Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving was a small event this year (as expected). We were done with our coronavirus quarantine the weekend before and John went back to work for a few days before the holiday. 

On Thanksgiving day, we headed up to John's parent's house to meet with his family (just immediate family this year, so siblings only). We brought the strawberry pretzel salad and sweet potato casserole. Strawberry pretzel salad was actually never a tradition in my family or John's but I'm glad it is sort of a tradition now. It is so good! 

We also ended up bringing 4 pies which was just enough! Danny and Bethany were in charge of 2 of the pies but they got covid a few days before and couldn't come this year. Just like John predicted, the chocolate and Oreo crème pies were gone first. The pumpkin only had a little left by the end of the night, and the berry (Jenny's special request) had about half left. Overall, I found out a few years ago that I am actually terrible at making pies! They were all store bought and that's how it's going to be if I ever have to bring a pie to something again. Haha! I know I could practice and get better at it, but store bought pies taste better usually and don't cost much more anyway.

After eating, David and I got to talk to Tami for a bit on the phone (here's the picture we sent her). She's doing great and had a very small Thanksgiving with some of the other missionaries in her area in Texas.

We ended up having a white elephant gift exchange which was fun! We gave Upwords (a game), a big Zen garden, a "beach hut" bird house, and Boppi the booty shakin' llama. For months, the kids have been asking if we could just keep Boppi as a toy, but I did not want to keep that thing. Spencer opened the llama and somehow it ended up coming home with us anyway... Now Brooke is afraid of it (not sure why) and Aaron dances whenever it turns on... I'm not sure how long that thing will stay in our house. Lol. 

Here's what we got from the white elephant:

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed down to St George with John's family. Friday, we met everyone for rock climbing and then went and swam in the hotel pool. We had all three kids share a queen bed and Aaron was mad at first that he didn't get it all to himself. He was trying to push David off the bad. Haha! 

Saturday morning was pretty cold and David was grumpy for most of it. Mostly he was just upset that we weren't really doing kids stuff. We went to a park that morning that had an America Ninja Warrior course built into it, and it ended up having nothing for kids except for a bunch of sand and a few slides that were too steep for our younger kids to go on without help...  not really kid friendly. And then his aunts and uncles were pressuring him to go a five mile hike with them. I don't blame him for being grumpy that morning. I think because he's the oldest grandkid people forget that he's still only 7... He cheered up though after we went to the train/dinosaur park with just our family (instead of the hike with everyone else) and then swam in the hotel pool. Christine didn't go on the hike either and instead we drove her to get her and Marcy Chik-fil-a and then back to the hotel for Marcy's nap. Can I just say that I love that Marcy will cheer up with Chik-fil-a! Super cute and funny! 😂

Sunday we had the sacrament and a small gospel devotional before checking out of the hotel. Dad offered to drop Jenny, Lindsay, John and I off for a bike ride and picked us up afterwards. It was a great bike ride although I did have to get off and walk at the very top of two tall hills. Something about this pregnancy is making my legs tired even just going up stairs. And of course the pregnancy shortness of breath and extra weight isn't helping either! One definite plus side is that the bike seat was much softer this time. During our Moab trip, the bike seat felt like a rock. This one at least felt like a rock with a few washcloths wrapped around it. Lol. Mom and Christine were super kind to take our kiddos through the Botanical Gardens while we did that (Christine is 7 months pregnant and a long bike ride was not sounding like a great idea.) and everyone else did more rock climbing. 

We drove home after lunch and ended up driving an extra hour from some accidents that happened on the highway. 

It's nice to sleep in our own beds again and we're looking forward to Christmas! We ended up setting our tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving anyway since we were home with covid so now we just get to enjoy the season! 20 more days!