Thanksgiving Trip

So sorry I've been absent from the blogging world for so long. Don't worry... I'm all better now. I was sick for about 2 weeks total, it sucked and I missed the prettiest, warmest days of fall so that was sad for me too!

For Thanksgiving we went to Knoxville, Tennessee to spend a couple days with Paul's family. His aunt Leilani and uncle CJ live there with there 2 remaining kids at home Maraea and Eric. And his uncle Tino and aunt Kim and their 3 kids, Maddy, Molly and Morgan, came down from Michigan. We're happy to be in the East coast Ramos family club!
Wednesday
We drove down Wednesday after work (they let me go early but still didn't leave till 2:30) and drove straight there (10.5 hours... ugh!) and got there at about 2 Eastern time. Our journey took us through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and into Tennessee. Highlight of the trip... MOUNTAINS!!! Couldn't really see them.. saw the outline and the windy road. But hooray for MOUNTAINS... didn't realize how much I missed them. Second highlight: gas for $1.47/gallon
Thursday
Paul woke up bright and early to go play in the Turkey Bowl (he was kinda scared that he was going to be playing with a bunch of big black guys like Uncle CJ, but he was ok don't worry although he is still hobbling around like an old man cuz he's "sooooo sore"). I slept in. Then we just ate a lot, played a lot of Rock Band. We started a band called The Mad Turtles (named in part by 6 year olds cousin Maddy) Paul amazed them all with his Expert guitar playing AND being amazing on the drums too. I apparently have no rhythm, still suck on the guitar, but I can sing along with the words like a champion! Therefore I was the designated singer.

-me, my angry hubby Paul, Eric and Maraea-
Friday
More Rock Band. Shopping at Target: got lots of DVD's: Office Season 1 and 2, Cars, Finding Nemo, Kung Foo Panda, 101 Dalmations... think thats all. Then we spent several hours introducing/converting Uncle Tino to the Office (LOVE IT).
Saturday
Drove back home... this time we actually saw some scenery! The mountains in Kentucky were really pretty, although it was strange for me to see mountains covered with deciduous trees instead of evergreens. So they were all smokey gray looking with a few orangey trees here and there. Kentucky was cool with all the horse ranches(?)/farms(?)... just huge pastures with horses and HUGE houses with them. Indiana... flat, made Iowa look hilly. And Illinois was just dark.

Sick!

Hey Everybody, This is actually Paul; I know you've all been just craving a blog from me, so here I am. Just Kidding. Actually, Natalie has been really sick the past few days and while I've tried my best to take care of her, I've really only learned that I'm exceptionally good at getting her to fall asleep on the couch. This of course has left me a lot of time to both discover, and do, everything there is to discover and do in our humble little house... twice. Until now, I am pioneering new territory by trying something I never considered... BLOGGING!

So, I've decided to share with you our joy and excitement this halloween season. It all began when we got our dates mixed up early this week and we thought halloween was coming on Saturday. And so, you could imagine my concern when on thursday I heard what distinctly sounded like trick-or-treaters over at the neighbors house. I took a little peak through the blinds and saw kids in costumes with their parents... and sacks of candy, and I thought to myself, "what kind of two days before halloween activity is going on here?" So as they approached my door I did what came naturally, "I made sure the tv wasn't making any noise and I ran and hid in the bedroom. After all, I remember being a kid; I wasn't about to be that mean old pickle-juice drinker who opened the door and said, "Sorry kids, I don't have any candy..." or as they would interpret it, "I hate halloween, and I hate candy, and I hate sunlight and happiness." So I waited and waited and it turned out that they skipped our house... probably because the light wasn't on... dodged that bullet!

That of course doesn't solve the mystery of what were they doing out two days early? I didn't find out until the next morning that halloween was actually friday, and also that the city of Davenport, Iowa decided to change the laws of nature and make everyone trick or treat a day early so that everyone could attend a city parade on the real halloween. Weird huh? Either way, we missed it all, and so halloween didn't come this year for us... hopefully we'll be a little more attentive of these types of things come Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nobody warned us when we got married that we needed to make sure not to skip any major holidays... good thing we don't have kids yet or we'd be in some big trouble!