{hallie}lujah: November 2011

Chugga Chugga Choo-Choo

The day after Thanksgiving, the whole family loaded up and headed to Blue Ridge, GA to ride the Scenic Railway. The girls loved the train ride, and I have to say...it was pretty neat. We were on Coach 549, built in 1938 by Budd Manufacturing. We grabbed a quick snack before boarding and visited the Snack Car once aboard. The girls had a blast walking from car to car. We rode from Blue Ridge, GA to McCaysville, GA/Copperhill, TN. We visited Santa, his village, and grabbed a bite at Nifty Fifties diner and walked around before boarding the train to return to Blue Ridge. Oh, and Jonathan and Hallie were in Georgia and Tennessee at the same time! :o) I'd say overall it was a neat experience.

The girls with their elves

Abby and Tatum

Hallie and Whitney

Hattie Grace and Jenna

There were also open-air cars...the girls *loved* watching the scenery fly by!

Heading to the Snack Car...notice Rudolph? :o)

Left Feet (your right)--in Tennessee

Right Feet (your left)--in Georgia

Sweet Home Alabama Thanksgiving

What a wonderful treat--Hallie and I flew into Birmingham *early* on the Saturday before Thanksgiving! We were very thankful to be spending some extra time with the family during our break. Jonathan joined us Wednesday morning. We had a lot of fun visiting and relaxing. Several days were dreary, but Thanksgiving day was beautiful! We enjoyed some delicious food (too much of it!), played outside, and then Jonathan and I went to see a movie with my brother and his wife while the little girls played with Nonna and Pop. After the movie, Jessica (my SIL) and I talked Jonathan into heading to Target to try to get some Black Friday deals. We thought they opened at 9:00...nope. Midnight. We weren't going to stand in line, so we went on to Wal-Mart. Talk about cray-zee! Oh. My. Word. Seriously...it was a madhouse. Even if we had found anything to buy, the check-out lines were so long...we'd have been 3 hours getting out of there! So we opted to just head home. I have never been Black Friday shopping...or "pre" Black Friday shopping. The experience (as short as it was) was quite interesting to say the least. Next year I just might join the crazies. :o)

The feast! Yummy! It was my intention to get a picture with all the guests. Alas, I failed.

Jessica and I tried snapping some pictures of the girls after lunch. I hope her pictures are better because this is what Hallie was doing in most of the ones I tried to take of her! Ha!

Cheesing for Aunt Jessica

Ah...she can smile for me. :o) Sweet girl!

Sweet Abby Brooke

Hattie Grace giving me a big smile.

Sweet girls

Love them!

iPhone Thanksgiving

Daddy & Hal ... Hallie on the plane

Hallie & "Trunki" ... Hallie at the outlets

Hallie & Nora ... Love my Steph!

Hallie was promised a pedicure when we got to Alabama...sweet HG couldn't get one because she's allergic to the lotions they use. We tried to get her to get a manicure--she had picked our her fingernail polish and everything and then wouldn't have it done.