Giving Thanks

We were so blessed to be able to visit our family and friends in Utah for Thanksgiving this year. Last year we spent the holidays at home with friends, which was wonderful, but there is something truly magical about being home with your family for those special occasions.

We arrived on Monday to a much warmer Utah than I expected (thank heavens!). Tanner and Karianne graciously picked us up from the airport and then took us out for breakfast. I hope they know how wonderful that was! We had been up since 3:30 KC time and 6 hours later I was starving! 2 packets of airline peanuts were not going to cut it.

Other highlights from the week included:

• Lots of time catching up with Mom and Dad
• Cooking with my mom and sisters Thanksgiving morning
• Going out to dinner with Melissa, Zuke, Lisa and Nathan
• Black Friday shopping with Melissa, Annie and Whitney (that was fun!!)
• Getting my hair done with Natalie and Alexander at a surprisingly good salon for a surprisingly low price
• Taking Natalie shopping for new clothes for a special occasion 
• Spending 3 hours on silly little cornucopias seen on Pinterest. (it was almost a Pintrosity, but I persevered and figured it out)
• A fun photo shoot with Melanie
• Chatting with Natalie about her missionary's return
• Going out to dinner with Mom and Dad
• Hanging out with Melanie in my old college apartment (It was weird how much it was the same 7 years later! There were some things that had been in there since my time like a sunflower oven mitt and a banana chair!)
• Eating lunch with Tara and Jaclyn and catching up on the VitalSmarts gossip
• Going to Carter's homecoming talk
• Decorating the Christmas tree with Mom

I had so much fun with everyone!! I was so sad to leave, it's always a bit heartbreaking saying goodbye to my mom and dad. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful and supportive family and such loyal friends who still want to spend time with me even though I'm terrible at keeping in touch. I know there were people I didn't get to see and I wish I had! Next time I will try to see more of you so that we can catch up! :)

Fun Pics:

Natalie is hiding between the manequins

Some of the gang Thanksgiving day. I was there, just off to the Left ;)

Our beautiful Thanksgiving Pies (complete with all the Black Friday ads)

Some of our photo shoot photos :)

Melanie: doesn't she look hot?

True Foodies

In early November my BFF, Melissa, flew out to Chicago for the CMTA conference. She is an active group leader for the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (for the neuro-muscular disease both she and her daughter have). The conference was an awesome opportunity for her.

The trip was also an awesome opportunity for us to get together. It was fairly easy to justify the 9 hour drive up to Chicago when we are normally 19 hours away from each other, so on Saturday morning I jumped in the car and headed up. The weather was gorgeous! It was a sunny, warm 75 degrees and I happily wore my capris. I arrived at the hotel in time to rest a little bit before going to the CMTA recognition banquet with Melissa. It was neat getting to meet her new friends and learning more about the disease she endures.

After the conference concluded Sunday morning, we found a nice restaurant. I did a bit of research that really paid off and found Weber Grill. The food was fantastic! I had a Black Angus Meatloaf that just melted in the mouth, we some yummy mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. Seriously delicious! I also splurged on a Passionfruit Lemonade that was divine!

My Meatloaf:

Here is a pic of Melissa eating her Crab Cake (which she said was amazing):

After lunch we hit the road and headed back to Kansas City. Unfortunately,  we were following a storm line and I spent 6 hours fighting strong winds and heavy rain. I guess that's what I get for such a nice drive the day before. Despite that, we had a great 9 hour catch-up conversation. It reminded me of the good ol' days and weeks spent on a tour bus for choir tour. :)

Monday was full of random Kansas City sight-seeing. We went shopping at Crown Center and ate at our favorite restaurants. We had Chinese at Bo Ling's and we took Melissa to eat the best of KC Barbecue (in our opinion) at Fiorella's Jack Stack. Oh how I love that food! I always get the BBQ Baked Potato with burnt ends. Yum! 

Okay, so, the potato doesn't look particularly good, but it really is. Trust me!

On Tuesday we finished up our tour with some good ol' American cuisine at BRGR. If you go you MUST try the white truffle tator tots and the onion straws. They aren't messing around there. The strawberry shake wasn't half bad either. ;)

Mine is on the right and is called a Mangia burger, complete with Parmesan crisp

White Truffle Tator Tots, Onion Straws, and Classic Fries

Melissa enjoyed a chocolate Oreo and I had Strawberry :)

Thanks Melissa for visiting us and giving us an excuse to go on a "best of KC foodie tour".  We loved having you visit and hope you come again soon! We'll even let your husband come with you this time ;).

To all the rest of you, consider this an open invitation. We have a guest bed waiting and some gourmet food to share.  :)

Halloweeny

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love being able to dress up and decorate things to be just a little bit spooky.

This year we had a ward trunk-or-treat and chili cook-off. Alexander and I enjoy having a theme to our costumes so this year we took our cue from an old Disney movie, "The Sword in the Stone". If you've seen this movie it's probably been awhile, however, it's one of Alexander's favorite movies. He dressed up as Merlin and I dressed up as his nemesis, Madam Mim. Very few people knew who I was, but I had fun with it anyway. :)

Merlin without his scratchy white beard:

The Marvelous, Mad, Madam Mim!

I also dressed up at work. However, as I would be flying solo on this one, I dressed as Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I got a lot of good comments about my nose.

We also hosted a little Halloween shin-dig for anyone who didn't have plans but wanted something to do. I had a lot of fun decorating for this party. We had a good little turn-out and our friends dressed up in some awesome costumes :)

The Friends:

Sara and Ellie

Steve and Ellie

Jon & Caitlin

Joe & Kathy

The Decor:

I had a bit too much fun with the cheese cloth ;)