Thanksgiving

Now this is my JOY, and my great THANKSGIVING; yea, and I will give thanks unto MY God FOREVER!" -Ammon in Alma 26:37

 



Thanksgiving in San Antonio

I have three lovely cousins living in Texas and they were kind enough to invite us down south to spend Thanksgiving with their families.  (Even though the 8 hour car ride--- and no, it's not SUPPOSED to take that long--- wasn't pleasant) it ended up being a crazy fun family vacation!

The day before Turkey Day we headed to Sea World.  It was a great day to go because the crowds were so small and the weather was AMAZING.

The whole park had a Christmas theme with decorations, music, and even the shows were Christmas oriented which was surprising in this anti-religion world we live in (it was definitely more Santa focused).



Hyrum was tall enough to go on almost all the rides and LOVE, LOVE, LOVED them.




Waiting for Shamu...




waiting...




waiting... 
(expecting a 17 month old to wait for ANYTHING is literally asking for a melt down- thank heaven for jelly beans and cookies!) 



Still waiting...
Ivy and Hyrum are at such fun ages for theme parks and shows- everything is so magical!



One of the few rides Ivy could enjoy (due to height requirements).



Feeding the seals- too bad Hyrum refused to touch the slimy fishes.



THANKSGIVING DAY



Two cute little girls!




My cousin gathered marshmallows, candies, and toothpicks so the kids could make their own turkeys while the food was being prepared- so fun!



Finally time to dig in!!!

As you can see, Hyrum had his usual meal of carrots and rolls.

After the DELICIOUS meal we headed to the park- it was such amazing weather the whole time.

Here's the whole group



And here's the cousins

It was such a fun day being with family and catching up with my cousins who I haven't seen in years.  Being with them took a little bit of the sting out of not spending the holiday with my fam.  THANKS LADIES!!!

We decided to spend one more day at Sea World before we headed north.  It was a little bit more crowded and we were all a bit more cranky from fatigue, but it was still another fun day.

dolphins



I love this shot- pure joy



Delia was a little trouper hanging out in the stroller all day.

Catching another ride.

They had this GIGANTIC jungle gym the kids loved, so this picture was actually taken like forty feet in the air!



Catching another ride... daddy style.



penguins

We loved walking through the candy cane forest.

Saying goodbye to Shamu.

I'm so glad we decided to take a quick trip to spend some quality time together.  I can't wait to go back!

We're Thankful

Family, Church, Friends, Freedom, Home, Neighbors, Beauty, Laughter, Food, Love- it all sounds so redundant and simple, but we're so very thankful for the amazing blessing we've been given from our Lord.

Even though we weren't with family this Thanksgiving it ended up being a wonderful day (and not quite so stressful as our Utah Thanksgivings where we try to make it to both sides of the family's meals).  The food was amazing and the company was the best...

We're thankful for our dear friends the Lamms who had Thanksgiving at their house (nothing's better than going to someone else's house, pigging out, letting your kids trash it, then going home to a nice clean house.)

I'm thankful Bry made all 10 layers of my Mom's famous rainbow jello. And Bry's thankful he has such an AWESOME mountain man beard.

We're thankful our kids have such great little friends and they're so healthy and happy.

I'm thankful Delia's hair is long enough to hold barrettes now, so it doesn't look quite as crazy.

Who wouldn't be thankful of this little baby doll?

We're so thankful for this silly little boy for keeping us all laughing.

We're so thankful for our saucy Ivy girl who is in charge and knows it.

Yes, we have so very much to be grateful for- what a BLESSED life!

(The boy up top with Hyrum is our friendly neighbor with his cute little puppy)

Bry and the kids colored pictures of what they are thankful for.  I thought they turned out so fun:

Ivy Girl's

Hyrum's

Bry's (love the teeth:)