Thanksgiving in North Carolina

Marie drove to our place from NJ and spent the night then we headed to New Bern the next day.  We actually got away late and between dueling GPS and Marie's map we added an extra hour AT LEAST to the drive.  Arrived late Wednesday night and Tom & I got up bright and early to go do a turkey burner 5 K. 

 Tom took first in his age category and won this awesome little orange lunch box.  Wow!

 Karen had to work Thanksgiving day so decided to celebrate on Friday instead.  We sat around and had a wonderful crockpot lasagna she'd made us, talked, went for a walk to see some horses, read, and just relaxed.  It was HEAVENLY!

 Oh yeah, and the siblings made mincemeat chocolate chip cookies.  Their favorite!

 We did a few things ahead of time like make pies and such but most of the hard core cooking was saved for the next day.

 I had promised the horses we'd come back with apples so Nic did the honors.....

                                                               Tom's horsie/selfie

 Beautiful and yummy dinner then football and more relaxing!

 Saturday we went to take a look at their boat in the dock then headed into town to do a little site seeing and shopping.  Love that place!

 Some of us did more shopping than others.  Or just lifted a store's display.

                                                           Doggy bakery.  Seriously.

 Also saw a lot of this going on.....Karen's over on that other couch....you just can't see her.

 Got Marie set up on Facebook then headed out the next morning.

                                                                Cowan Kids

 Had to stop and show Nic some cotton crops along the way....

Peek A Boo

Sometimes some hardcore Peek A Boo and piano playing can just get exhausting.

Museum of Natural and American History

 It's been nice to have this time with Nicholas.  He's not a big talker so we compensate by just spending time together.  Nights we hang out and watch ballgames, Shark Tank or Modern Family.  And about every couple of days we'll go on a little adventure.  He loves history so hitting the freebie Smithsonian museums is perfect.  This time it was the American History Museum then we stopped at the Natural History museum as well.

 Apparently Nic had his fair share of this to flavor his food so it was funny when we saw it in a display.

 Still want to drive Route 66 some day.

 Found boxes full of these kits in Tom's mom's house when we cleaned it out so weird to see it here behind glass.

Nic, just hanging with some friends.

A Whole Bunch of Stuff

My small group from church went to help with serving dinner at Ebeneezers for the homeless community one night.  We all brought something (we had cooked and baked during our small group meeting) then served them and enjoyed a message and some conversation.  Nic and Tom came too.

 One night while Tom was at HIS small group Nic and I went to see Interstellar at the Air and Space Museum on the IMAX screen.  Not really my kind of film but it was cool to see it on that screen.

Kristen had our tri group over to her place for lunch and to watch the Ironman finals. Yummy vegetarian chili and goodies and hanging out with good friends.

 Very fuzzy photos.....

 We rode the express bus over to National Harbor one night to have dinner with Jeff and Marilyn Smith.  We opted for Mexican and it was yummy.  I was stupid and forgot to get a photo of them!  The tree had just been put up and it changes colors.  Of course they have the red, white and blue variety.

Cute Kristen invited me, Alexis and Michele over for Sunday Brunch but Michele bugged out at the last minute.  The three of us had a lovely time anyway.  Her little studio apartment is so darling I just had to snap photos to show what you can do in a tiny space.  Thank goodness for Ikea!

 Of course, Alexis brought cupcakes and Kristen got her very own gluten free version.

 Gonna miss these lovely and awesome girls.