Last week Wednesday, Sarah and I drove to Blacksbug, VA to be with the Gardner side of our family for Thanksgiving. After picking up Elizabeth in DC, we plowed through the Thanksgiving Eve Traffic better than expected.
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Our trip included listening to Josh Schicker and Brian Reagan, which made for an amusing and relaxing drive. I was reminded again at how grateful I am for our Garmin GPS device. When I purchased it used on Craigslist last year, I had no idea how much time, headaches, and relational tensions it would save. Driving to a new destination is much less stressful than it was before. How did those pioneers do it?!?
The Gardner family does Thanksgiving right: tons of home made food passed down from generations (including a roll recipe that is from dad's grandmother. I learned this weekend that the batch they make every year is 1/3 of the regular recipe...except for the butter--we eat triple what the recipe calls for!). Like years previous, Thanksgiving Day was filled with cooking and consuming vast amount of food. We collapsed and watched the highly entertaining Kung-Fu Panda movie on their new HDTV/Blu-Ray system (and yes, I got drool all over the couch).
Saturday, we implimented Elizabeth's idea to have a family Clue night. So, we dressed up as various characters, found the murder weapons--including a real revolver, watched the movie, and played the board game. A very memorable evening! Check out the incredible costumes and props:
Showing posts with label Gardners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardners. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6
Thursday, August 7
Seattle with the Gardners
While it may have been a week ago already, I wanted to share a few things about our week in Seattle with my new family! We arrived late, late (or is that early, early?) into Seattle on a Greyhound bus at 1:20AM PST. True to form, Dad Gardner volunteered to pick us up--even though it was 4:20AM according to his body clock. We all stayed in a room at the Holiday Inn. Ironically, the Holiday Inn Express next door offered a pool and hot tub, which were both unavailable to us. Elitists.
Sarah and I had a blast with our family. Mom Gardner had the foresight to purchase Go Seattle passes, which include admission to over 30 of the most popular attractions and museums in the Seattle area. Each day, Elizabeth crunched the numbers in a cost analysis that eventually determined that we broke even by the end of the week.
Some of our highlights were the Seafarers parade, Pike's Market, the original Starbucks, Boeing plant (including the largest building in the world measured by volume), Microsoft, Mount Rainier, the Seattle Monorail, Underground Seattle, Deception Pass, Riding the Ducks, visiting the Experience Music Project, and eating at a TON of delicious restaurants! Here are a few pictures, but you can see all our pictures here.
Enjoying candy from the parade
Us with the Pugent Sound behind.
A picture at Deception Pass.
A view of Seattle from our Ride the Ducks boat.
After a mini snowball fight on Mount Rainier.
This was my first time vacationing with the Gardners, but Sarah was rather surprised that we did so much! Since Elizabeth, Hannah, and parents had been working hard closing up their life in New Castle, PA as they moved to Blackburg, VA, she had forecasted a slow, laid-back week. Instead, they were up and at 'em! While we did spend time catching up on sleep, we explored a great deal of Seattle!
That week put a resounding exclamation point on our July trip to the pacific northwest. What a vacation!
Sarah and I had a blast with our family. Mom Gardner had the foresight to purchase Go Seattle passes, which include admission to over 30 of the most popular attractions and museums in the Seattle area. Each day, Elizabeth crunched the numbers in a cost analysis that eventually determined that we broke even by the end of the week.
Some of our highlights were the Seafarers parade, Pike's Market, the original Starbucks, Boeing plant (including the largest building in the world measured by volume), Microsoft, Mount Rainier, the Seattle Monorail, Underground Seattle, Deception Pass, Riding the Ducks, visiting the Experience Music Project, and eating at a TON of delicious restaurants! Here are a few pictures, but you can see all our pictures here.
Enjoying candy from the parade
Us with the Pugent Sound behind.
A picture at Deception Pass.
A view of Seattle from our Ride the Ducks boat.
After a mini snowball fight on Mount Rainier.
This was my first time vacationing with the Gardners, but Sarah was rather surprised that we did so much! Since Elizabeth, Hannah, and parents had been working hard closing up their life in New Castle, PA as they moved to Blackburg, VA, she had forecasted a slow, laid-back week. Instead, they were up and at 'em! While we did spend time catching up on sleep, we explored a great deal of Seattle!
That week put a resounding exclamation point on our July trip to the pacific northwest. What a vacation!
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