Thanksgiving, and sooo many videos

For the Thanksgiving weekend, we headed up to VA to be with my side of the fam. Friends John and Carrie jumped in our car at the last minute and came with us!! They visited with their family in D.C. while we were with ours, and then we re-grouped to travel back together. Although leg room was non-existent during the 12 hours spent in the car, we had so much fun with John and Carrie during our trip. I was especially happy to have Carrie with me in the McDonald's bathroom when Carson's diaper explosion led to a squirmy, naked baby jumping around while we tried to clean up the situation, screaming and laughing all the way.

Carrie and John stayed at my parents' house the first night, and then we took them into D.C. to see the sites for a bit before parting ways. It was SO cold. This is how Carson looked that day:

Our traveling buddies:

John has a special talent of taking self-portraits, perfectly centering even a group of 4! Maybe he has an extra long left arm?

The Museum of American History had just re-opened, so we checked it out. Our favorite was the exhibit on transportation throughout the years. Rick and Carson with a old-school school bus:
Carson's favorite part was an exhibit where you got to open little cabinet-like doors to see different thing. I kept trying to walk away from it, and he would try to jump out of my arms to keep opening those cabinets.

Family photo with the white house.
Rick says I look like a model in this picture. Thank you, thank you.
After D.C., we got to focus on Thanksgiving!! But first, poor Rick had to work for his turkey dinner.
The delicious feast!

So, I was going to edit tons of videos of Carson and put them all together for one really great video. Sorry folks, I've got more important things to do, like decorate our 3-foot tall Christmas tree. So here are way too many videos that are way too long. If you have a spare half hour, go for it!

Some of Carson's first steps. For a couple of weeks now he's walked when encouraged, but just in the last day or two he has actually chosen to walk on his own. It still cracks me up every time I peek in to check on him playing, and he's just standing there or walking from one place to another.


At first, Carson was deathly afraid of this rocking horse. As you can see, now he's figured out what it's for:

Even to the point that he loves his little horse:

For some reason, I find this new trick even more fascinating than first words, walking, and Carson's other new skill of flexing his muscles. He focuses so intently on some little task, like putting these marbles in the jar, or putting his little toy animals in their barn and shutting the door behind them. It is so fun to watch him figure these things out!