As promised, here are the details of our Thanksgiving trip. It ended up being a very different trip than we originally planned.
What we thought would happen: Leave Wednesday 11/22 and drive to Salt Lake to have Thanksgiving Festivities with Al's side of the family. Leave on Monday 11/27 to go to Colorado to spend some time with my family.
What actually happened: Al's mom called on Monday (11/20) afternoon to tell us that his grandmother was being released from the hospital to go home to die. She urged us to come to Boise as soon as possible to spend time with her. At the very last minute we decided to leave on Tuesday after work and drive through the night to Boise (good choice as the kids slept the entire way). Once we were in Boise we decided that we would stay for Thanksgiving day and Al's Utah siblings decided to come up as well so they could see Grandmother.
Al's grandmother has been ill and in pain for many, many years. As difficult as it was to say goodbye to her, we all knew it was what she wanted and what was best for her.
Thanksgiving Day: Thanksgiving day was so much fun. Most of Al's extended family lives in Boise so it was SO FUN to see everyone and spend time together. The cousins got together for an early morning Turkey bowl and had a blast.
We had a massive family dinner at a nearby chapel with all of the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I'm guessing there were 80ish people there for the dinner. It was great to catch up with people that we hadn't seen for years. Here are some pictures from the meal: 
This is Al's Uncle Bill pushing the kids around on the tables. I don't know if you can tell but every single child has a look of pure delight on their face! Our kids loved it!
Carter and Makenna especially loved playing with their little cousin Lauren. She is such a sweet little girl and SO cute!!
Friday 11/24: Spent more time with Grandmother and family. We stayed by her bedside and sang songs as a family. Each individual family had time to spend with her to say goodbyes. We decided to continue on to Utah in the afternoon and that we would adjust our trip as necessary for grandmother's passing. Here's a pic of the drive down to Utah with Uncle Jake and the kids.
That evening at Steve and Meg's house, Jake opened his mission call and will be serving in the Lima, Peru South mission. We are all so excited for him.
Saturday 11/25: About a week before our trip, Al's brother Steve called me and told me that he had secured tickets to the BYU/U of U game for himself and for Allen. Al and I had been looking for weeks on Craigslist and ebay for tickets but decided the prices were just too steep for us. I knew Al was super bummed but he was ok with it. On Thanksgiving morning Steve presented Al with a poem about the BYU game. Here's Al's reaction when he realized he had a ticket to the game:
I knew it was a dream come true for him. Meghan and I decided to surprise our husbands with these shirts to wear to the game www.UtesSuck.com 
. Al showed me the shirt months ago and I had already ordered him one for Christmas. Their tickets were in the Utah alumni section and they apparently were harassed plenty for wearing them. I'm sure Al will give a blow by blow review of the game on his Blog, so I'll skip it here. They had a great time.
While the boys were at the game, I took the kids down to Provo and walked around campus, the bookstore and had ice cream at the creamery. We had lunch at our favorite Provo restaurant, El Azteca. That night we met up with everyone at Temple Square to look at the lights (it was a total madhouse). None of my pictures from TS turned out but we had a great time. This is the kids at the Joseph Smith building. Notice they are wearing their BYU celebratory garb.
At least the temple looks good in this picture. You get the idea though.
Sunday 11/26: We received a phone call on Saturday that grandmother had passed away at 10:30 a.m. The funeral was scheduled for Monday at 11:00 a.m. We knew the kids were burned out of being in the car so I decided to stay in Utah with the kids while Al went to the funeral with his siblings. I was especially sad that I didn't get to see Al's sister and brother who flew in to Boise for the funeral but it was the best decision.
On Sunday afternoon I took the kids up to my childhood best friends house in Syracuse. We hadn't seen eachother in 5 years since we lived on opposite ends of the country and were never in Utah at the same time (she just moved back from Las Vegas). We had the best time being together. I was sad when I finally had to leave to put my kids to bed. I'm definitely planning to see her more often now that we live in the west. 
Monday 11/27: Al and his siblings attened the funeral and then drove home. I was able to have lunch with one of my dear mission companions, Lizzy. Unfortunately no picture (not sure what I was thinking). It was so fun to be with her for a short time. She works at Thanksgiving Point and I was hoping to take the kids to the dinosaur museum but apparently Makenna was feeling sick. 4 diaper changes and 1 complete blowout later, I decided to forgo the museum. I had to strip her down to her diaper and shirt and she was pretty grumpy. I did get this picture of Carter with one of the dinos. He was thrilled. 
Tuesday 11/28: We drove to Denver on Tuesday. It took us 12 hours to get there from SLC - normal time is 7 1/2 - 8 hours. The roads were treacherous from the moment we hit the CO border and were caught in the middle of a big winter storm. It took us almost 4 hours to get from the Loveland, CO exit to my parents home in Littleton (usually about 1 hour). The highway was actually closed at one point and we were stuck on the highway for over an hour, not moving. The kids did surprisingly well. I have never been so scared driving before. We are grateful we made it in one piece.
Wednesday 11/29: My 31st bday!! It was a pretty low key day, as far as birthdays go, which was fine with me. We got up and let the kids play in the snow for awhile. Ironically we were ill prepared for winter weather. Last year we went home for Christmas and it was in the 7os the whole week we were home. Anyway, the kids had a ball in the snow and lasted much longer than we anticipated. 
We went to lunch with my parents and then I helped my mom in the afternoon setting up her creche exhibit (more about that later). Al and I were able to go out after the kids were in bed and had dessert and went to a movie (Stranger than Fiction, which I do NOT recommend spending movie theater money on - it's a definite rental).
Thursday 11/30-Saturday 12/2: The real reason we went to Colorado was to help my parents with the Interfaith Creche exhibit they were in charge of this year (technically it is my mom's calling but my dad was her total right hand man). My mom has been involved with the creche for the last 5 years - originally on the committee, then serving as co-chair for the past two years and then this year as the Chairperson. It's a huge, huge deal with thousands of people coming through the exhibit over a 4 day period. It is held at the stake center in my parents stake, but you would never be able to tell. They completely transform the stake center. The display includes over 800 creches from around the world. They had a Jerusalem room that held all the olive wood creches from Israel that was amazing (mom designed it last year). You felt like you stepped into a different time and place. There was a creche room for Asia and Africa, children's creche creations, a Europe/Americas room and Children's room where all the displays were interactive. It was amazing. The staging looked professional and was museum worthy.
This year my dad built a lifesize manger and animals to be displayed in the entry of the church as patrons were walking into the coat check area. It was incredible. Here are a couple pictures:
This isn't the greatest picture but hopefully you have some idea of the scale of the whole creation. This took up one huge wall of the entryway. Here's a close up of some of the animals:
And a picture of some of the camels that were outside the entrance to the exhibit.
I have many more pictures but since much of the work is copyrighted by the artist, mom asked that I not post them on my Blog. It was an incredible, testimony experience for all who visited the exhibit. It was so nice to emphasize the reason for this holiday season and the Savior's birth. You can see their website for more information: www.interfaithcreche.org
Mom did an AWESOME job organizing this event. It has pretty much taken over her life for the past year and will continue to do so as she is going to be the Chair for one more year. She was even interviewed on a morning news tv show to talk about it.
Saturday 12/3: Drove from Denver to Utah and spent the night with our close friends from CT, the Perschons. Our visit was much too short be we had such a great time with them. We planned out more details for our trip to Hawaii that we have planned with them at the end of March 2007. We can't wait to have more time together.
Sunday 12/4: Drove all the way from Provo to Seattle (16 hours with stops). What an exhausting trip. The kids did quite well and slept for much of the time. We were even able to meet up with Al's mom in Burley, ID for a quick lunch as we were driving through (she was on her way to UT).
Anyway, we had an awesome trip but are glad to be home!!
1 comment:
Monique,
Sounds like a fun trip, but very exausting! It almost makes me happy to be in CT and have a nice calm hoiday with just our family. Love seeing your family!
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