Belated Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh

Rather than traveling over the notoriously busy Thanksgiving weekend, Ken's side of the family agreed to meet in Pittsburgh the first weekend in December. We left, by car, on Friday, and the kids were absolutely terrific in the car. We didn't have a single melt down despite the 6-and-a-half-hour trip. (We ran into rush hour traffic around 4:00 as we entered the city.) We stopped first at Karlye and Mike's house where we were introduced to Nintendo Wii, which is completely addictive. The kids played with Sam as though they see him on a regular basis, and they all had fun petting (I mean, tormenting) Polly the cat and "playing" the drums in the basement. We didn't have long at Karlye and Mike's as we needed to head back to our hotel to bathe B&L and put them to bed, at which time Ken and I went to bed, too!

On Saturday we had the pleasure of spending two hours at the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh with Ken's good friend from high school, Doug Nury, and his adorable four-year-old daughter, Kate. While Philadelphia has a beautiful children's museum, I credit the Pittsburgh museum with doing a better job of appealing to a broader age span. The water play, for example, includes a series of fountains to which pipes can be added and added so that the flow of the water is directed through a different course each time you visit. But you can get really, really wet on this floor, and to this end, they provide a wall of dryers.

Doug's wife, Beth, and their younger son, Will, joined us for lunch, and then we headed back to the hotel for naps. Between staying at a hotel and needing to leave early to provide either naps or baths and an early bedtime, our time at Karlye and Mike's house was much more limited than I had anticipated before the trip. We got to their house later than we had planned, but just in time for a delicious Thanksgiving meal with Great Nana and Uncle Tim.


After dinner, Sam, Bryn and Luke resumed their torture of Polly, tackled Ken, , said goodbye to Great Nana,and played more drums.
The time together felt really short -- I didn't really have a chance to catch up with Kristin and Paul, but it was great having everyone together in one place, even if for a short time.

We made it home in record time -- just over five hours, and that included a stop to pick out our Christmas tree. As an aside, we are always getting our tree from this same place -- the parking lot of a shopping center near Ken's office where we paid $40 instead of $75 in our own neighborhood. Bryn picked out the tree, and at 8 1/2 feet tall, it nearly touches the ceiling in our living room.