Thanksgiving Weekend

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Utah. Our weekend started out with a stormy ride to Grandma's house. We left Thursday morning 2 hours behind schedule, and it rained and snowed the whole way there. Jeremy had to work the night before, so he was running on empty, and I stayed up packing until 1 a.m. Let me just say, we were both very tired and grumpy. After our 4 hour ride over the river and thru the woods, we finally arrived at Grandma's house.

Our Turkey dinner was very delicious, and so worth the wait (we didn't eat until 5 because of our travels). We enjoy the traditional thanksgiving feast, with the exception of pumpkin pie. We replaced it with Pumpkin Cheesecake, Coconut Cream, and Strawberry/banana cream pie. Boy, were they delicious. I think the only one who missed the Pumpkin pie, was my Grandpa, and he didn't complain, just looked a little disappointed. After stuffing our faces, we played games with the kids, and planned my elk hunt for the following day.

Now about my Elk tag. I was fortunate to obtain a tag where I can hunt any (open) Southern Utah Cow Elk Hunt. One of the open hunts was the Dutton which is extremely close to where my family lives. My older brother knew of a good place to drive around (because I didn't want to freeze on the 4-wheelers), so we headed out bright and early for the hopeful harvest. After driving for several hours, we finally came across some tracks, so Jeremy and I headed out on foot thru the snow. I am disappointed to say that we didn't see a thing. I did however fall on my butt while hiking down the hill, so at least we had something to laugh at.

Later that day, we went up to another area on the 4-wheelers, and still found no sign of Elk. Just one lonely 5 point buck. We decided to wait and try our luck with another hunt.

On Saturday, we helped my mom put up her Christmas lights, and then decided to head over the mountain to Cedar City to see a movie. Jeremy was a good trooper and took all the kids to see Bolt, while my mom and I went to see Twilight -even though I had already seen it once. I have to say it was better the 2nd time. I think that I was more awake for this one as well since the 1st time was the 12:01 a.m. showing. It was fun spending time and sharing a whole bucket of popcorn with my mom. (Yes we ate the whole thing) Both of the movies were fabulous, and I was so relieved that the kids were so good for Jer.

Sunday after church, we headed out to Red Canyon so that we could attempt a family photo. It was a bit windy, and Logan did not want to cooperate, so there were only a few that turned out Christmas Card worthy. That's okay, because it's was fun spending time with the kids, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. After dinner, we packed up and headed home.

Here are a few of the pic's from the day.

This ones my favorite with the wind blowing the hair.

Although the weekend felt very short and rushed, I am very thankful to have been able to spend it with the ones that I love. I hope that you all had a fun and safe holiday weekend.