A Utah Thanksgiving

We headed up to Utah for Thanksgiving this year and were able to successfully visit both families, Jordan's in Cedar City and mine in Mapleton! It's supposed to be just Jordan's family's year for Thanksgiving, and I was a little bummed that my whole family (including my brother Matt who just went through a divorce and hasn't been with our family for holidays in years), was going to be just three hours away for Thanksgiving and my newest niece's baby blessing but I wouldn't be able to see them. When Jordan first suggested we split up the week and visit both families, I thought he was crazy but he insisted and I'm so glad he did!! We drove up to Cedar on Wednesday and had an incredible Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday ... well, Thursday night shopping at Walmart, games and great conversation! Jonni's house is awesome and the cousins always love being together!

We were planning to go to St George with everyone on Friday and then head north to Mapleton in the evening, but a winter storm warning prompted us to leave earlier so we could beat the snow. We arrived in Mapleton in the afternoon and had a blast until we left on Sunday morning. They got a TON of snow and my brother's backyard is huge so there was lots of playing outside and snowball fights! I have to credit my sister Grace for all the pictures because there was no way I was going outside in that freezing cold stuff!! On Friday night, we also went to see the lights at Temple Square. My brother Matt has never been and it was so great to be there with him and his three boys! It was also the last time we'd see my sister Casey for a while since she and her husband are moving to Florida in January. It was also so good to see Grace. She had been released from her mission just three weeks before Thanksgiving due to the heart condition that's been discovered in my family and has been having a really tough time. She's just so wonderful, though, you would never know she's struggling. She's always smiling and joking and making everyone feel good. Anyway, we had a great week and I'm so grateful for both of our wonderful crazy families!!

Somehow this is the only picture I have from Thanksgiving! We set up the kids tables in Jonni's garage so the adults could eat in peace haha!

Lots of snow pictures courtesy of Grace. The girl in the purple in the foreground is Reagan and the girl in pink right behind her is Madison

Watch out Aunt Grace!

McKinley

Reagan didn't last very long outside ... shocking!

Dirky boy played in the snow too! He didn't really love it but he didn't hate it either. He liked the idea of throwing snow balls... another shocker ;)

This, however, made him SO MAD! He somehow got this big chunk of slushy snow attached to the bottom of his shoe, a good 2-3 inches thick. Every time he stepped, he could tell that his foot wouldn't go all the way to the ground and he was screaming and stomping haha!!

Madison and Clara decided to build a snowman

Uh-oh ... Uncle Matt's joining in the snowball fight

McKinley's the smart one hiding out in the pirate ship

On Saturday, we went to a local family fun center to play laser tag, which the girls LOVED! They also got to try out a couple virtual reality games

Dirky and Great Grandma playing in the basement!