Thanksgiving in Utah

This year our Thanksgiving was with Tyler's family in Utah. We traveled two days and got there Wednesday afternoon. Everyone was at Grandma's house by that night. The kids love going and playing with their cousins, and once we're there they don't stop. The kids are always running around, playing, and just staying busy. Aubrey and Taryn were both fascinated with Lucy and loved playing big sister to her. I thought they were being so cute, so I took a few pictures as they played.

 

 

When large groups of kids sit still long enough for a picture, I try to grab it. I love getting pictures of as many of the cousins together as I can.

 

Taryn was impressing Grandma and Grandpa with all the words and animal noises she says. I caught this picture of Grandpa holding her because she knows how to find anyone's phone in hopes of playing games on it. Unfortunately Grandpa's phone didn't have games, but she sat on his lap for awhile before figuring that out.

 

Taryn and Anson are only like 6 weeks apart. I took a ton of pictures when they found each other on the stairs and ended up sitting together. I couldn't quite get any of both of them looking and smiling at the same time, but here are few that I did get.

 

 

Thanksgiving Day was full of cooking and eating. With our huge family now (16 grandkids) we had to have our Thanksgiving meal around 3 tables. Here are the two kid tables.

We went to the movies on Thanksgiving Day which has been a tradition whenever a good movie is out. We went this year to see Frozen, in 3D. It was awesome and the kids (and adults) loved it. We took up an entire row in the theater and then some on an additional row. I was surprised with that many kids how they all stayed put and enjoyed the entire show, even Taryn and the other younger grandkids.

We took a walk to the school and park near Grandma's house at one point to get the kids out of the house and to get some energy out. I liked taking pictures on this outing, but it didn't last too long since I was one of the first ones to head back with the kids who needed to go to the bathroom.

I did like what pictures I was able to get though.

 

 

The cousins did a gift exchange and they were all super excited to open their present and had a fun time delivering the present they had picked out to the person they were buying for.

 

Aubrey got a huge sticker book. Tessa received a purse with a necklace, and Abby got a Lego Friends kit. They were all happy.

 We drove up the mountain for the Utah families to pick out their Christmas trees. We went for moral support and to let the kids play in the snow. We had to buy new boots and jackets for most of our girls so they could enjoy the cold, snowy Utah weather. They had fun in the snow, although Taryn didn't like it too much. She was fine as long as she was being held, which was kind of a pain for Tyler or me while we trekked through the woods. I took pictures along our hike and at a bridge where we stopped to rest.

 

 

 This was the most snow we saw. There wasn't much at Grandma's house, but there was plenty here on the mountain where the girls could trudge through, make snow angels, and slide down whenever they found little hills. The funniest part of the trip was the size of tree that Tiffany and Justin ended up with. It was huge around the base and tying it up on their van was a feat in itself. Seeing their van drive around with this huge tree on top made everyone giggle.

The adults spent time playing games, relaxing, or cooking and baking. We were also able to go to the temple one night, which I had been looking forward to since we started planning our trip. The kids stayed busy playing and having fun together. It was sad when it was time to head home.

 

The drive to and from Utah was uneventful thankfully with not much snow or bad roads. We did hit a bad patch of fog during our drive home, but it wasn't too bad. We always love being with family even though the drive is long. We always wish we could stay longer. It is always so much fun.

Matt and Taylor's Wedding

Over Veteran's Day Weekend, we traveled to Oklahoma for my nephew, Matt's wedding. He married Taylor Wright on November 9 and we were excited to be there for their special day and to spend the long weekend with family.

 

 We stayed in a rental house with some of my siblings and families right across the street from the wedding hall. This was in Medicine Park, Oklahoma.

 

We were excited to see Uncle John and we snapped a few pictures as he would grab the girls passing by.

We took a walk along the river that was next to our street. The girls liked following the path and finding all the left over decorations from what must have been a haunted walkway from Halloween.

 

We had fun finding cool places for pictures, like in front of the huge duck.  Abby attempted to look cold at a North Pole-themed food shack.

 

There were also fun bridges that of course we had to cross even if it was just to walk to the other side before coming back. We missed having John in the siblings picture.

 



 

We even caught a quick family picture before the girls ran off again. Abby was my little model for a lot of the photos, so we finally got one together at the end of our walk.

The main event of the weekend was, of course, the weekend. My girls plus my niece Chloe were in matching dresses. 

Here's our family picture with the groom, my nephew Matt.

 

And another picture with all the grandkids. Rebecca was the flower girl and I loved how this picture just reflected the light like a glow off of her golden dress. Cute kids!

 They had a table all set up with activities like coloring pages where my kids spent the entire evening. Taryn even had a great time staying busy there.

 

Tyler ended up staying at the "kid table" for the whole ceremony, but I did join him long enough for a picture of the two of us.

 

We got a cute picture of Taylor, the bride, with all the girls in their cute dresses. This was one of my favorite pictures. Their wedding was so fun.

 

And of course there was dancing. Abby was so excited to dance with her dad. Tyler played nice and danced with each of his girls. I had to sit in a corner with misty eyes for awhile watching Tyler and Abby dance because even though she's only 8, I could just picture it being her wedding day and seeing her dance with her daddy; and it was a bit emotional for me.

 

 We had to cut out a little early on all the fun of the wedding as you can tell from Taryn's yawn because the girls could only last so long.

We even had Abby take a couple pictures while Tyler and I were dancing. I had to keep this first one even though Tyler looks so funny. It's because he was going "take the picture" you know how you do when your kid is handling the camera and taking forever. The second picture was the best we could get out of her even though Tyler's head was cut off a little. Fun memories.

 

While cleaning up the rental house before leaving the next morning, the girls decided to dance together with the iPad. It was too cute.

Grandma Willes was able to fly down to be there for the wedding, so I'm glad we were able to get a picture with the family even though the spot we picked obviously wasn't ideal. We were in a hurry to get home.

 

Well, this entry is getting quite lengthy, but we did so much fun stuff and I took pictures of all of it, so we continue:

We drove through the Wildlife Refuge on our way back home and saw some buffalo and longhorns. The girls thought it was fun when we described where we were going by saying it was like a zoo, but instead of the animals in cages, we were the ones in the cage (our car). We stopped next and walked through what's known as the Parallel Forest, which was awesome. All the trees lined up perfectly and we had fun walking around and even lugging the stroller though.

 The girls had fun looking for animal tracks which they were able to find quite a few.

 The Fall colors were so pretty. I made the family stop so we could get a picture. I love this one (it's the wallpaper on my phone currently) especially because of all the girls' facial expressions. Taryn and Aubrey both look like they are so bugged that we made them stop to take a picture. It's awesome.

  I spent some time taking pictures while the girls tossed the dry leaves up in the air. I couldn't ever get them all to look at the same time while the leaves were falling, but their happy smiles were definitely genuine.

 

Here's my favorite picture of the girls with Chloe in a dry stream bed that we passed through.

 

We also drove up to the top of Mount Scott which is the tallest mountain in the Wichita Mountains outside Lawton, Oklahoma. My girls kept giggling because we were going up there with Scott and his family and so my girls kept calling it Scott's mountain. We stayed long enough for a picture and then left - it was quite windy and cold.

 

We spent the rest of the evening at Grandma's house and we drove home Monday. We stopped by Chic-fil-a for lunch before the drive and I got one more picture with Grandma Willes and some of her great-grandkids.

We love being with family and were happy to have the long weekend to spend together. Congratulations to Matt and Taylor and we were so happy to be with them on their special day. We love making awesome family memories.