip on every level, reminding me of everything I have to be thankful for.