Thanksgiving in Utah 2016

We got to spend Thanksgiving up in Utah with my sisters this year. We drove up Sunday, the 20th, and left here about 7:30 in the morning.

We just pulled the kids out of bed in their jammies. Janie was all ready to go with Aiden's sea creatures that he got for his birthday. She just loves them..haha.

The kids did so great during the drive. They're the best! And thank goodness for the tablet. They watched a few movies on the way up ;)

We did have a little incident about 2 hours before we got to Salt Lake. Trent got pulled over for speeding :/ The officer said he clocked Trent coming up behind him at 92. Trent honestly does not think he was going that fast, but we were pretty distracted because we had just gotten word that our ward had been split, so I was texting one of Trent's fellow clerks in behalf of him to get the details. We also had no idea that officers can now tell someone's speed from behind them. Anyway, he let us off with a warning and we were so grateful. I honestly think my pregnant belly may have helped some (he came to my window since we were on the side of a busy highway) ;)

We got to Jenn and Michael's that night about 6:45. We were so happy to be there! We took it easy and headed to bed a few hours later.

We were really grateful that Trent was able to work in Utah, which made it possible for us to come Sunday instead of waiting until Wednesday (which I was not willing to do, being 32 weeks pregnant and all!). So Monday he headed over to Jill's to work from her place (she and her roommates all work so it worked out perfectly for him to go there, plus it's super close to Jenn's). He worked at Jill's M-W.

I was feeling really beat from traveling the whole day before, so the kids and I took it easy all morning. We finally headed out about 1:30 to go pick up some groceries. It was a bit crazy with everyone trying to get ready for Thanksgiving :/

The kids got to try out all of their new fall/winter clothes while we were in Utah :)

The rest of the day we just laid low at Jenn and Michael's and I made us all chicken pot pie for dinner.

Fun with Aunt Jenn.

Tight squeeze.

Tuesday, Jenn had a funeral she was helping out at and Trent had the car, so we just played at the house. The kids loved all of Jackson's toys! I even got some little ideas for Christmas. Score!

Once she got home we headed to Amy's to hang out. Janie was so cute lounging in her car seat while we waited in line for gas :)

Once the husbands got off work we headed to Nielson's for dinner (no pictures). It was my suggestion because the 2 Nielson's in AZ have closed now - so sad! I miss the grinders so much!

Afterward we headed to Target with Jill. She wanted the kids to pick out their Christmas gifts :)

The aunts always give in and push the honking cart that the kids love so much for some reason..haha. It's too hard for me to push while pregnant so I haven't been letting them pick this one lately.

Wednesday we had another easy going morning. I had never tried Swig so Jill and I headed there after lunch. We just went through the drive-thru and got sodas and Jill bought sugar cookies for all for Thanksgiving. Yum!

We picked up Jenn and all headed to Provo to pick up Mom from the airport. We had to take advantage of being in Provo and stopped at the Riverwoods. We all love it there!

Santa's little house. Love how they decorate!

The kids got a little bored in Called to Surf so Grandma let them play in the arcade some. They don't even really realize that we don't actually put any money in..haha. 

We saw Santa go into his little house and my mom got this cute shot of the kids looking in at him :)

Got a little Christmas shopping done :)

We were loving the Christmas lights!

Amy and Richard had gone to their gender ultrasound in the morning and wanted to do a little reveal, so we headed to their place from Provo. It started to snow right as we were leaving and got pretty intense while we were driving there. I was kind of loving it!

Amy picked up all of these cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Fairy and had them fill one of them with the color filling. She didn't know which cupcake it was.

The kids were dying to dig in!

Amy just passed the plate around and everyone got to take their turn to bite into one.

I don't have any pictures to show for it, but Trent was the lucky guy and bit into his cupcake and there was BLUE filling! They're having a boy, which is exactly what Amy was hoping for! Yay! And how fun that our boys will be so close in age! Janie will really be surrounded by boys now!

We just hung out and chatted and my mom took the kids upstairs to bathe them with one of her bath bombs.

It was still snowing by the time we headed back to Jenn and Michael's and Aiden couldn't wait to play in it some when we got back! So tricky to get a good picture.

I made him put his jacket on ;) He and Trent had a little snowball fight. Aiden was in heaven!

The boys back inside from playing :)

That night Janie had a really rough night :/ We think the bath bomb made her really itchy and uncomfortable. 

Trent was up early on Thanksgiving with everyone else to run in the Turkey Trot.

They were back around 9:30 and we got right to work on preparing all of the food. Michael had the biggest task, the turkey, and spent many hours in the kitchen.

Trent and I got off easy. Trent helped with the potatoes and I made the cranberry sauce.

This year Mom bought the pies from Kneader's and she swears it's the way to go now!

Our great Thanksgiving hosts!

Our contributions :) All so delish!

The kids sitting at the "kids table." Funny that they were making the same face.

We had to get a family picture. My greatest blessings right there.

Playing Prize after we finished dinner. Aiden had a hard time with this :/

That evening we watched The Legend of Tarzan before calling it a night.

Friday we had to be up early for family photos. Way back in August a good friend of mine posted that her sister-in-law was doing really discounted photo shoots in Utah. I knew we'd be up for Thanksgiving so I messaged her and we got it all set up. Fast forward to now and we headed to the American Fork Amphitheater to have them done at 10:30. It was pretty chilly for us Arizonans and Janie really didn't smile for any of them (unless she was running around in the snow after Aiden), but I'm glad we got them done! Amy and Richard had Stephany do theirs as well, but they went at 9:30, so we crossed paths as they were finishing and we were starting.

Once we were done we headed to Amy and Richard's to go check out their new place. They just built a house and were actually supposed to start moving in while we were there, but the closing date got pushed back a week. They are officially in now! 

Grandma and the kids playing in the tub..haha.

We headed back to Jenn and Michael's for lunch, Thanksgiving leftovers. It worked out that Jackson got to spend the day on Friday and he and Janie got to watching a movie together.

Then we headed to see Trolls.

It was cute, but man I was uncomfortable. Don't know if I'll go see another movie in the theater before this baby comes, unless the seats can recline!

Aiden wanted to be held on the escalator so then Janie wanted to as well! She doesn't normally even want to hold our hand in public, let alone be held, but she wants to do everything Aiden does!!

We met up with Mom and the Shurtz' at City Creek and had dinner at Blue Lemon. Then we headed across the street to Temple Square to see the lights. It was the first night for the lights and it was packed!!

Always a little tricky to get a good picture with Christmas lights.

And yes, I wore a blanket around that night. I don't have a maternity coat because I don't really need one in AZ so I just wore my cozy cardigan and a blanket..haha.

The kids were loving the fountains around City Creek. Trent stayed out with them while us girls checked out West Elm. It was Black Friday after all!

We got back to Jenn and Michael's that evening and got packed up to head out the next morning. Always so bittersweet.

My mom rode back with us on Saturday so it was a little bit tighter, but it really went quite well again. We were so impressed with the kids! They did great!! And they hardly watched anything on the tablet on the way back. And hardly complained, even when Trent accidentally drove us an hour in the wrong direction after we ate dinner, adding an additional 2 hours to our trip..haha ;)

It was a great Thanksgiving! Thank you to Jenn and Michael for letting us stay! I'm so grateful we got to stay almost a full week. As I mentioned earlier, with such a long car ride, and being 32 weeks pregnant, that was the only way I was willing to do it! And now it's just about another 2 weeks before we get to see everyone again!!