A thanksgiving trip, three birthdays, and lots of activities.

We spent out Thanksgiving week in Utah, this year.  The kids got the whole week off of school and when we heard that my brother was traveling in from TX we decided to come for the party.  We had a blast being with so much family, in fact in seemed that every moment was jam packed with fun.  While there we celebrated Patty's, Amanda and My Birthdays, since they all fell in that week.  It was crazy! But so fun and worth all the chaos.  We spend Wednesday at the Utah Natural History Museum.  Very cool dinosaur, native american, and natural disaster exhibits.  Maren is putting together a pot with Madison, it was magnetic.  

The boys loved the dinosaur area, and this play area was awesome.

We also went ice skating and all of our family and Emily's got out on skates, pretty impressive with seven kids between us.  This little man got confident pretty quick, once he decided to try it. 

Thankgiving day we played a little b-ball.  Jacob got to play with his cousins and shoot a few hoops after the big kids finished.

We had a fabulous feast with lots of yummy food..and the kids made gum drop turkeys while the adults were in our turkey coma's.  Spencer made great friends with his cousin Jackson.  They both wrestled off their turkey feast in the backyard for a good hour.  It was fun to see him find a cousin that he really clicks with. 

Amanda turned 13 on Thanksgiving Day, so to celebrate we had a mento/soda explosion contest, courtesy of Maren and Dad.  Grandma's Pepsi Max won.  Amanda was spoiled by having so much family to share the week with.  She got lots of fun gifts and was spoiled with attention.  

 A few nights before I surprised her with an opportunity for her to meet her favorite author, Brandon Sanderson.  It was so cool.  He had lots of great things to say about the writing process and how he got started, and what it is like to be a writer.  She got several signed books from her favorite series and a few others, plus we got to see his "hanger", basically a really big garage that serves as his office and book storage area.  She was star struck.  I only wish I had remembered to get a picture, gahhh!  But the picture I have in my head of her expression when she first saw him is worth a million real ones.  True jaw dropping, stammering, surprised moment.  I still can't believe I have a teenager!

We also fit in swimming at the Steve's hotel pool, a day at Trafalga, Despicable me 2 and a night a temple square to see the lights.  My kids have never seen these lights before.  And I haven't seen crowds like that in a long time.  I was just grateful that we managed to not loose anyone.  That I managed to get a few glances in of lights was a bonus.  Jacob kept thinking that temple square was called temple of prayer, and wondered why we weren't going into the temple of prayer all night.  Love those four year old conundrums.