The Knight Family: Tour of the Midwest

Every year it is a tough decision to try to figure out what to do for the holiday's. I am sure every family struggles to make plans for the holiday's. This year we decided to make one flight, one long drive and see everyone we could see over Thanksgiving. We feel good about our decision and are thankful for all of the quality time. We flew into St. Louis and drove to Grandma and Grandpa Knights where we had a nice relaxing time with grandma , grandpa, Uncle tony, Aunt Christy, Carter, Uncle Steve, and Great Grandma and Pa Knight. The guys went hunting for a majority of the time and the ladies spent time with the little guys. Tyler enjoyed playing outside on the bika bike...or scooter. He was sick for part of the visit, but that did not stop him from having a good time with his cousin Carter.
After a great visit at the Knight's we piled into a loaded conversion van, thanks to one of Grandma and Grandpa's friends and drove to pick up Grandma Aten on our way to Indianapolis. It was short, but it was great to see her. Then, we met up with Aunt Lindsay, Breana and Laney for the next leg of the trip. Lindsay took us to Fort Wayne where we stayed for the night. The next mornign we drove to Michigan to visit Grandma and Grandpa Olson, Lucus, Lindsay, Breana, Delaney and Great Grandma and Grandpa Jackson. We spent about a week there relaxing, visiting with people and eating good food. We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Grandma Olson. A highlight was when Wyatt, their dog ate half of the jello salad that mom spent half the day making. We couldn't help but laugh. There was no dull moment with all the kids there. We did some black Friday shopping and had a girls afternoon going to lunch and seeing a chick flick. It was a blessed time.
We were ready to get back to LA and hit the ground running though. Overall the trip was refreshing and fun! Tyler was a trooper on the way home. Our plane left an hour late (8:30pm) and he was awake 3/4 of the flight. He fell asleep right before the decent into LA and did not wake up until 2:30 LA time. We noticed he was cold. It was freezing in our apartment when we got back and I realized that we had his bed in front of the heater, so he slept with us the rest of the night. For those of you who don't think it is ever cold in LA...it was about 40 degrees. We rearranged his room in the morning. He was tired and took a 3 1/2 hour nap in the after noon and slept almost 12 hours straight that night. Thanks to everyone for hosting us! It was a special time.
Now, we are getting ready for the Christmas season and other adventures in LA... decorating, planning Dave's 30th birthday, shopping, organizing, planning for our little girl, taxes and more. The fun begins:)

Great Grandpa Knight, Uncle Steve, Great Grandma Knight, Grandpa and Ty

The Speck's (Dave's sister Christy's family)

He can still do it:)

Climbing Grandpa Knight's tree stand

We could not keep Ty away from this scooter or in his words Bika bike.

Tyler in his deer stand with Grandma and Cousin Carter. He loved climbing up and looking for deer while daddy, grandpa and uncle Tony were hunting.

Grandpa brought home a big one. I think it was an 8 point. He and Uncle Tony also got a doe.

Tyler had fun with Cousin Carter playing with all of Grandma's toys. Here they are in the field with Aunt Christy playing with bubbles and balls.

Tyler got to meet Dylan. He is Dave's cousins son. Not sure if that makes him a second cousin or not:)

One thing Tyler always looks forward to at Grandpa and Grandma Olson's is Y-Y or Wyatt the dog. This time Grandma and Grandpa taught him to ride on Wyatt's back like a horse. It was fun to watch him play with the dog. Wyatt loved it too.