Thanksgiving

Yay Thanksgiving! For Thanksgiving we got to fly out to Utah. Woot Woot! As always, I freaked out a little bit when I thought about flying with Madi. I'm always scared she will have a melt down or be cranky on the plane.  And as always, she was an angel.  Seriously, she did amazing.  When I told her it was time to take a nap, she grabbed her dog and her blanket, laid back, closed her eyes, and went to sleep (true story).  And when I said jump, she said how high. Ok not really. But she was that good.

We flew into Vegas on Monday night and stopped for dinner at Cafe Rio on our way up to St. George. Umm...yum.  I miss that place so much.  Luckily I found a copycat recipe that I can make any time I want. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday were mostly spent preparing the house, grocery shopping, and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was mostly your typical Thanksgiving day.  Cooking, cooking, cooking, and eating, eating, and eating.

But Thanksgiving would not be complete in the Hymas family without a morning workout.   On the menu that morning was "death by push-ups".  Long story short, Bruce did about 200 push ups and I did about 90.  Crazy workout, but fun.  Especially when everyone is doing it together.

And of course who eats Thanksgiving dinner without making napkin bunnies?  ;)

Also, isn't it just the cutest when the husbands clean up dinner? :) 

After dinner we took the kids to the park to run off some steam.  It is so fun to see Madi running around on the playground.  At one point she was climbing a ladder that was a little scary for her. When she got to the top she raised the roof and said, "woot woot".

On Friday we hiked the Temple Quarry Trail. I really miss living so close to the mountains and being able to go on little hikes like that.  The Temple Quarry was where they mined rocks for the foundation of the St. George Temple. You could still see the holes from where they drilled the blasting mines. Cool dude! ;)

Later that night we grilled out and made smores.

Saturday we took family pictures before everyone left. 

Grammy and Papo with all the grandkids.

 And later that evening we took the girls for a carrousel ride and grabbed some ice cream at Neilsen's Frozen Custard.

We also wanted to be able to visit with family up in Provo so Sunday after church we made the trek.  It was really fun visiting Provo. Driving around brought back a lot of memories from when Bruce and I where dating.  Aw, tender. hehe. ;).  It was also good to visit with family and friends up there too.

Monday was spent running around town doing things that out-of-town-ers do when they visit Utah. Like going to the Distribution Center and Deseret Book. We also went to Temple Square to see all the lights.  My little brother Zacky, who is going to school at BYU, got to come with us!  When I was living in Utah I always wanted to have one of my siblings out there with me.  Then right before Zack decided to go to BYU we moved to NC.  Just my luck!  But it was fun being out there at the same time, even if it was for only a couple of days.

Tuesday was spent visiting old teammates and roommates and getting ready to leave the next day.  By Tuesday I think we were all a little vacationed out and ready to come home and get back into a good routine.

I couldn't have asked for a better trip.  In the words of Simba from the Lion King (the movie we watched several times on our trip) it was "slimy, yet satisfying". Ok, maybe not slimy.  But we were fully satisfied with our trip and all the things we got to do and people we got to see.  I am so grateful that we were able to make it out this year.  I loved spending time with family.  Life doesn't get much better than that.  I am so very very blessed to have such a wonderful family, to have my health, and the gospel in my life. My Heavenly Father is so good to me.  Oh how I love Him so. :)

Some pics of Madi with her cousins.