Thanksgiving

We made a surprise trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. Up until about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving we had no plans to go back to Utah this year but Andrew had a bunch of vacation days he needed to use and we happened upon some super cheap plane tickets and so off we went!
It was a blast! We got to stay for eight whole days! We spent tons of time with cousins and at Aunt Gayle's house. On Thanksgiving we went up to Uncle Phil's house which was awesome. They just built a new house and they even have a play room that has a basketball court, a rock wall and a huge slide. The slide was surprisingly fun (yes... I tried it... multiple times)
Our kids were in heaven. Between the good company, and the good weather (not to mention all the animal friends we have been missing so badly) We couldn't have asked for anything better.

 AnDee (of course) rocked the climbing wall. Even her older boy cousins that live in the house couldn't compete. The girl is a natural... to bad we live in Illinois and its not a skill that she can put to much use right now.

My kids got reintroduced to their Uncle Caleb. Its been while since we got to spend some good time with him and Im pretty sure he reached favorite uncle status within minutes.

Ike got to learn how to drive the truck (He was so serious about it. Super funny)

 and ride a camel

 My kids miss their dogs almost as badly as I do. We all wanted to go visit Betty but never had the chance. It probably would have just resulted in tears anyway.

Every morning when the kids woke up, the first thing they asked was if they could go to Gayles. The poor lady was pretty worn out by the time we left but when you do cool things like fishing and making cupcakes and planting gardens my kids are gonna spend every second they can with you!

We are so so so blessed to have such awesome family and friends. This trip was so relaxing and pleasant. Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to spend time with us!