Thanksgiving!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!

Thursday morning Kevin was thrilled to be able to play football with some guys from our ward. It's been years since he's been able to do this, and he was pretty happy, even with single digit temperatures and some snow.
Then we headed to Grand America for Thanksgiving dinner. It was certainly a special treat. Besides being Thanksgiving, it was Kissie and Pata's anniversary-- what a way to celebrate! I had never been inside the hotel before, it was so fun to see all the Christmas decorations-- so beautiful.
The food was amazingly delicious and a huge variety. I loved the shrimp, lobster, turkey, braised ribs, chocolate fountain, pumpkin cheesecake... well, everything! It was nice to just eat and not prepare or clean-up :). They also had ice sculptures and live music, pretty fun.
It was also so nice to not worry about what the kids were or weren't eating. Isn't this kids buffet so cute? All at their eye level so they can pick exactly what they want. I think I'll be having flashbacks every time I'm hoisting Violet up while balancing a plate and trying to dish up at future buffets. The kids buffet was full of kid favorites, plus Thanksgiving staples, and candy was spread around inbetween the serving dishes as tasty decoration.

Violet, after a chocolate dessert

She loved the caramel apples, even more after we cut it up and she could actually fit some of it in her mouth!

The kids ate until they were stuffed! Even Luke! He went to town and probably ate as much as Cora and Violet did. I couldn't keep food on his plate, he was so quick. He loved the stuffing, turkey, fruit, jello, bread, macaroni and cheese, EVERYTHING. I was amazed, he ate way more than he does at home, I guess he liked the variety!

Cora especially loved the chance to love on Bailee after they finished eating.

The whole group!

We then went back to Kissie and Pata's house to visit, play games, and swim. Friday we saw Tangled, which was a family hit, and saw the lights turn on at Temple Square. We also lucked out and saw Alex Boye preform at Deseret Book. Kevin and Dad went to the BYU football fireside (hosted by my parents' stake) and said it was great. We played games until late (a new Dominion--fun!), and stayed the night. The next day was a Tai Pan trip and a mostly exciting but ultimately disappointing football game, which Kevin attended and survived, even sitting in the middle of the U section. Lastly, we put up our Christmas tree on Sunday.

Let the Christmas season begin!!