Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving seemed extended this year. After seeing all of Mom's family in Las Vegas, we had a few days of school before heading up to Grandma's house. On both of those days we had cousins come and stay at our house. We even had all six of the Webbs and all six of the Pooles spend a night. Our house was really crowded with a dozen extra people in it! We made the most of it, though, and took all the cousins to Luminaria for Aunt Tiff's birthday. We spent the whole night looking at lights, sipping hot chocolate, and listening to stories about the Savior in the Light of the World Garden.

We have loved spending all this time with cousins. 

Mom with her two next in line sisters. 

Ockey, Webb, and Poole kids.

The kids loved hearing Dad tell all the stories about Jesus. 

We love Luminaria!

On Wednesday we made the drive up to Blackfoot to Grandma's house. All of the cousins, aunts and uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa would be there again. The kids played a lot of foosball and watched movies while the adults talked and told stories. Grandpa even took us to the photo studio so we could take a family picture because everyone was around.

Grandma had fun activities for the kids.

Everyone loves staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

These are the cute Oreo turkeys that the kids made.

Seth really wanted to help Grandma in the kitchen.

She let him make a pie.

This is the finished apple pie. He wouldn't eat it, but Mom thought it was delicious!

Sisters! Brittany is missing from this pic. 

All the cousins for Thanksgiving!

We are grateful for Grandma and Grandpa!

Our traditional Thanksgiving family portrait was a little trickier to take this year since there was a table in the way,
but we made it work! 

Dad is always good to help with projects around the house.
He fixed the front door knob that has been broken for a very long time. 

Best of all, it was a really calm Thanksgiving. No one get upset and the kids got along splendidly (mostly). On Thanksgiving Day, Bob smoked a turkey and it was the most delicious bird we'd ever eaten. Mom and Dad did a lot of dishes, and the boys played with cousins for three straight days. It was especially fun because the four cousin families now live in four different states (Utah, Nevada, California, and Idaho).

Mark and Daniel waiting for pictures. 

Everyone was hanging out with Uncle Jason.

Dad is good to all the little cousins. They love him!

All the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa. We snuck this picture from the side! 

Here we are all dressed up and ready for pictures! 

Mom and Dad take many more pictures together now.

Mom and her sisters had a good Thanksgiving!

On Friday we came home because we needed to cut a Christmas tree with Dad's family on Saturday. We drove to Ephraim in snowy, terrible conditions. Along with three cars spun off the road, Mom spotted two foxes right off the I-15 by Mona. Because of the weather it was impossible to pull over for a picture. Along the way, we told all the stories of memorable Christmas Tree adventures, not knowing we were creating one that day.

We texted this picture to everyone to be careful because they were all behind us on the road.  It was slick and scary.

The trip up Ephraim Canyon was much worse. The van couldn't make it past the big turn, and several trucks got stuck behind us. It was glassy slick and we pushed several cars out while the boys worried in the van. Luckily, we were able to get off the mountain safely, but we didn't even cut a Christmas tree or take any pictures! Instead Glen chained up his truck and cut one for us. We got our usual trees, and one that Nate chose was tall and fit perfectly in our house. The other was so comically curved that it looked like it was a long bow missing it's string. The boys declared it "the Charlie Brown tree," so we lopped off the top and put it in the basement. It is almost exactly as tall as Dax, and the boys have fallen in love with it. Best of all, now they will remember "the year we didn't cut a Christmas tree."

The canyon road was worse, but we made it out okay. I forgot to take any pictures because I was so worried about everyone being okay.

The boys were nervous up on the mountain when everyone kept sliding.

Roy's Pizza made everything better.

Who thought this tree would be okay? 

We love our Charlie Brown Tree! 

We are just grateful to have a Christmas tree this year!