Holiday Travels

Watch out, this is a photo intensive blog (and long too).

For Thanksgiving weekend, we traveled a lot. I guess I should first say THANKS MIKE!!! We usually spend every other Thanksgiving with his family and we do the same for Christmas. This was Mike's fam's year for Thanksgiving. And don't get me wrong, I love his family, but all of us (26 this year, Steve didn't come home, his family would make 30) in one house for 3 days just is way to much for me. So, not knowing how Thanksgiving would play out (assuming he would have to work), I planned on hitting St. George (where my mom's side of the family was meeting for Thanksgiving) over the weekend (after we were done in Price). When I found out that Mike would be off, I asked if he was willing to go to St. George (he probably hasn't been down there for 6 months). And he agreed to go down. It was soooo nice of him to give up Thanksgiving weekend with his family to appease me. So Thanks Mike!!!

We drove to Price on Thursday morning. We tried to leave by about 10:00, but it was closer to 10:30 by the time we got on the road. The drive was easy and nice. We were to Price by about noon.

I really like how Mike's mom does Thanksgiving. We have learned that the little kids (everyone 8 and under - or so) don't really like a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and that it is miserable for everyone to try and force them to eat it. So, a few years ago, we started to do finger foods for the little kids Thanksgiving dinner/lunch. This year we were all to bring something our children would like - to share with their cousins. I think we feed them around 1:30. It was great. Then we could focus on the real dinner.

Having fun with cousins.

Mike chatting with two of his sisters.

I was assigned salad, and I opted to do jello this year. Why, I don't know because I have never made jello, but that is what I chose to do. I did a raspberry jello with raspberries, blackberries and strawberries inside and cool whip on top. It turned out great, and I loved it.

I think we ate dinner around 3:00. It was delicious, and there was so much food. Helene made some awesome rolls (I need to get the recipe), and all the food was delicious.

Andrew got to be the horsey after dinner.

After that we all sat around too full to do anything. By 6:30 we got our act together and several of us went to the movie. We went to see the new James Bond. Mike and I had seen it the week before, but went again. I can't believe the Price theaters, the same crappy theaters that were there when I was a kid are now charging $7.50 for a movie. What a joke (glad we don't live there!). Then shortly after the movie, I loaded the kids up and headed to the hotel for bedtime. Mike stayed with his family for another hour or so, until Helene and Andrew headed over. We were still awake, but were in bed.

That night Emma didn't sleep well. She had come down with a cold, and was coughing quite a bit. And because she wasn't sleeping through the night, she was kind of a pill. I ended up having to share a bed with her (which I hated). She didn't want covers on - she was too hot. And she talked in her sleep and kicked me and ended up upside down several times.

Mike also didn't enjoy sleeping with Ashton, he is a snuggler.

By morning I think we were all glad to get up. I took the kids down for some breakfast, and Mike got in the shower pretty quick. Then I got in and got ready. We checked out of our hotel and headed over to Mike's parents around 10:30. We ate breakfast and hung out. Around 1:00 we started getting ready to go cut down a tree. We took our kids and so did Helene & Andrew (except Gavin didn't want to come). We ended up having issues. Helene & Andrew's van couldn't make it where we needed to go and either could our Honda. We headed back to Mike's parents and they (Andrew, Helene & Mike) took the little truck to see if they could get trees.

Neena and I made a run to Dollar Tree while they were getting trees (we got guns). Then we got to have some fun making chap stick. Paul started raising bees this year and was looking for things to do with the products. We had a great time trying things out. Emma made a purple Cucumber Mellon. I made a green Peppermint Oatmeal. Ashton got an Orange (including orange flavor) of Orange and Oatmeal.



Look how much fun we had making chap stick.

I think Ashton spent his morning with Grandpa working on his boat. Grandpa made the boat for him one time when he was down visiting. It was mostly to keep them busy. Grandpa was shocked to find out that Ashton still had the boat and was sad that a piece had broke. Grandpa took some time to fix it and make some improvements (including naming it). Do you think Ashton liked it?

Ashton & his newly refurbished boat.

Around 4:00 they finally made it back with the trees, and we made arrangements to leave town. We had planned to go straight to St. George but with such a big tree, we took it to Spanish Fork (to my aunt and uncles) and then we drove on to St. George. In the end we got to St. George after 10:00 and had a 5 hour drive. Yuck.

Look how big our tree is.

St. George
Saturday was a pretty slow day. My mom and I took Emma shopping with us, and my dad and Mike took Ashton out to hit some golf balls. We left just after noon to go shopping (we had had a late breakfast) but didn't realize we would be gone till almost 5:00. Emma was tired, and ready to go back to grandma's. It was good to get some food in us (my mom was good and packed some snacks). We did an early dinner at Mongolian, and then went swimming at my parents condo (my grandparents were staying there - they own it with my parents). We had lots of fun swimming.
We had fun swimming.

On Sunday again we had a slow day with a late breakfast. While we packed up we hung out and just enjoyed family.

Kids with grandma.

I had wanted to leave between 2 and 3:00 and Mike had envisioned 4 or 5:00. In the end we left around 4:00. We ate dinner in Nephi, and then came upon two accidents between Mona and Payson. It really slowed us down. We got home around 9:00 and just put the kids to bed.

It was a fun, busy, and travel filled Thanksgiving.