Thankful Thanksgiving

I wanted to go home for Thanksgiving really badly, but having my family in Sandy with me was the second best thing. I loved being with them again!

Monday and Tuesday I had classes. It was a pretty easy couple of days. I didn't have to worry too much about anything. I had a chemistry exam on Monday morning that kind of wasn't too fun, but oh well. It's over with now.

Almost all of my roommates piled out of here on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, so I was pretty much on my own on Tuesday evening. I was a little sad about it at first, but Kristin stuck around. We went to see "Twilight" in the theater. It was pretty cheesy, but had a funny appeal to it. We went to Coldstone to get ice cream after the movie. It was so busy that night! I ended up having chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream with a brownie in it and it was delicious.

Wednesday morning I piled all of my stuff in my car and headed out of Cache Valley by about 9:30. I made it to Salt Lake only screaming at two drivers and being almost run over by one truck. I was so excited when my family showed up around 3:30 that afternoon. Brian hurt his finger so Aunt Elaine had to take him to the emergency room. Eventually, he got out without anything too wrong with him and Aunt Elaine, Uncle Ken, my family and I went to California Pizza Co. at the Gateway mall in downtown Salt Lake. The food was pretty good. It was way busy there, but we got in in about 30 minutes. Thursday was typical Thanksgiving. Aunt Elaine made an amazing dinner. My family went and picked up Grandma Vance at her cute new place. We've discovered that it's easier to get her in and out of my Hyundai Sonata than my mom's Tahoe, so I got to drive. It was the quietest I've ever seen that road that morning. When we got back Aunt Elaine was busy making dinner and managed to have enough pie crust left over to make a small apple turnover for us to sample... delicious! Poor Lindsay felt so crummy that day but she was a trooper and made the best of it. Mike, Jenny and their boys, James and Erick, showed up a little after Mandy and Josh. This year we had 15 at our Thanksgiving dinner. To some families that's not many, but to my family of four that's a ton!

Lindsay was such a trooper.

Mom and Aunt Elaine made an awesome dinner!

This freaking carmel for the sweet potatoes took forever to thicken!

On Friday, Dad and I drove up to Evanston, WY to visit Great Grandma Nanny. Lindsay had hoped to come with us but she was still sick and we didn't want to get Grandma sick, and Lindsay just didn't really feel up to it anyway. Grandma Nanny is so cute! We helped her clear out her summer clothes and put in her winter ones. Between Dad and me we had it done pretty quickly. We had lunch with Grandma and were back on our way again at about 2:00. Mom and Aunt Elaine had spent time getting Grandma Vance's room decorated for Christmas and it looked so cute!

I think this is my favorite picture of Grandma Nanny ever.

It was so good to see Grandma Nanny again.

Saturday we went to American Fork so we could catch up with Dad's side of the family. We went to Aunt Megan's and visited there for a while before we met up with Uncle Randy's family at PF Chang's. I hadn't ever been there before but it was so delicious! I loved it! After lunch, Alyssa, Shalee, Lindsay and I went shopping at University Mall in Orem. It was pretty busy that day but it was fun. I didn't buy anything even though I had Mom's credit card. I didn't mention that fact until I got back to Aunt Megan's. Alyssa made me laugh. She said, "You had your parents' credit card and you didn't buy anything?! Get in the car, we need to fix this!" I just decided with it being so close to Christmas I didn't need to get anything. Alyssa treated us to two Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolates... delicious!!! Lindsay and I both got cherry cordials and orange cremes. That evening I attempted to help Lindsay with her homework, though I don't know that I could call my attempt successful, but at least we tried. Mom and I did some shopping at Tai Pan Trading, which has got to be one of my favorite stores in life! They have the cutest decorations! They had cuter things for Halloween, but I got a cute nativity set for my dorm.

Yay Cousins!!! :)

Aunt Megan always seems to have her camera handy.

Sunday morning came way earlier than I would have liked. Mom and Dad suggested that Mom ride with me to Brigham City so I would have someone to talk to for most of the trip. That certainly worked for me! It made things go much faster. I always hate saying good bye to my family, but it wasn't too bad this time because I knew I'd be seeing them again in less than two weeks!

Lots of love and Strawberry Aggie Ice Cream,

Carlie