Thanksgiving in Utah

We had a wonderful early Thanksgiving with my family in Utah last week.  I love my family so much.  I felt especially sad to leave this time around.  It was a short visit.  I'm counting down till our next Utah trip that's just around the corner!

We hadn't originally planned on going to Utah for Thanksgiving, but then we changed our plans a bit, when we found out that Ben's cousin Ross would be getting married in Provo the weekend before Thanksgiving.  So, we decided to travel up for the wedding and to stay for a few extra days to have an early Thanksgiving with my family.  The wedding day was beautiful.   My camera battery needed charging, so all the Saturday pictures were from Ben's phone.  Somehow we neglected to get a picture of the cute couple.  Oops!  I really enjoyed visiting BYU campus since we were nearby.  It's so nostalgic and we are trying our best to convince our kids that it would be a great idea for them to attend BYU when they are older :)  We went to the art museum and the kids were entertained by this unique Andy Warhol exhibit...


Then to the BYU Bookstore (love that place!) for chocolate covered cinnamon bears and a cute BYU hat for Jake...

Later that evening we went to the reception.  Here's the kids in the lobby of the reception center by the warm fireplace...

The next couple days we played with my family in Sandy.  My dad cut blocks out of 2x4's for Jake to play with.  They were a hit!...

Our group after getting home from church (minus mom and dad)...

Stef and Becca - Stefani coordinated nicely with the kids outfits by chance...

After church we got to cooking and eating...

Aaron making a delicious beverage...

Our yummy meal - rolls (made by mom), mashed potatoes (by me), roast beef (by dad), salmon (by stef), green beans and salad (by sarah), and lemonade (by Aaron).  We opted against turkey since it was before thanksgiving anyway - we got turkey later in the week...

The dessert table - Homemade pies (crust included!) prepared with love by Aaron :)  He made an apple pie and a cherry blueberry pie.  Ben made egg nog ice cream with pralined bacon as a topping.  Everything is better with bacon right?!  even ice cream?!  :)

Chowing down...

The next day we went to the Hogle Zoo...

On the carousel - even the adults enjoyed themselves... :)

This is Claire's nervous face...

Jake and Aunt Sarah...

After the zoo, we went to Sub Zero ice cream...

The next day the kids helped grandma decorate the tree (later in the week, they put all the ornaments on our tree at home too... they are actually helpful and useful sometimes!)

We visited Scheel's - the new huge sporting goods store in Utah - it's a lot like Cabellas, but bigger, and with a ferris wheel inside! We were entertained for a long while at this store...

I got to share a seat with my Jake...

Like father, like daughter...

Becca and Grandpa...

I don't know why there is a talking Abraham Lincoln... 

Soccer simulator...

There was a bunch of photo spots - the kids wanted to get their picture taken in all of them...

It looks so real!  It's like they are really at the lake!

We spent the rest of the time playing board games (my favorite thing!) - and one evening my parents offered to watch our kids while Ben, Aaron, Sarah, and I went to see Bond (awesome!).  Can't wait to come back!!