Next we headed over to York for some lunch/dinner with people who are second parents to me. I practically lived at their house growing up. I contributed three pies and the stuffing, which is the best part of any holiday meal hands down. After leaving there we headed over to my brother's house for some family fun. The cousins played till midnight at which point we decided it was time to hit the road. Mindee, my brother's wife, had left early to go to some midnight black Friday sales. As we left their house I thought Toys R' Us is so close. We'll just stop in. Well the line wrapped the whole way around the outer perimeter of the parking lot and was at least 500 people in the pouring rain. I forgot that madness lickity split and headed for home.
Friday was spent hitting up black Friday sales and saving bu-coo bucks while Travis worked all day on a home improvement project which will be announced later but remains a mystery till I get the necessary photos. Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for zoo madness. We headed to DC to hit up the National Zoo. We left at 9:30 and got home at 5:00. It was super fun and the weather finally cooperated.
Vacation from school, yes, but the lazy kind of relaxing most people think of, no way, not for our family. Tonight I still have to make some cookies for my fabulous choir. Maybe tomorrow will hold the promise of doing nothing so that I will be supercharged for the new week.
Sick!
When you can't find fall leaves to rake because your backyard is devoid of all 
Which is just what we did. I love this place. I love the lack of distractions. 
And I love that it forces our family to do things together.
I remember when this shed was brought out to our house shortly before the boat arrived that was meant to fill it. I have a scar barely visible on the back of my left knee from the rooster who lived in the chicken house behind this shed.I remember when Travis and I burned down the chicken house two years ago and buried the remains with a backhoe. I remember raking endless piles of leaves, and swinging from the rope swing into them. I remember having to pick up the sticks throughout our yard after a wind storm because my parents always wanted our house and yard to look nice.
I remember Autumns so beautiful I wrote in my journal that this would be the thing I missed most when I went to college. I remember my mom taking my brother out to the MTC and his two high school buddies watching my sister, two brothers, and I for a week. I remember the buddy, AJ, left his car parked on the hill and it rolled down the hill, crashed through the fence and fell into the creek. I remember skipping school that week and going to the batting cages to play ball, and my little brother, James, getting a spider bite on his lip that made it swell to four times its normal size. 
