This year we spent Thanksgiving in Utah. My WHOLE family was able to make the trip and it was a lot of fun to see everyone. Since we are all spread out (California, Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma), we don't really get to see each other at the same time. It usually happens about every two years...we all decide we are going to meet up and have a mini-reunion type of thing.
It was a lot of fun to see all my nieces and nephews at once, even though it was only for a couple of days. As usual, Matthew and I were the last to arrive and the first to leave. We left Arizona on tuesday and drove to Page, AZ (about 6 hours). We stayed in a hotel room and left early the next morning. We made pretty good time and it was nice to take a scenic route through Utah. Around 2 pm on Wednesday, we arrived at my sister's house. The kids were so involved in the iPads and iPhones they were playing on that they didn't even bat an eye when Matthew and I walked in the door.
Page, AZ
After my family at lunch, we decided that we should head to the park and get some outdoor playing time in. Everyone decided to go, except for my parents. We headed to the park and let the kids run around for a couple of hours. They had fun playing on the slides, swings, playing in leaves, and riding bikes down a hill.
{Chris, Gavin, & Sara}
{Mr. Renfro}
{Aston}
{Gavin & Sara}
{Keira & Aeris}
{Playing in the leaves}
{Phoenix riding down the hill}
{Matthew learning a new skateboarding technique}
{Andrea & Jeremy}
{Aston running to give Drea a hug}
{The whole group...and Gavin rolling down the hill haha}
{Gavin}
Once we were done at the park, we headed back to my sister's house and ate some dinner. My parents showed us the "special" t-shirts they bought for the whole family. After putting the kids to bed, all the grown ups stayed up to play board games and chat. We went to bed fairly early because we were all getting up bright and early to run a 5k.
Prior to us all arriving, my sister had sent an email about a 5k on Thanksgiving. About half of us decided to run/walk/jog it. My parents got us all matching shirts that we ended up wearing. Matthew ran/jogged the whole 5k in about 45 minutes. My mom and I walked the whole thing in about an hour. It was fun to walk and talk with my mom since I don't get to see her that often.
After the 5k, we went back to my sister's house and all the women started to slave away in the kitchen ;) haha! We made pies, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, and all the other Thanksgiving fixings. We ate dinner around 3, but most of us weren't that hungry because we had been snacking all day long. Because we were all going to be at my sister's house, we decided to have Christmas too. After dinner, we pulled out the Christmas tree and started decorating. We had all the kids take turns putting ornaments on the tree...which didn't work out as well as I thought.
Once the tree was all decorated, we had them close their eyes and then we put ALL of their presents under the tree.
{Waiting for presents}
They all were SO excited when they opened their eyes! There were so many presents that it was overflowing. They all got some pretty cool things. After presents were done, it was time for them to head off to bed. Us adults stayed up and played board games, as usual.
The next morning, we got up nice and early to take family pictures. I thought it would be a nice thing to do for my parents Christmas gift because they don't have a picture with all the family. Luckily, my sister's father in law is a photographer and we were able to schedule a sitting. The pictures turned out great and I can't wait to get the ones that we ordered in the mail.
Once we were done with pictures, we decided to head up to the zoo. Matthew loves animals and I love the fact that the zoo has a polar bear so we rounded up everyone that wanted to go and headed towards Salt Lake City.
{Elephant trying to eat}
{Andrea, Blaze, Aeris, Keira, Phoenix}
{Gavin}
{Some of the kids seeing how they measure up to gorillas}
{Waiting for the gorilla}
{Blaze}
{Gavin}
{Seal}
{Polar Bear}
{Snoozing Tiger}
The next day, Matthew and I headed down south to meet up with almost all of my best friends! I was really excited to see them since it had been almost a year. We all got together at Stephanie's house and made dinner. It's always fun to see them and I wish we all lived closer so I could see them more often. In the morning, Matthew and I got up to make the long trek back to Arizona. It was a fun weekend with family and friends that I wish it didn't go so fast.
xoxo,
Megs
*All personal photographs*
