Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family in Utah!

We got to spend a lot of time just hanging out with my parents during the week before everyone else started rolling in to town. Sam had lots of fun getting to know his grandma and grandpa better. 

On Monday, my mom and I went and got pedicures, which was fabulous! It is so nice to just hang out and relax with my mom and have someone else make my feet look beautiful. Thanks, Mom!

That night, we headed over to the "Lights On" festival in Orem. We watched the mayor and city council (including my mom) turn on the city center lights and sang a bunch of Christmas songs. 

At the "Lights On" Festival, waiting for the lights to be turned on.

Jana, Mike, Erin, Liv, and Audrey all showed up to support my mom.

Aunt Diane and Lilli braving the cold

Erin, Audrey, and Liv. I think Erin was cracking a joke here. 

Jana, Camille, and Mike.

This picture kind of looks like a MacDonalds ad - but it was a cute picture of Sam and Don, so I had to put it in here.

After the "Lights On" fun, my cousins, Erin and Olivia, her two girls, and my Aunt Diane came over and had dinner with us (I made butternut squash pasta. Delicious!) Then, Don and I went to see Harry Potter with my cousin Olivia and her husband Ben. We loved it!

On Tuesday, I had planned on heading over to hang out with my sis-in-law, Jana, but the "storm of the century" was brewing and they closed BYU (where Don was - he was working from the library) and said that any minute, we were going to be pounded with tons of snow. All the schools closed early, businesses were closing early; it wasn't even snowing yet! Not a flake! 

So, I didn't go visit Jana and Don and I didn't go to the temple because with what the weather man was saying, if we went out, we'd never get home! We'd get snowed in overnight! They recommended that no one be out on the roads (still no snow). I got nervous going out to the grocery store quickly thinking I'd be overrun by the storm and may not make it home. 

We rented a movie and waited for the storm of the century to hit!... but it never came. It was the most hype I've ever seen about a storm and then nothing happened! It did snow a lot further north, but it just missed us entirely. Funny.

On Wednesday, Don and I went to the temple and hung out with the fam. My mom and I made a ton of pies. I think we made 8 pumpkin pies? Way too many pumpkin pies. I also made a couple apple pies and made a roasted sweet potato dish  (I hate yams with marshmallows, so these are my kind of yams). My brother Brian and his wife, LeAnne came in that morning. They did have to stay overnight in a hotel because the storm of the century did close I-80 connecting Wyoming with Utah. There really was a storm somewhere. It wasn't all a lie, it just felt like it was.

On Thanksgiving morning, Don and I got up really early and got ready to run a ridiculously cold Turkey Trot in Orem. I had been training like crazy for a month beforehand trying to increase my speed. I really wanted to run the race in 8 min. miles. I was bummed it was going to be freezing cold because I knew it would make it harder to breathe. And boy, did it make it difficult! It was 7 degrees, probably colder with the windchill. We weren't prepared with clothes for that kind of weather, so we scrounged through my parents cold weather gear and found some scarves to wrap around our faces. Don was lucky enough to get to wear a really attractive blue and purple camo scarf. Ha ha!

My parents were going to do the health walk and push Sam in the stroller, but since it was so cold, Sam stayed home with my sis-in-law, LeAnne. My parents still did the walk and said they had a good time.

We ran the race and I went out too fast, so by the end, my lungs were burning. I couldn't breathe. I hyperventilated and gasped through the last half mile and nearly passed out after finishing and I just missed my goal. I did 8:02 min/miles and was unduly frustrated about it. It was really fun, though. There is something kind of exciting about doing something really dumb (running in wicked cold temperatures) with a bunch of other people who are crazy enough to be doing what you're doing, too.

Don hadn't really trained, but despite that, ran the race ridiculously fast and got 2nd in his age group, which is saying something. This was a really competitive race! He even won a pie! 

We hung around at the award ceremony with my cousin, Olivia, and her daughter Audrey, who both ran the race and then headed home.

Lining up in the wicked cold to start the race.

Don running by my parents. I love the view of snowy Timpanogos in the background.

Looking very cold after finishing the race. I don't have horns, just funny hat hair. Check out Don's sexy scarf. Nice.

Me, Don, Liv, and Audrey warming up during the awards ceremony.

Don, the dominator, holding his ribbon and pie certificate. So fast!!

We had a great Thanksgiving with tons of delicious food. I took a bunch of family pictures for my siblings families and then we just hung out and ate lots of pie.

Erin, Grandma Black, and Grandpa Brown enjoying the deliciousness. 

The spread. Yum!

Don was too busy eating to smile for the picture. Can't blame him, really.

Our awesome Thanksgiving bingo game.

Just hanging out after the feast - Madelyn, Jana, and Elyse.

On Friday night, we went to a Santa Claus parade with some of my brothers and my mom. It was really cold and there was very little to see, but Sam had a great time running around on the closed off street. It was so cold!

This picture makes me laugh. My mom really wanted a picture of all of us together, but Sam was so busy running around, he was really mad when we tried to pick him up for a picture. Then, the flash wasn't working, so this is about the 5th picture we took and Don had had it with the photo Joe (my mom's nickname) antics and trying to hold Sam still. I love Don's face of forbearance. Classic.

Waiting and waiting for Santa. Well, for anything, really. The parade had gotten so spread out, we only saw something about every ten minutes. Don and I left after an hour because we were so cold and never got to see Santa. It was still fun to watch Sammy enjoy running around, despite how miserably cold it was.

Brian and Jesse watching and waiting so patiently.

Is that Santa? No?

Dave, Gabe, and McKennan freezing their buns off. 

We continued feasting through Saturday. I went to my cousin's wife, Julie's, baby shower and then we started our drive home. We stopped in Vernal and had some Chinese food deliciousness with Christine and Josh (Don's sister and husband) and then finished our long trip.  Since Sam gets super carsick, we gave him Benadryl per the doc's orders, and he did much better. No throwing up and he actually slept a good portion of the way, which was wonderful. 

Here are a couple other great moments from our trip:

Sam snuggling with Great Grandma Black (and Bruester and binky, of course) after naptime.

Storytime with Grandpa.

Getting ready for jammy time with cousin Camille.