Steve's brother Doug invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them in St George. We thought it sounded like a great plan so I booked a VRBO the night they called us and we have been looking forward to lovely getaway. The kids helped me make some pies we and cookies we could take down for the festivities. I didn't get a picture of Andrew helping me with the banana coconut cream pie but here Marcus is helping me with the apple cranberry and Lila is eating caramel out of her hair from the caramel chocolate pecan pie. 😂
The boys also worked really hard on some little thank yous for their school and primary teachers. We had a lot of fun delivering those the Sunday before Thanksgiving and then they took them to school on Monday.
Monday night November 25th, Ellie texted me telling me she wasn't feeling well and what could she take. I had sent her with a few cold meds but she had already used those so I went to bed worried about her. Tuesday is her long day of classes and she didn't know if she would have time to go to the store so I decided I would do a food order with some cold meds and take it to her. I texted her to tell her the plan and ask if she wanted anything specific. Then I got ready and headed out. I also wanted to get my eyes on her to see how sick she was if traveling was still a good idea. I met her near her dorms with the food I had picked up from Smith's and realized the ice cream I had ordered was out so we decided to run to Trader Joe's and see what fun things they had. We shopped for a bit and found her some fun new flavors of ice cream. Then we picked up some lunch from Zuppas to go so we could get the ice cream to her freezer and ate in the commons area on her floor. It was a lovely day and I'm truly grateful I took that time to go visit her. Another benefit of her being close. 💓
Our kids had school and play rehearsal Tuesday, November 26th and Steve had late pickleball league that night too and Ellie had class on Wednesday morning so we didn't leave until 10:30am Wednesday, November 27th. I thought we would order lunch on our way down from Spitz but the Spitz I was trying to order from didn't have some of our favorite things so we waited to get food until we stopped for gas in Payson. Then we hit the Abry's there which happened to be inside a gas station so I let the kids get a treat too. It was a nice get of the car for a bit even though we had just picked Ellie up about an hour before. Then we made it to our VRBO where we unloaded and the boys immediately found the arcade corner. My head was starting to hurt so Steve ran to pick up the groceries I had ordered. Doug and Joddy stopped by quickly then we decided to watch a movie as a family. We were trying to find one of the new Grinch movies but couldn't so we landed on Home Alone which ironically had a grinch scene in it. The movie went way past the boys bedtime but we had so much fun and it was a nice evening.
Thursday morning we just took it easy which was nice. I was a little dizzy, I think that ear/sinus infection was finally clearing out and causing some balance issues for me and we were all a little tired from traveling. Just as Ellie and Steve were about ready to head out on a bike ride Doug texted and said he was taking his boys to ride prospector so they met up with them for that while I went for a walk with Lila and then we had a ping pong tournament with the boys when we got back and we may have had a slice of pie along with our Thanksgiving charcuterie board. Then we went swimming.
The
lazy river was fun then Andrew braved the slide. When Steve and Ellie
arrived he convinced them to do the slide with him and then they all sat
in the hot tub for a few minutes before we had to leave to get ready
for Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner was yummy and we got to say hi to Sydney on her mission in Hawaii.
Their boys are always so good to my boys and they adore them. We met Dash too and he and Marcus hit it off great.
We taught them Happy Salmon.
Then Andrew was showing signs of being really tired so we decided to take the kids back to our place. We put the boys to bed and the girls watched the season finale of dancing with the stars while Steve and I metup with the other crew to play "midnight pickleball" ok it was 8:30pm but that's just what we called it. 😂 It was fun and their boys play tennis so they all have incredible serves and were really good.
Friday they wanted to go bowling but when they got to the place it was a two hour wait. We drove past the pickleball courts and they were full so we decided to go back to our VRBO and visit for a bit since they had their oldest Ethan with them who is still on crutches from his accident in August where he shattered his femur and he just broke the rod again and is going to have another surgery, poor kid. So we visited and the boys had a ping pong tournament. Then we all got ready to biking at this trail I had heard was good for beginners. Because the cool cousins were there Marcus got on his bike like it was something he does all the time and went right out onto the trail.
Unfortunately the first section had a bit of a canyon ledge that made us all nervous so after his first crash he came back and he and I rode the fire road back and forth a few times. We even saw some of our neighbors out on that trail and they rode with us a for a bit which Marcus thought was pretty cool.
Then the group started rolling in. Andrew and Lila both did great (you might be able to see Steve and Lila on the trail behind Doug). So we were happy everyone had a good experience.
We went back to our place ate some food and watched Home Alone 2. Ellie started our last puzzle in our subscription for the month. We thought we might meet up for "midnight pickleball" again but Doug's family was frozen after going to see the temple lights turn on and we couldn't find an open court so we came home and played Skyjo.
The kids enjoyed drinking this wassail punch I made from the margarita glasses. 😂
Saturday morning we met them at the Elephant Arch Trailhead to do a hike. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed the scenery and the walk out there. The boys enjoyed exploring all the rocks crevices and climbing around, collecting tumble weeds, and just visiting with cousins.
Then we had lunch and went swimming again. This time the Steve and the kids used the tubes to go down the slide and they said it was awesome. They spent 30 minutes going up and down the slide.
Then we came back and started packing up for the trip home the next day. Unfortunately Andrew said his stomach hurt and sure enough he started throwing up. I felt so bad for him. I actually felt like I had gotten him to eat a good amount of food for the day and then for him to toss it, it was sad. He laid on the couch and watched Sweet Home Home Along while Marcus did the arcades. We debated driving home that night. I was worried others might get sick Sunday morning but we said a prayer that Andrew would feel better and that no one else would get sick and decided to stay the night. We stayed up with the boys and watched the BYU football game until half time again. The darn late games make it too late to stay up and watch and make the turf really slick when it's 22 degrees outside. They did well in this game though and it was fun to watch. Miracles when we woke up Sunday morning Andrew was feeling better and no one else was sick. So we packed up and headed home early Sunday in hopes to beat some of the traffic. The kids watched a couple of movies and relaxed then we let Ellie open the present that had been sitting in the car the whole trip driving her crazy. I think she had finally figured out that it was an advent calendar. She got one with new art supplies and projects each day. I also sent her a little pop up Christmas tree and if I'd thought about it I would have taken her present on Tuesday when I went to check on her and left it under the tree but this way we got to see her open it.
When we got home we video chatted with her while the other three opened there. Lila got another beauty supply one, Andrew got an escape/puzzle like one he is really enjoying, and Marcus got a fidget toy one. Miles opened his when he got home a few hours later. He chose to go to Las Vegas with some friends over Thanksgiving break.
There you have it. We had a great, low key, Thanksgiving in the sun. It was amazing. Truly so much to be grateful for.