Thanksgiving Weekend

In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated in October. There is no reason to wait until November because the growing season in Canada is so short that the crops are all in and the snow is flying by October. Kira realized that she would be able to take a trip over her Thanksgiving weekend and suggested tht we could traveling to Utah to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. After all, we do have three kids living in Utah and with Kira there we could have four of our six kids together for the weekend. We were hopeful for a while that we might get Ben and Sharley to make the trip out from Colorado but that didn't work out.

So Thursday I left work a bit early and we headed up the I-15. We drove through the night and arrived at the Sanchez's at about 6:00AM. We didn't want to miss any of the fun. I love the Sanchez family and they are so good to us. I really hope we don't push their hospitality too far and have them ban us sometime but they are always so willing to open up their home to us for all kinds of family activities. 

After visiting for a bit Lisa and I slept for an hour or two and then we headed out to pick up Alex at the U. Alycia took the day off to be with us and she met us at the Sanchez's before we left. 

We spent some time at the U letting Alycia reminisce a bit and Lisa bought some shirts at the book store and then we went to see Kira at Alex's apartment. She arrived Friday late so we let her sleep in but she was up and waiting for us. We then headed down to Temple Square. After lunch at the cafeteria in the Joseph Smith building we headed to City Creek Mall.

  

We let Kira plan the entire weekend and Friday was the day we spent in Salt Lake City.  We spent most of the day at the City Creek Mall. Of course I can only spend so much time in a store and I start getting claustrophobic so I went and sat by the creek visiting with Cameron. We had a good chat until Alycia came and visited with me. She just had to see how Cameron likes lemons. I think he actually enjoyed it. At least he kept coming back for more. Alycia and I had a good visit.

I also got to spend some time visiting with Kira. I was in my seventh heaven. We then wandered around temple square for a bit. Kira showed us where Justin proposed to her and then Mom really wanted to give us a quick tour of the genealogy library where she has been spending a LOT of time lately. She has some of her genealogy lines now traced back to the 1400's or maybe even earlier. She's really turned into a genealogy wizard. She's making me want to get into it.

Friday night Kira stayed with Alycia and Trevor and we then spent the day in Provo. Alycia and Sam had to work but Sarah joined us. It was quite fun to watch Kira get all excited about places where she used to hang out. Perhaps the oddest thing was when we showed us her old reed room. It was no more than a closet with no windows and only room for two chairs to squeeze into it. She spent hours upon hours in that room making reeds for her Oboe and she nearly glowed as she showed it to us. 

I also spent a year at the Y before my mission. It has changed a lot since I attended there but I still got a bit nostalgic as I wandered past the buildings where I used to attend classes. Mostly the Engineering building which is now called something else and the Eyring Science Center. 

Trevor and Sam joined us for lunch at the BYU Creamery. That place is really good and we can't go there without buying a ton of BYU Chocolate milk and cheese curds. We then went and picked up food for Thanksgiving dinner. The original plan was to be true to the holiday and have Thanksgiving dinner on Monday but Wendy had to work and Sarah and Sam had classes so we had it on Sunday instead. That also made it easier on Sanchez's I think too. Saturday night Kira spent at Sarah and Sams. 

Sunday we went to church with the Sanchez's and then the kids started showing up with delicious food and Thanksgiving dinner was served. I can't beleive that we had all the kids together for the only time during the entire weekend and no one took a single picture of us together. Bummer. Just for the record, there was Mom and I, Kira and Cameron, Alycia and Trevor, Alex and Wendy, Sarah and Sam, Molly, Laurel, Ellie and Tessy. It was  ton of fun. Mahonry took Whitney and Brianna to New York City for a fun trip. We saw him for a few minutes Friday morning before he left for the airport and we went to bed. 

The rest of Sunday we just visited, played pool and enjoyed each others company. Finally everyone left and we went to bed. Kira spent Sunday night with us at the Sanchez's. She really managed to spread herself around this weekend.  

Monday we picked Sarah up from her class at UVU and went for a drive through the mountains to enjoy the many cool colors that we just don't get in San Diego (that is a small price to pay for our eternal summer) and they really were beautiful. It actually snowed for about ten minutes during our drive. It wasn't much more than a few flurries but it just proved to me that it was cold up there. Sam was supposed to be in classes all day long but he decided to ditch them and join us for the day. It was good to have a bit more time with him. I just hope he doesn't get in trouble for missing his classes. After our drive through the hills we stopped by Alycia's work to see where she spends her days and then it was off to Salt Lake again to drop Kira off  

I'm glad we went up there because we got to spend a little more time with Wendy than we did earlier. We considered leaving for San Diego Monday evening but finally decided there was no one there to rush back for, not even our cat anymore :( so we drove back to Sanchez's and left Tuesday morning after a relaxing breakfast.  

It was a very fun weekend and I'm glad Kira suggested it.

--------------------trivia--------------------

Salt Lake City is the only State Capital with three words in its name

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The term "seventh heaven" is from Islamic doctrine which teaches about 

seven heavens with the seventh heaven being the highest

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