Hard to believe, but it took us a whole year to get back to Utah after our last trip! It was so good to be with family and spend time together doing some pretty unique and fun things. Here were some highlights:
Sunday:
Meeting BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum after sacrament meeting with Grandma Deb. The kids became instant fans, haha!
Making brownies with Grandma
Celebrating Grandma's birthday! (Fun times trying to keep Jason from stealing the cinnamon cake!)
Assembling our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes together. Lots of fun--this would be a good tradition to continue!
I love this picture!!!
On Monday we did a little shopping and chilled. That night we met up with cousins and aunts and uncles to deliver our shoe boxes. The woman helping us said that this was the biggest year they'd ever had, and she'd been doing since the early 1990's. The boxes will be shipped to children in need and hopefully make their lives a little brighter.
Afterwards we went to the Iceberg for milkshakes. Rhiannon, Wade, and I had never been--the, uh, "Mini" milkshakes were NOT mini! Super good, though!
Another night that week we got together for pizza and bowling--we had a blast! Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma!!! After bowling we went back to the house and played this gross-out jelly bean game called BeanBoozled that the Croppers had picked out. It was SOOO funny! Colton, Heather, and the 4 CA Cushings survived to the end. (I'll have to get some pictures from Brett and Jaymie--I know they took a few pretty good ones!)
Thanksgiving Day was lovely and relaxing. Dinner was delicious and there was plenty of time spent on games (The Great Dalmuti and Wits & Wagers were favorites), visiting, and EATING. Thanks also to Grandpa Rod who treated Wade to a much-needed haircut (we were inspired after watching a funny Blackish episode together!), and to Grandma who took Rhiannon shopping for Black Friday sales with Jaymie and McKaleigh!
Our trip was drawing to a close rapidly, and we were happy to get a visit in "down south" to Pleasant Grove with Jordan and Amelia's family. Their new home is beautiful and BIG, with lots of room to run and play and spread out! Thank you for lunch and the house tour and catching up!
And just like that, our visit was over. We loved spending time with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Rochelle, Brett, Jaymie, McKaleigh, Colton, Alex, Matt, Heather, Sam, Tyler, Lilly, Charlie, Jordan, Amelia, Jonah, Nolan, August, Reta, David, and Rose. Memories with family are precious!
We left Saturday morning very early in snow, all the way to Fillmore. That is always a little terrifying for me, especially when we miss idiots sliding into us (always in Provo for some reason!) on the slick, icy roads. Jason did a great job getting us through it! We turned off in Las Vegas towards Death Valley and had a very quiet, non-eventful rest of the way home, haha!
What a great trip--we loved it all!
