Thanksgiving 2013

We had a somewhat relaxing and fun Thanksgiving in Chicago with the Bates family.  Scott and Gabe picked me up from work at 4 on Tuesday and we hit the road.  We made our traditional Springfield Steak 'n Shake stop.  Gabriel had fun rolling around in his high chair and being cute.

On Wednesday morning, Gabriel's cousins couldn't stay away.  We were up early(4:30am) and ready to play with all the new-to-Gabriel toys.  

We ended up going to the mall to walk around and get Gabe to take a nap.  Gabe slept for an hour and half in the baby Bjorn while we were there.

 

On Thanksgiving, Scott, Kevin, Jeni and Austin ran in the North Shore Turkey Trot.  It was freezing outside, in the teens.  Way too cold for Gabriel and I to cheer from the sidelines.  Instead, we napped and watched a lot of football. 

Not a great Gabe picture but you can see his shirt

 

Gabe is close to walking and decided that doing at least 100 laps around Jeni's house is the best was to practice.  He was also working on going up and down stairs.  Going down was done mostly on his belly and sliding head first. 

On Friday we had planned on going up to Madison and touring the state capital, however, I woke up with a headache and it was a bit of a late start.   So, Scott and I went to look at new washers and dryers, very exciting. 

 

 

We did take advantage of having lots of people willing to watch Gabe, and we went out to dinner at Longitude 315.  It was a Peruvian, Brazilian, and Argentinian restaurant.  When we say down and looked at the menu I was nervous.  There was a lot of new and strange sounding foods.  But I ended up getting lamb chops and then sampling everything on Scott's plate.  It was all so delicious and I was happy I tried all new things.  

We headed home on Saturday, after a testdrive (or picture in) Kevin's Maserati. 

Gabe is completely exhausted from playing with new toys, running around the house and all the people he had to keep eyes on and watch for 4 days. 

It was a great Thanksgiving and now we have a day to relax before our routine starts again.