Thanksgiving in Utah

This year we headed to Utah for Thanksgiving. 9 of John's 10 siblings were there so it was quite the affair. We were able to stay for a week and a half and the kids loved every minute of it. It was a little harder on the adults since our kids decided to wake up at 6 or earlier every morning and Netta had so much fun she peed her pants on multiple occasions, but despite the difficulty of traveling with kids, it was totally worth it to get to see so much of John's family. We also had the added bonus of getting to see my sister Meghan and her husband Jared and their daughter Lucy.

Austin is relatively kid friendly, but let's face it nowhere can really out do Utah in the kid friendliness category. You name it and we did: the Nickelcade, the Aquarium, the Dinosaur Museum, rollerskating and bounce houses, etc. John's family pretty much took over the bounce house place and Meghan and Jared joined us as well. King had a blast.

Lucy was a little unsure of whether or not she liked it.

I desperately tried to get a picture of Lucy and King together but they just both down right refused to cooperate. Meghan tried to wrangle them into her lap, but neither one really appreciated it.

We stayed with John's sister Misha and her family. They have a daughter Arden who is a year older than EZ and they had so much fun together. They also have a daughter named Sable who is a couple months older than King, but they didn't get a long as well. In fact King learned to say "No" while we were in Utah to keep Sable away from his toys and his personal space. Here they are at the Dinosaur Museum.

Since John's family is so big we ended up spending a lot of time in Church buildings so the kids could have space to all play together. We had Thanksgiving dinner at one and a game night as well. King and his cousin Henry were both in one the binky and frisbee action.

EZ LOVED getting to play sports with the big kids. Every time we go to Utah we feel so guilty leaving and taking our kids away from their cousins. Although, I nearly froze to death while we were there so I am not sure we will be moving anytime soon.

Of course Netta loved being with all the older girls as well. Here Netta is with her cousin Seville. I think Netta would have spent every minute with her if she could have.

On Thanksgiving Day, me, Misha, Nikki, Jacque and Meghan all ran a 5k Turkey Trot. I was excited about doing it, but a little nervous because I had done nothing to prepare. Meghan and I ended up together for most of the race and thanks to the fact that she had no plans of walking, I ran the whole race as well. I think it helped that she was pushing Lucy in a stroller and that kept her running more at my pace. Despite the freezing cold, it really was fun and to top it all off they handed out the most amazing Stephan's Candy Cane Hot Chocolate. The stuff is to die for. I have some pictures of the race on my phone, but I am so behind on the blog that if I wait to post this till I have those pictures on the computer than I will never catch up.

So the trip was a blast and we are just hoping that maybe next year some of John's family will be able to make the trek to Texas so we can see them more than once a year!