The Big BeVard Thanksgiving Blog...

Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one...

The Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, Brett and I packed up what seemed like everything we own and headed up to Tunkhannock, PA for the annual BeVard Thanksgiving celebration.

We were nervous for the five hour drive with two babies, but the kids impressed us and made it the entire way without stopping. Brett was riding shot gun and helped the ride by entertaining Peter and feeding both kids when they needed to eat.


When we finally arrived at the Kelly house, we settled in ordered pizza and relaxed with the Kellys before heading to bed.

The next morning Peter and Aaron woke up earlier than usual, but did both sleep through the night despite the new environment.

After breakfast Brett and I played with the kids and just hung out at the Kelly house trying to get Peter adapted before the rest of the my relatives arrived.

When the Kelly kids got home from their half day of school we took a walk down the street to Aunt Marilyn's house...



Just as we were arriving at Aunt Marilyn's house, Aunt Krennie and Jack pulled up and Peter and Erin were very excited...



That evening was when most of the BeVards show up and have dinner at Marilyn's house before crashing on couches, floors, guest rooms, and a whole lot of hotel rooms for the Thanksgiving festivities the next day.

Unfortunately, Peter was pretty overwhelmed by my crazy family so Brett and I took the boys back to the empty Kelly house for baths and bedtime.

Afterward, when the kids were down for the night, we played cards until bedtime.

The next morning, the Kelly house was buzzing as our biggest Thanksgiving to date (we had 44 people!) started getting ready for the big holiday. Yet again, Peter was overwhelmed so I took him to Aunt Marilyn's house to get away from all the noise (read - BeVards).

We hung out with Aunt Krennie, Jack, Stephanie, and Ruthie, and Peter talked on the phone with Marilyn...



Eventually, Brett came over to Marilyn's to switch with me so he could watch Peter and I could hang out with my family.

Back at the Kelly house, the annual gingerbread house was being built, and to give it a very realistic touch they posted a sign in front of this year's home to show the current economic state of the country:


Sadly, when Brett brought Peter back to the Kelly house he was just too tired and too cranky to sit through Thanksgiving dinner, so I decided to take him for a drive in hopes that he would take a nap.

Being a big fan of the NBC show The Office, I decided that I would drive the 30 minutes to Scranton and see if I could see some of the sites from the opening credits for the show.

Unfortunately, the Welcome to Scranton sign has since been taken down, but I did see the church (which is actually a municipal building), and I drove through the campus of the University of Scranton before heading back to Tunkhannock.

Peter and I got back to the Kelly house just in time for the big family picture!



Soon after, most of the family packed into cars for the last Thanksgiving day tradition - heading into town to see a movie at the local theater.

Our crew stayed home to get the kids fed, let Peter play with Aunt Ruthie, and put them to bed. Afterward Brett and I stayed up hanging out with family the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we woke up and headed over to Aunt Marilyn's for the post-Thanksgiving brunch. Where Katelyn had some Aaron bonding time:


And Peter tried to drink my coffee:


During the post-Thanksgiving brunch Peter was a little overwhelmed (again) so Brett and I took turns playing with him in the basement and outside.

We learned that he loved jumping on the trampoline...



As guests started leaving to go home, the remaining BeVards sang to them in classic BeVard tradition (I didn't get them all on video, but I got a few)...









After everyone left we stuck around and played games with the kids the rest of the day, including a lot of Wii Fit and Erin did some boxing:



Without as many people around Peter calmed down a little, and even took a few cat naps on my lap.

The whole day was pretty much relaxing and eating left overs at Marilyn's house until we headed back to Shellie's for bath and bedtime.

The next morning, we packed the kids up and headed back home.

Even though the trip was very stressful and sometimes I felt like I just wanted to go home and get back to the kids normal schedule so they would relax, it was still a great trip and I loved seeing all my relatives.