Welcome to the Thanksgiving 2011 Photo Extravagaaaaaaanza, starting with…

Your Humble Narrator, oh my brothers. All that stretching has paid off! I am now 8 feet tall and can easily touch ceilings!

On the way to our motel room Wednesday night we stopped at a little Mom and Pop hamburger stand. Total weight gain for Thanksgiving 2011: four pounds.

“That’s not so bad,” said the Boy. “It could be way worse.” That’s true. Why fight it? Brown rice and vegetables for dinner the next three nights it is, thanks “Showgirls”!

The motel was cheap, clean, but most importantly…

…dog friendly! Their very first night in a motel, mawwwww.

The obligatory “posing in front of a motel mirror” shot, ’cause I’m tacky like that. Puffily pre-menstrual up the ying yang here. I’d been wearing that bra all day and night, my puppies ached so bad. And I wonder why my family doesn’t read this blog?

Thursday morning in the car: excited! I only see my family once, maybe twice a year, so I was looking forward to this trip. Breaking up the eight hour car drive into two chunks was smart.

Maggie looking extremely alert. For long car drives we usually drug them with a little Benedryl in peanut butter, although Maggie doesn’t really need it.

It’s this little girl that hates car rides. No matter the duration, she will pant nervously.

Artistic license: not posting the 30 photos from the motel room of us lounging around in our underpants but posting a photo of my husband cleaning off the car windshield. Yes!

Although it was cold and windy, the weather in Boise was sunny during our entire stay, which was wonderful. In Seattle it’s been nothing but heavy rain and dark and doom and gloom. Despite the fruit-flavored Vitamin D gummies I shove into my maw every day, I needed a serotonin boost in the form of sunshine.

I was in such a good mood I offered to drive once or twice, but this dude handled it.

Leaving my hands free to take boring photos and re-apply my glitter lipgloss 10,000 times and change the c.d.s. We listened to an audiobook version of “A Clockwork Orange“, a book and film I’ve had a very strong affinity for since my early teens.

Interestingly, the book published in America included only 20 of the 21 chapters, and it was this version that the film was based off of. The audio book that we listened to included Burgess’s final chapter, in which Alex “grows up” (he’s reached the ancient elderly age of 18 at the end) and decides to give up his life of crime and move on, look for a mate, settle down. Stanley Kubrick preferred the version that ends with Alex back to his evil ways, and I have to say…so do I.

Here’s a 40 second video I made during the car ride. You can hear “A Clockwork Orange” in the background.

My riding-in-the-car outfit on Thursday was absolutely adorable, but unfortunately this is the only photo of it. Damn limitations of the self portrait!

He puts up with so much.

Wots this, bratty? Clouds ahead? I informed the Boy that if he learns Nadsat I will love him even MORE! I did some vocabulary drills with him last night in the bathroom while we brushed our teeth. Important stuff, like “groodies” (tits) and “zoobies” (teeth) and “litso” (face).

Stay tuned for Part 2: our arrival! Photos of my fam! A turkey! And MORE!!!