So Much to be Grateful For!! Thanksgiving 2008

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to drive to Provo to see Jason, Heather and Brooks. We started out with a 14 hour drive. We rented a big 8 passenger Suburban which we managed to fill to the gills with food (including a 22 pound turkey in a bucket of brine), luggage, a high chair, several laptop computers 2 carseats with their occupants and 5 adults. Connor calls the Suburban Grandpa's bus. It was surprisingly not that crowded. Connor (barely 2 years old) and Corey (10 months old) were amazingly good considering they were strapped into carseats the whole way. We went through 2 Eloise movies, Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid.

We arrived at Heather and Brooks' apartment just after 1:00 am. We dropped Jacki, Terence and the Boys off there. Brian went home to Jason's apartment and we went to the Courtyard.

The next morning we were back at Heather and Brooks' home by 9:00 am to get Bob's famous brined turkey into the oven.

Connor loves the stepstool in the kitchen which made him just high enough to see what was going on.

Corey enjoyed getting to know Heather while she fed him some oatmeal.

With so many people, you barely notice the kids climbing across the furniture.

Most of the men walked to the park for a while to throw a football around and let Connor play. They also went to pick up some borrowed tables and chairs which came in handy for dinner.

Matthew (Tijs) joined us for his first Thanksgiving since coming back from his mission in Tijuana. It was so nice to get to talk with him and learn about how he is doing. He bonded with both Corey and Connor.

Matthew not only played with the kids, but he did some potato mashing too. Thanks Tijs!

Of course there were cameras everywhere.

I thought we would keep things simple with 11 people in the apartment, but Heather had planned ahead with traditional Thanksgiving decorations. We had plenty of room for everyone.

The food was delicious and the company was great!

Brooks contemplates the meaning of life in the glow of the candlelight.

After dinner, there were bodies and blocks spread across the floor. Pie anyone?

I'm so glad we decided to make the trip to spend Thanksgiving with the kids. We have so much to be grateful for.