Thanksgiving in Salt Lake

This year Nate and I spent Thanksgiving with my family in Utah. It was great to be able to go back and see them after being in Washington for a while. I really missed them and it was so great to be with them again! We didn't go for very long, just 2 days, so that was hard but at least we had a good time for the amount of time we were there. Thanksgiving Day was great and we ate lots of good food! We had it over at the church by Mom and Dad's place in the Young Women's room. Nate made rolls there at the church and I made a cherry pie. Our contributions were pretty small compared to Ben's delicious dutch oven food and all the salads and sides people brought, but it was all so yummy! We had a pretty big group, about 30 people (including children) so we had a lot of fun just talking and eating. We also got to meet my brother John's fiance Trisha. She is so cute and so nice and think they make a great couple! Her little girl was so adorable too. I'm so happy for him and it'll be fun to have a couple of additions to our family! Then after dinner we all went back to the house. Some people napped while others of us played games and still others just kept eating pie and goodies. The hit game of the day was Apples to Apples. I have to say that I've never played it quite like the way my family played it that day. Some people were new to the game and others weren't, but I couldn't believe how SLOW we played it! It was just so funny to see how long it took people to decide which card to choose. I've discovered that most people in my family take everything very literally, especially when it comes to definitions of words. Nate and I were used to playing it a lot faster and less literal with his family, so while other people took their time deciding, we went to the kitchen to eat goodies...lol. But it was still pretty fun. We are sad to say that we forgot to take ANY pictures on Thanksgiving so we have no visual reminders of how it was. :( At least we remembered the camera the next day at Temple Square. That day was kind of uneventful, but we got to see Tia and Deren and their family and went to the mall together. When we came back we had pizza for dinner and then headed to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square. It was the first night for the lights to be on so it was a little crowded (and cold!), but SO beautiful! Nate got some good shots of the lights and temple. There's just something about being around the temple and all of those beautiful Christmas lights. The Spirit really is present there and depsite the cold, you feel all warm inside when you're there. It was fun to walk around with everyone and the little kids.









After perusing through the lights, we decided we wanted to get warm and eat a treat so we headed to the basement of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I had no idea there were vending machines and tables down there. It was awesome! They even had BYU creamery milk so we HAD to get a chocolate milk. It was delicious!! I also got some donuts to have with it, but my hand got stuck in the flap...lol. The donuts and chocolate milk reminded me of my freshman year at BYU. That was my staple for breakfast almost every day that year. No wonder I gained the freshman 15...lol.

That wasn't the only problem we had with the machines either. My dad went to buy an ice cream treat and it got stuck. So he decided to buy another one and the first one came out but the second one got stuck too! We thought about calling the service people, but decided to try one more time. So six bucks later, he bought a third one and this time shook it as it was being vended and they both came out. Yay! Except then we were stuck with 3 ice cream treats and we couldn't take them in the car because they would melt. So even though we were full we got them all eaten. What really cracked me up was that after all of that, we went home and my dad had a bowl of ice cream...haha! I love it!

Payton had fun making faces for the camera and Nate and I had fun teasing her by kissing in front of her everytime she told us not to. She's so fun to tease. :) On our way home we stopped by Wal-Mart to get a Christmas movie, but their selection was so slim!! Of course, it was Black Friday so that's probably why so many movies were gone. Luckily I found Elf somewhere towards the checkout lines so my parents got it and we went home and watched it. The next day we flew back home. Lots of fun in Utah!