Thanksgiving Road Trip

The family loaded up the Odyssey and took another long Thanksgiving break to Ohio. We stopped in Chicago to have an early Thanksgiving dinner with Uncle Tony, Aunt Lisa, and Cousin Max. It's always nice to have an overnight family stop halfway to our destination in Ohio. Stopping at the Sindt's is almost perfectly half way between Minneapolis and Dayton.

The overnight stop included a thrilling victory by The (undefeated) Ohio State Buckeyes over those pesky, smelly Badgers. Thankfully the Buckeyes pulled it out, otherwise the six hour drive to Ohio would not have been pleasant for me or the rest of the passengers. I tend to be a bit grumpy after the Buckeyes lose. I'm working through it.

The week with Ong Noi and Ba Noi in Ohio was filled with fantastic home cooked Vietnamese meals, as always. The boys requested Pho several times during our stay. Banh Cuon is also a must whenever we're home.

When we're at my parents for Thanksgiving, we don't typically go with the traditional turkey dinner. Instead, we opt for lobster and ribs. Lobster because the Pilgrims probably had access to lots of it when they landed in New England. And ribs because...well, we just love my mom's lemongrass ribs.

The boys love laughing and rough housing with Ong Noi. Ba Noi enjoys escorting the boys to any of the local parks for them to jump, climb, and run off all their energy. We got a chance to visit with the Bethels, which is always a nice treat for the kids. A playdate with the Bethels is usually "catered" by Marion's Piazza and some desserts from Ele Cake Company.

Speaking of Ele Cake Company, did you know that founder/owner Becky Lewis is also a photographer? It's true. A damn good one at that. We scheduled a photo shoot with her and here is a sampling of some of the pictures. She did a great job wrangling the boys together and making them look great. Interested in your own family photo shoot? Head over to Becky Nels Lewis Photography for the deets.

The tail of our Thanksgiving trip ended with The Game. The day of the year that makes my blood boil like no other. This year's tilt matched the aforementioned undefeated Buckeyes against That Team Up North. We made the trip to Columbus and spent the night with our good friends, the Mysers and their boys. Kim and I didn't have tickets to the game, but we were fine just soaking up the atmosphere and watching with Neil and Chris at the Buffalo Wild Wings on campus.

As you might imagine, there was a lot of energy and buzz throughout the campus area as game time approached. After a mini-pub crawl from the Beer Stube to Eddie's to Out 'R Inn, we settled in at Buffalo Wild Wings. The place was juiced! It was a great atmosphere to watch the game and celebrate a 26-21 victory over the scUM bags.

We were departing Columbus and heading half way to Chicago that evening, so a victory was again paramount to Daddy being in a good mood for the return trip. On this weekend for giving thanks, we're again thankful for another Buckeye victory to cap off an historic undefeated season.

All told, we traveled about 1900+ miles for the week. We're also thankful for so many other blessings in our lives. Great family. Great friends. Our health. We're blessed and lucky for so many things in our lives.