Thanksgiving Festivities

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Well since Halloween really - but not much has happened besides Thanksgiving. The month of November was basically spent working on lots of projects for school for me and adjusting to Will's new schedule for work. Since Will has switched stores he actually has a pretty decent schedule of Sunday-Monday weekends and lots of 6am-230pm shifts so he's home most nights .... which makes it extremely difficult for me to get any actual schoolwork done. Maybe that's why I slacked so bad in November. The semester is done tomorrow - and I'm all finished except for my final chemistry test that I must get done before midnight tomorrow night! Yikes! Thanksgiving totally threw me off and it was hard to finish my class but luckily I have the day off tomorrow and will get it done!

As for Thanksgiving - we had a total blast. We drove to Utah for Thanksgiving to spend it with my sister's family and my parents. The drive through Wyoming was .... well - Wyoming but at least the weather was good - just SUPER windy!

Here are our adventures of Thanksgiving....

630am Wednesday morning leaving Denver

Had to capture the sunrise.

We missed our exit in Fort Collins so we ventured onto

"Owl Canyon Rd" exit about 30 miles South of Cheyenne.

Yeah the road were scary awful and I completely thought we were going to get a flat tire.

We were in the middle of nowhere.

We didn't see one other car - but 15-20 min. later we made it

to our original highway (hwy 287)

Then we had a long stretch of this to look forward to ....

Highway 80 in Wyoming is the MOST BORING drive EVER.

It was pretty icy in some parts but VERY WINDY the whole time.

Will drove everything except I got the stretch from Rock Springs to Evanston.

Boring.

Although I was amazed at how EVERY SINGLE body of water in Wyoming was frozen.

I made Will back-track so I could snap a shot of this river.

I couldn't believe it was totally frozen over!

I was glad we left so early though because we made it to my sisters at 2pm.

I liked this picture because it shows us all singing my other sister's fiance (Ryan)

"Happy Birthday" on speakerphone the day we arrived.

Thanksgiving was delicious and we had way too much food - too much pie particularly!

But I was too engrossed in the food to take any pictures of the feast.

I did watch how to make a turkey though and will be attempting for Christmas!!

The day after Thanksgiving was super busy as we got up at 345am for Black Friday shopping at Smiths (Fred Meyer) for 50% off sock sale.

It was Will's first Black Friday experience so he had quite a fun time : )

We also hit up Kohls where we stood in line for an hour

but my $30 roaster and 60% off holiday plates were totally worth it!

After a 3 hour nap we rode the FrontRunner train from Ogden to see Temple Square Lights.

That was quite an experience since it's a 3 level train

and on the top level you can see the sights quite nicely.

This is the Ogden station where we got on:

Will and me on the train.

My lovely parents on the train:

Two of my nephews and their friend on the train:

The lights were pretty neat .... once we realized we were on the

wrong side of the Conference Center!

We were wondering why the lights hadn't turned on yet - but we were on the wrong side!

My parents and Janelle's three boys:

Also with us down to Salt Lake was Janelle's friend Shara and her family:

My sister and brother in-law and their boys

Don't mind Dalton - he wouldn't cooperate for photos that night.

Will and the "blazing tree"

I made my mom take this photo a few times since she totally missed

the temple in the first few shots!

I won't let her live that one down.

Will particularly had a blast skeet shooting Thanksgiving Day.

It sure didn't help his ambition to own a gun. I'm still fighting that one.

Here's Will at 730am Sunday morning at JBs in Evanston.

It was pretty dead in there - and we were dead tired.

We got home at 2pm on Sunday and right away I had Will setting up the Christmas tree.

I love this photo because Abby is sprawled out totally indifferent to the tree.

The finished product - and of course it's prettier in person but cameras never do it justice.

Its brighter in person.

Our stockings hanging on the wall.

More holiday decorations!

And Will was so nice and brought me home a poinsettia from work.

It's glittery and all - but its hard to see here.

I had to post this - Will totally caused a full on stove fire one night

while making biscuits and gravy.

He wanted me to show him how to do it so he can make breakfast in the future.

He yelled at me while I was in the living room and said "Its on fire, what do I do?"

I was like "eh." cause I figured it was no big deal.

Once I walked over there to see the damage I started freaking out cause it was so big I didn't

know what to do at that point.

So Will grabbed to hose to the sink and sprayed it down.

I'm pretty sure it was grease under the burner : )

This is the aftermath:

And just for fun:

Ignore the not-so-flattering picture of me.

I've been trying to finish another knit hat but Abby is so enamored by the yarn.

She kept swatting at it here.

She's such a "typical" cat.

All in all - it was a fabulous trip and we had a great time!

Next up our One Year Anniversary is on the 19th! Where did the year go?!

We got tickets to the Colorado Ballet's Nutcracker and we're going to eat red velvet cheesecake from the cheesecake factory since we had red velvet cake for our wedding : )

It's going to be fabulous. Almost two months off from school, 1-year anniversary, christmas parties and Christmas! Busy December!

Happy Holiday Season, All!