A Thanksgiving to Remember

What a wonderful Thanksgiving week we had.  It all started with a late night phone call from Bobby on Thursday night inviting us to spend the week with he and Lanie, and his family at Nag's Head.  Though Maddie had a Birthday Party Friday night and we planned to go to a UNC football game Saturday afternoon, we decided to go for it.  We love Bobby and Lanie, and Bobby's extended family. We also knew it would be a spiritually refreshing time.  So we woke up at 5am Saturday morning, packed up, and headed to Chapel Hill for some football.  After one half the kids were ready to go, so we got into the car and drove toward the Outer Banks.

The first few days at Nag's Head were spent with Bobby and Lanie.  We climbed and rolled down Jockey's Ridge's dunes, celebrated Madeline's birthday, ran, and relaxed together.  We had really special times in the evenings playing games and talking about the Lord.  And two days in a row, Lanie and I got to go out together.  One day we stopped at a coffee house with our Bibles and shared what the Lord was teaching us.  It was so awesome to be spurred on this way.  And of course, we enjoyed a bit of shopping.  

Tuesday evening Bobby's sister, husband, 3 nephews, 1 niece, and mom arrived.  It was just like being with our own family.  Madeline and Ryan loved their time with Jake, Ali, Ethan and Ben. And they got used to Rauel (that's what they call their Grandma Linda, Bobby's mom) scooping them up and kissing them all over.  All four Joynt children were a joy to be around and quickly added Ryan and Maddie to their "circle".  Madeline especially loved nine year old Ali.  She woke up in the morning excited to see Ali and play with her.  So wonderful!

Thursday morning, after Matt and I did our own 6 mile Turkey Trot, we headed to Sanford to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's dad.  It was a lovely time, although we had a major interruption just as Matt was going for seconds.  He heard Ry in the bathroom and went to investigate.  When I heard the "Lauren" from the bathroom, I knew something was wrong. When Matt arrived in the bathroom, Ry said to Matt, "I poo poo four".  Indeed he did. . .a trail from the floor all the way to the sides of the toilet.  The poor guy had diarrhea and did not make it to the potty in time.  Even worse, Grandpa Wells and Grandma Pat have carpet around their toilet.  Instead of enjoying a second helping of a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, we ended up scrubbing the bathroom and bathing Ryan.  So. . .this will be a Thanksgiving we will never forget.  Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa were very forgiving.  As we were driving home, I realized that the diarrhea was probably my fault.  At the beach, Food Lion had a sale on high fiber oatmeal.  I purchased it and from Thursday morning to afternoon, Ryan had three packets of the this oatmeal (I was running low on food since it was the end of the week, but did not want to make another trip to the grocery store since we were about to leave).  Then he had apple juice before dinner and apple juice with dinner.  I'm pretty sure this was the reason for his diarrhea.  A lesson well learned for Mommy!

And this morning, I was at JCPenny at 4am, Sears at 5am, Target at 6am, and the Christian Bookstore at 7am.  It was SO fun and I am finished with all my Christmas shopping.  Right now it feels like 5pm, but that's okay!