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?