Thanksgiving in the Mountains

This past Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving I have been able to be home with my family since before John and I were married.... that's 7 YEARS of Thanksgivings away from home.  Luckily in those 7 years we've been able to be with John's family for the holiday and have had some wonderful Thanksgiving days.

 There's nothing like being home for the holidays though and it was SUCH a wonderful one this year!!  During the week we had tons of fun and hardly slept at all.  Sunday we got to have a little Christmas kickoff at my sister Shannon's home where we watched Elf and drank hot chocolate, played games for hours, laughed a ton, watched the boys wrestle each other and then wrestle Aunt Burtney (also known as Brittany), and ate some good food.  It was a blast.  Monday was Colby's 15th birthday and we got to tease him like crazy after some cute girls in the stake dropped him off a candy gram and some goodies and then got to play at the park during the day and go out to eat with all the Baron family to celebrate that night.  Tuesday was a really nice day too.  John and Josh ( my sister brittany's awesome husband) were awesome and watched the kids all day so we could have a girls day! YAY for girls days!! We got spa pedicures, went out to Cafe Rio, did some hair supply shopping, and went to see the new Twilight movie... which was shockingly pretty good (that's saying a lot coming from me!).  It was so fun to have that day with my sisters and mom! We had a blast.  My sister Brittany also cut my hair and colored it over those few days and worked wonders with my hair...  I seriously love it and have gotten so many compliments on it! She is amazing! She knew exactly what my hair/head needed to look good again!

The day before Thanksgiving we packed up and headed up to my Grandparents place in the mountains to spend the holidays with The Billings (my mom's side of the family).  I love going up to their place... they live in this gorgeous log cabin with a HUGE kitchen for lots of good meals (seriously, i always feel like we gain 10 pounds when we go there), a HUGE kitchen table where lots of games are played, lots of room, a beautiful view of the mountains, and they have lots of tractors to ride, a volleyball court and best of all, horses to ride!! They boys were so excited to be able to ride the horses.  They found these sweet little kid motorcycle helmets to wear while riding, which made for some awesome pictures. Anyways, I love the billings family... always so many laughs and good times, including some pretty great family volleyball games.  It was so hard to leave Friday to head back to Orange!  But not to fear, we got TONS of pictures to document our fun!   And sorry about the long description... since we only get a trip like this every 7 years, though I am hoping to change that, I wanted to get a good family journal entry of all our fun!  Without further ado, here are the pictures:

 Early morning sling shot shooting with Uncle Colby

 So Gorgeous!!

Baron riding the tractor with Grandpa

 Brushing the horses with Grandpa Billings (my grandpa- the boys Great-Grandpa)

My cousin Kelsey is a senior in high school right now and really into photography.... we got her to take a few family pictures for us, even though it was pretty chilly out!  She was so sweet to take them!

This one was the best family one we could get... the boys are impossible when it comes to family pictures

My handsome 5 year old

And my goofy soon to be 3 year old

 Always makes me so happy these two love each other so much!

 LOVE THESE BOYS!!!

Shooting with the boys

After Thanksgiving dinner.... there's my grandma in the back!

And here's the motorcycle helmets... they wore them all day

It was a beautiful day!

 Uncle Colby

 Aunt Burtney

This year during the Thanksgiving season the top 5 things that I am most grateful for are:

1. Being able to be with family for the holidays!

2. The support and love we have received this last year from family and close friends

3. My little boys- I cannot stop hugging and kissing them and enjoying them more and more each day... they are seriously hilarious, so creative, so cute and sweet, so good and easy and so much fun!

4. My wonderful husband who has seriously been my rock this year and truly my best friend

5. The temple and having one close by.  Nothing brings me greater peace and strengthens my resolve and adds more strength to my week than spending a few hours in His house