Second half of November

College Game Day in Eugene!

Tracy was not able to take Cole to Game Day like they did last year so Mom geared up for the crack of dawn outing.

Cole and I came up with a gimmick to hopefully get him on TV.  Meet Kirk Herbstreit Mini-Me!  For those of you who do not know Kirk, he is one of the ESPN Game Day personalities.

Cole and I got a front barrier spot and thought it was a good one. That would be a yes and no on the good spot.  The cameras didn't really pan our way so no one saw us on TV.

However Cole got plenty of attention as some college guys took a real liking to Cole and made sure the cameras came over and got close ups of Cole and his Mini-Me sign.  But no one at home saw those TV moments either.

WE DID TOO MAKE TV!  Really people, I don't know how you missed us?!

Cole was even interviewed by Erin Andrews (the woman in white above), but again it didn't make it onto the TV nor the internet.

Over all it was a great time!  Cold and wet but lots of energy and fun.  We will have to come up with a new gimmick for next year no matter who takes him.

After a shower and a hot meal Cole got a phone call from Martha & Tracy offering to give him their football tickets. (THANK YOU Martha & Tracy)

 

Oma and Cole had a blast at the game and this time Cole was shown on the Jumbotron during the game! (the huge TV where fans watch replays and such)

I think he had a FULL FUN day!  I know Oma and I did.

Love

Xena splits her sleeping time between Jo and Doug. (Doug sleeps with Cole every night)

Thanksgiving

We thought we could miss the holiday traffic by leaving at 2pm the day before Thanksgiving.  No such luck.  About 15 miles out of town the traffic was stopped!  What should have taken us 45 minutes took us an hour and a half.  I told Jill to use her GPS or the map and get us off the freeway and moving North again.

So a turn here and a turn there and we are moving North West, traffic light and then no traffic at all.  Oh joy!  I mean...Oh boy!  A sign: "Road Closed Due to High Water".  What?  Turning the next corner and there was a locked gate across the road.  NO WONDER there was no traffic.

A little back tracking and then another road leading us NW, traffic light and then no traffic at all. A sign: "Ferry Closed Thanksgiving & Christmas".  No probl...WAIT WHAT?  A ferry?  Well ok, it's not Thanksgiving yet.  Around the corner..."Oh, but there is high water!".

NOTE to self: Now we know there is a ferry, we will be back during summer.

Back to driving again this time with constant flow of traffic which we know to be a very good sign. We soon had to stop and take a phone call from our vet (middle of sporadic cell service) as Xena had been taken in that morning due to a fever and rapid breathing.  Xena needed surgery or they could continue with meds and see if she could make it through the night.

Decisions needed to be made as it was a choice of Christmas or saving the cat. After tears and discussions as a family we finally hit the road again.  Six total hours of driving for our three hour trip and we made it to family!

The kids table...

and the adults...

It was a full house of fun and a wonderful weekend with family.

Our drive home was uneventful thank you very much as the only trouble we had was finding a place to eat dinner.

And Christmas this year has brought us Xena as she has fully recovered from inflamed intestines and is back to attacking Doug and chasing squirrels.

We are so proud of our kids for telling us it was a not choice to put Xena ahead of presents.  Christmas this year the kid will exchange gifts to each other and Santa will of course come but that will be all.

This will be a very Merry Christmas, I know.