Thanksgiving in Utah

Thanks to some vouchers for 2 plane tickets that Jack's parents generously let us use, we were able to go to Utah for Thanksgiving this year.  Jack & Jackson used the vouchers for Southwest, but for me to fly with them would have been ridiculously expensive so Clayton and I took a different flight.  That always adds a little excitement to the trip, but we made it work.

We arrived on Saturday and went down to Provo to visit Jordan & Shawn.  We spent the night with them and had a great time visiting.  Poor Jackson--he was allergic to their cat, and despite our efforts to change the sheets and keep him away from Gracie, he woke up in the morning with such puffy eyes!

...ok, maybe he didn't stay away from Gracie completely.

 We went to church at our old ward in Orem.  It was so nice to see all our old friends and neighbors, though several were out of town.  My friend Janelle had just had a baby a few weeks before so we were able to visit them and meet the little guy.  Jackson and Logan picked right up where they left off 6 months ago :)

 While we were in Orem we also got to visit the Furr family.  We were so blessed to get to know them while we lived there.  Their family kind of adopted us and Jackson liked them more than he liked us most of the time :)  Reading stories with Katrina...

 Playing with Brady...

 A trio on the piano with Corey...

After dinner and more visiting with Jordan & Shawn, we headed back up to Bountiful again.  On Monday we visited Grandpa & Grandma West.  When I told Jackson we were going to their house he asked, "Is Grandpa going to pull off his thumb?"  This kid has a memory---and Great Grandpa West has made an impression.

 Grandma was showing off her new toy and taught Jack how to use an iPad :)

 Clayton ate lunch in the same high chair that his Great Grandpa West used when he was a wee lad.

 As always, Grandpa got the dishwasher going after the meal...

Back at the Shirts' abode, Grandpa told stories of ancestors for Family Home Evening, including telling about Lesley James Shirts (Jack's great-grandfather) who owned a saw sharpening business and played the saw like an instrument.

 He was also working on hanging pictures of ancestors on a hallway wall.  Fortunately Jackson was there to lend a helping hand.

On Tuesday we ran lots of errands around town and then we stopped in to visit Grandpa Rushton.

We had dinner and played with Don, Kristi, and gang that evening.

....more of the trip to come!