Last week we headed down to Effingham, Illinois (about 2 hours SE of Bloomington) to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's extended family, the Rothe clan. Matt's parents; sisters and families; and aunt, uncle, and cousin all converged on a hotel for about 48 hours, but we all spent much of our time, including Thanksgiving dinner, in Altamont with the "matriarch" of the family, Great-grandma Rothe.The trip was an overall adventure for all, and despite the tiredness we all felt at the end, it was definitely worth the opportunity to see everyone.
The siblings of Matt's generation (and thus the cousins of Anna's generation) were all within about six doors of each other at the hotel, so we swapped out kids at various times. Here is Seth, age 2 1/2, describing to Anna what he sees in the parking lot outside our window.Besides getting to catch up with all of the families, we also learned what happens when Anna gets terribly overtired and overstimulated ... not something we want to have happen too often in the future :) She was completely wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel on Thursday afternoon for her nap, so tired in fact that she went into overdrive.
The crazy child was acting like a maniac running and crawling around in her pack and play, cackling and laughing hysterically the whole time. We finally decided to try and wear her out, then take a car ride so she'd at least get a little sleep for a nap on Thursday. These pictures are of Matt's attempts to make Anna tired.
She kept crawling frantically towards the top of the headboard, then Matt would grab her legs and pull her back down so she'd literally fly a few feet backwards. Anyway, the plan to get her to nap worked in the end, but because of her lack of sleep, it was no suprise to us when Anna came down with a pretty nasty cold Saturday night.Overall, we had plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, including a wonderful family, safe travelling, happy memories and good food :)
