Thanksgiving in Utah

About a month ago we decided to spend our Thanksgiving week in Utah.  We had the perfect plan--since Matt would be reporting to the MTC the day before Thanksgiving, he and I would fly out together with the kids and meet Adam there (since he was working in CA the week before).  Then we could have Thanksgiving dinner with my family early, before Matt entered the MTC, and with Adam's family on the actual holiday.

Oh, the best laid plans.  As it turned out, Matt's MTC date got moved up a week, which left me to fly to Utah alone with my three littles.  The flight didn't scare me at all--surely it couldn't be harder than church every Sunday!--but I wasn't sure how I would haul three kids, three carseats, three suitcases, a backpack, a diaper bag, a purse and a stroller through the airport.  Gratefully, some dear friends from our ward took pity on us, took us to the airport, and helped me get everything to the ticket counter.  Disaster averted!  And honestly, the kids were pretty well perfect on the flight, even though we were delayed almost an hour after we were sitting on the plane.  Whew!

A week before our trip Annie got a good black eye.  So she sported a nice shiner throughout the whole vacation.

While we were in Provo, we decided to take the kids down to the MTC so they could see where Matt was.  We were hoping to get a photo by the big "Missionary Training Center" sign, but unbeknownst to us, it was gone!  So we did our best.  Funnily enough, the guy that took our family picture was an instructor in Matt's zone.  We thought that was pretty neat!

We got lots of great cousin time in, both in Provo and in Salt Lake.

I was able to meet up with a high school friend/college roommate that I haven't seen in years.  I am pretty sure the last time we saw each other was at my wedding reception 8 1/2 years ago.  She is working in the Church Office Building, so we had lunch together in the cafeteria there and caught up on many years of each others' lives.  It was wonderful!

Our actual Thanksgiving feast was pretty quiet this year.  It was an "off year" for Adam's brothers, so it was just our family and Bryan with Grandma and Grandpa this year.  We missed everyone else (although we saw them all for pie later that evening), but we loved the time with Grandma and Grandpa Marchant!

The evening after Thanksgiving we decided to head to temple square for the first night of the Christmas lights there.  We stopped first at the Church History Museum, where the kids had lots of fun playing at the Book of Mormon exhibit with some of their cousins.

Then we had dinner at City Creek and headed across the street to Temple Square to see the lights and beautiful statues.  It was CRAZY crowded.  Like, insanely so.  But it was nice to see it all while we were there.

The whole time we were walking around Temple Square, McKay kept complaining that he had "0% energy."  He took turns riding on Daddy and Uncle Spencer's shoulders.  I guess he wasn't kidding--as soon as we got in the car and started driving he zonked out and didn't wake up again until morning!

It's safe to say that we tuckered our kids out pretty well.  This is Annie the following morning as we were going through the Denver airport after our flight home:

We loved being able to spend time together as a family, as well as strengthen our relationships with our extended family.  It was a great trip!