Thanksgiving in Utah?

That's not a misprint. No we did not spend Thanksgiving with Grandma Judie and Grandpa Peanut for the 2nd year in a row. We had a Brinkerhoff Thanksgiving in Highland so we could fit our massive and ever growing family into 2 houses instead of one. It made late night random funny togetherness a little bit more logistically challenging but we were up for it. We had the whole week off so we drove up there the Saturday before. On Sunday when we went to church, my favorite part was when Daniel was upset that TJ wasn't sitting with us because he was conducting the meeting. Then when Sacrament meeting was over he stood on the bench and yelled out "TJ!" I think he likes his uncle. Matt's parents & Josh came in Sunday night and the Thompsons plus Taylor came Wednesday night. Early in the week, I got my new necklace that I've been wanting since early September. It's a locket that I can put charms in so I have an "M" for Matt, an emerald for Daniel's birthday, a peridot for Nathan's birthday, and little blue baby hand prints. It's something I can always have with me so it's pretty much perfect. I've gotten dozens of compliments on it too. On Thanksgiving morning a whole bunch of us retards actually got up early to run a 5K. And paid for it. Logically as I say it out loud, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but apparently I felt the need to do it. It was nice finishing it though, I'm not going to lie. I finished in 35 minutes so I might as well have been walking but nevertheless I can attest that I was indeed "jogging" 95% of the time. I stopped only once for about the length of a the Walmart. After the Turkey Trot, they had a kids dash and I wanted Daniel to do it because all the other kiddos were and I thought it would be super cute. He wasn't thrilled though because he was still half asleep so Brooklyn and Reece had to hold his hand to get him to go to the starting line and we had to promise him a new car. All about the currency, right Julie? He was excited about his medal that he got though later in the day because it was "just like Brady's" since Brady has a bunch of karate medals in his room.

He looks super excited right?

Thanksgiving dinner was super yummy and I think I have a newfound appreciation for potato pearls after how long it took me to wash, peel, and cut an entire 40 pound bag (ok I might be exaggerating) of potatoes. The kids got to sit at the fancy table so they felt special. I especially enjoyed the turkey cupcakes though.

Friday we didn't do the whole black Friday shopping thing. We went out later in the day for a few things and scored on a few deals but it was nice just relaxing. That night we had an adult night at Tepenyaki because I hadn't been there since Matt and I were engaged. I know, it's a little ridiculous. The funniest part of the night was LouAnne flipping out over TJ saying "baconhead" all night. I know that sounds retarded and it totally was but if you were there you would've been laughing, promise. Especially since it continued on later night as we played our Nertz tournament, where we were champions again! Which was good considering we hadn't added anything to the trophy yet from the last time we won. We left the next morning and were still wiped out on Sunday but it was a total blast!