A Thanksgiving Adventure

For Thanksgiving this year we flew to Salt Lake on Tuesday, Nov. 23rd and had dinner that night at my parents' home with my whole family. We were holding our breath that day because there was a MASSIVE snowstorm predicted that day that cancelled college classes and sent many to the grocery store to clear out the shelves of bottled water and other supplies. After all the hype, we only got some wind and maybe 2 inches of snow, but we did have a very bumpy airplane ride into Salt Lake. I bet Meteorologist Kevin Eubanks felt foolish wearing his white coat on the news after that!

It was so good to be home! My Mom had gone all out, as usual and the food was amazing! The kids loved having their own special table downstairs and I enjoyed catching up with everyone over 3 little slivers of 3 different types of pie (how can you pick just one?) I finally got to meet my new niece Isabelle, when I could finally get Ashlyn to let me hold her! My new nephew Luke is already smiling. The smallest members of our extended family seem to morph into different little people in the space between our visits! 

After Thanksgiving dinner, the adults decorated gingerbread houses. It's become quite a tradition! My Mom spent 3 days baking and assembling gingerbread houses from 2 molds she has and I'm sure she had been buying candy for months! I didn't even finish our house that night and had to continue working on it the next night when the kids got to do their houses! Here's my finished product (left) and a picture of all of the gingerbread houses...

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving we attempted a crazy feat... We had the kids pictures taken, all 14 of them! We sure made them earn their pay at Kiddie Kandids! We got one decent group shot, but my Mom had to hold my nephew Michael on her lap. No worries Monica, Corey was a 3 year old boy too and I so feel your pain! My 2 younger sisters had to work, so we had their kids for the morning. Claire and Hailey became buddies after a while and held hands in the car!

After pictures, we had lunch and met up with the boys for the afternoon. That night, Dan went to the Jazz game with my Dad and Johnn and the kids and I went out to see Lisa & Dave's new home in Sandy. Late that night Andrea and I went through kids' clothes and I packed up 2 bins of clothes for Claire to wear this Winter through next Summer. Yea for hand-me-downs!!!

On Thanksgiving Day, we all packed up and made the 4 hour drive to St. George, Utah to stay at my parents' new vacation home. I had been hearing all about it since February, so we were glad to finally be able to see what it's like! It's in Entrada, which is the neighborhood where the movie High School Musical 2 was filmed. My family has had a blast decorating the home. I hope my pictures will do it justice, because it's breathtaking! (BELOW): The Casita & entry...

(BELOW): The Kitchen & Sitting Room that looks out to the pool...

(BELOW): Kitchen, Dining Room & Front Hall...

(BELOW): Fun in the Pool & Hot Tub...Even in 50° weather!

(BELOW): The Master Bedroom & Bathroom. I love the fireplace, infinity mirrors, huge windows and outdoor shower...

Thanksgiving night my Mom, Monica and I headed to the Outlet Stores at 10 PM to do a little BLACK FRIDAY shopping! It is kind of crazy that the shopping madness now begins on Thanksgiving, but because we'd already had our big meal 2 days prior, we were relaxed and ready to S-H-O-P! We waited in line for a coupon book for 40 minutes that wasn't really worth waiting for, but we did get some great deals and had fun being together.

On Friday morning we took a small drive to "The Crack," which is a space between 2 massive boulders that you can climb between, if you dare! Dan & the kids and I all walked up to The Crack and Ashlyn & Corey climbed up and through. I decided to take Claire down. I was carrying her and slipped on a sandy rock while climbing down and fell! I twisted my foot and banged up the front of my shin and Claire hit her head on a rock, but wasn't hurt, thankfully. It was very scary! I was so worried about Claire and she was so worried about me. My foot was immediately swollen and it hurt a lot to walk on it. Big bummer! Everyone else had a great time climbing around and the views were incredible!

Saturday we all went into town and saw Disney's new movie Tangled, and I think all 28 of us loved it! Claire was obsessed with Flynn's horse and Rapunzel's lizard and she told me she wants to "see it again." LOVED IT! After the movie, we all headed to a Sushi Buffet that my Dad loves and had a nice lunch....

(BELOW): My nephew Tyler is 6 months younger than Corey, but has recently passed him in height! These 2 are such good buddies!

The epic UTAH/ BYU football game was on when we got home, so we piled into the media room and stopped and rewound the last few minutes twice to see our UTES beat BYU, 17-16! Utah didn't even score until the 4th quarter, just to keep things interesting, and just when it looked hopeless, Brandon Burton dove to block BYU's field goal with less than 5 seconds left. CRAZY!

After the game, most of the family headed out to another nearby hike, but Claire & I stayed home because my foot was bruised and sore. Dan took these pictures of the view...

We awoke on Sunday morning to a light dusting of snow! That's a rare thing in St. George, so we hurried and cleaned up to get ready for the drive home. It started snowing shortly after we hit the freeway and started really coming down by Cedar City. The roads were icy and we guessed that we saw at least 20 cars that had slid off the road or had accidents. It was a mess, but our kids were fairly content and Dan & I enjoyed talking and listening to a Comedy channel on my Mom's satellite radio. What should've been a 4 hour drive ended up taking 8 hours and we were all grateful to have made it home safely. Monday morning my Mom drove us to the airport to head home. Salt Lake got several inches of snow overnight and Mount Olympus looked gorgeous that morning! 

My Mom & Claire have a very special bond. She adores her "Nanny." When we arrived at the Denver airport and got into our car, she gasped and said, "NO! Where Nanny's car? I want NANNY." It broke my heart! I'm glad we get to see them in January when they come for Corey's baptism! The crazy thing about traveling for Thanksgiving is the pressure I usually feel when we get home to get the Christmas decorations up and to finish shopping, gift-wrapping and to get Christmas cards in the mail, but knowing that we're staying here for Christmas this year helps a bit. It was such a nice Thanksgiving!