Thanksgiving in Utah

Driving to Utah by myself really isn't that bad. 

I actually really enjoy seeing all the open space.

The kids usually watch movies, or read or color.

I listen to a book. 

We just hit traffic once, and for a drive from California to anywhere that's not bad. But it did add an extra hour.

We stopped in St. George to see my college friend Ashley. I love seeing her!

It sprinkled a little while we were there and we got to see a huge rainbow.

The first thing Cody did when we got there was say hi to his buddy Bo, and grandma and grandpa.

We got to see Becky, Brett and Micah.

We played at such a fun park

They were pretty excited to have another sleepover at Micah's house and knew all the ropes since they stayed there before. I loved seeing all the personalities of their dogs. Becky even babysat for me again so I could go to dinner with my college friends. She fed and bathed my kids, played with them and put them to bed, way above and beyond!

And check out her amazing chicken coop!

It snowed a little bit and the kids were beyond excited to play in it. They somehow didn't really understand, or think about, or care about (one of those) the fact that snow is frozen water and when it gets warm it's wet. Kids don't care about that. We just weren't at all prepared with snow gear to actually play in the snow. I think they used all the snow in the yard for this guy:

With Pullman college friends for dinner. It's so fun to catch up.

"Send me a picture" in my world means actually send it to me. But it's fine, I just steal them in very unadvanced ways:)!

Monday night we went to The Forgotten Carols in Midway, and then stayed the night up there. (It's a good thing since it was snowing and our van isn't equipped for the snow.) The kids were so excited to have a sleepover with their cousins.

I was excited to go see one of my favorite holiday shows on their first night of performance.

Ben was able to join us Wednesday.

Early Thanksgiving morning they went hunting.

Then fishing the day after that.

"Huntin, Fishin, and loving every day."

While they were hunting we went to the zoo. On Thanksgiving they feed the animals pumpkins. The bears take a while to find them and we watched them for a while. The fresh snow was so pretty that morning.

Mackayla played in the slush for quite a while in flimsy shoes and got pretty cold. Again this lack of understanding of the wetness and our lack of preparation for snow... The girls overall loved it though!

Faceswap is frea-ky.

We saw Moana after a delicious Thanksgiving meal.

In 3D. Awesome photo bomber.

I love that Indy's ears are always blocking somebody.

After Ben and Stefan went fishing me met them up at Taggart for some food. I love that restaurant! One of my favorites!!

Again, no editing.

Macey's drawing shows "stinky feet" which is totally appropriate since her favorite shoes are her keens and too many wears without washing them makes her feet stink to high heaven.

She's so cute. It was agony deciding between clam chowder and mac n cheese.

Hat.

My only request of Ben while he was here is that he take us out riding. He's with horses every day of his life and I think it makes him hesitant to go back out and be with horses again, but our kids aren't around them at all! So we headed out on a perfectly sunny day. Amy and Ben did most of the work, and I'm so grateful. I think the kids had fun. And I think Ben loved it, too. I rode the longest amount of time I've ridden in years and years and think I learned a bit more. It will take a lot more practice.

"Grandpa, let's sing." This girl cracks me up!!

More fishing at the pond!

I spent a lot of time holing myself up reading this awesome book!

Fixer Upper is my HGTV addiction and the Magnolia Story is their charming and hilarious book.

My sister in law was definitely right when she said there are a lot of messages in this book and you'll probably get out of it what you need to hear.

This page spoke to me the most.

I KNOW this is sideways but just turn your head and read it anyways.

California has stretched and challenged me in ways I couldn't have fathomed, and I don't feel like I've thrived here. (We've enjoyed it too of course.)

This book reminded me to find joy in the journey. Take the good. Ignore the ugly. Or embrace it. Because it comes with the good.

It reminded me that nowhere in the world is going to be perfect. So find what I love about where I am. There's so much good here!

This doesn't even touch on the overall message of the book of following your dreams.

I kind of got out of it that God has a plan for everyone, and he'll point you in the right direction but you have to do the moving or you won't get anywhere.

It snowed the morning we left. It was fine except the one time we almost slid off the road:)

Sunday before we left I noticed we all randomly matched...and so I thought we could grab some pictures on our way home in front of my favorite trees.

It was all last minute and a little chaotic of an idea, so I really wasn't expecting much.

Which was good because we didn't get much, but it'll work.
It probably didn't help that right as we went to get "ready" in the bathroom they closed the only other working bathroom to clean it and people were waiting. Oh well!

Ben has really grown to like getting pictures of our family so that helps.
I'm not going to lie, he used to be the worst one for picture days:)

Some day I'll figure out how to frame us in a picture. We're too far away. sigh.

This makeshift pile with red on top was our tripod, and I was our timer button. Good thing my dress is stretchy and comfy, cause I got a good workout running back and forth.

Finished just in the nick of time. Back on the road!