thanksgiving 2013

Somehow having a child makes each holiday that much more magical.  And Thanksgiving was no different.

The drive down to St. George was a little different than the norm.  I drove.  The whole way.  In some families, that might be normal, but in ours?  Tim likes to drive, and I like to be in the passenger seat.  But thanks to this incident with Tim's knee, the only option was for me to drive our [manual transmission] car.  Let's just say that after six straight hours of driving, the sincerity of my prayers about the speedy recovery of Tim's knee increased tenfold.  [Haha.]  [But seriously.]

Only three out of Tim's ten siblings were able to make it, and it was a little weird not to have more people there.  We missed everybody.  But.  We still had a great time.  And Ellie was approximately 100% happier than she was our trip to St. George for her baby blessing.  She even let other people hold her sometimes.  And that is kind of a big deal with her.

See?  Here she is with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousin Talon:

She was also a lot more mobile on this trip, and I was continuously chasing her around so she wouldn't hurt herself when she got into situations like this:

And we actually got to sleep in a little this trip:

Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, and it was fun to introduce Ellie to some of the foods straight off my plate.  I never thought I could like sharing so much.  #sharingiscaring

Alison, Talon, Ellie, and Grandma:

On Friday night, we all went to see the St. George temple lights.

Our lovely hosts, Dru and John:

And on Saturday, we drove over to Zion National Park.  As it turns out, we picked probably the busiest weekend of the year to go, and there was no parking.  None.  Zip.  Nada.  But we did drive through part of it, and I can't imagine a prettier, more scenic drive.

After a long day of hiking in Zion [NOT], we played a rousing game of apples to apples.  Or rather, the rest of them played and I took pictures and made sure Ellie didn't hurt herself.

It was such a fun trip, and we were sad to leave.  But also happy to get home?  Weird how that works.

And now let's all pray that Tim's knee has recovered by our Christmas trip. :)