Thanksgiving in Utah

We caught the red eye flight into SLC and arrived just before Thanksgiving day to celebrate with the Bean cousins. No time was wasted in getting out the board games and playing for hours. New this year was Battleship.

We drove over to Provo for a walk around BYU campus, visited the bookstore and then went to the Bean museum, which I had never visited before. 

David and I were able to sneak away for one night to stay in Provo and go to the Provo City Center Temple. It was so beautiful inside. And while this picture may not look like much to most people, Provo will always hold a special place in my heart. 

More board games

 Cheering on the runners at the Turkey Trot

Shooting the BB gun

 And playing with a lot of cousins

Then we all went ice skating. Some were more excited than others. But they all gave it a try. Dallin struggled and struggled, but just kept trying. 

Carmen has always been a natural on ice skates and helped him a lot.

 David even tried!! I didn't even know until this day that he had never tried ice skating. He gave it a good go too. 

Some lasted longer than others. But we all had a good time and a good laugh about the whole experience. 

David held my hand pretty tightly the whole time. Slow and steady...

Making paper snow flakes

 Games with Uncle Tim

And because Aliza and I both value alone time, just the two of us snuck away for a lunch date to In and Out. It was just what we needed. 

A group went over to the church to play some family basketball and Carmen ended up twisting her ankle pretty badly. We ended up getting an X-ray, but it wasn't broken. She borrowed Uncle Jeffs boot for the rest of the trip and used David as her crutch until we found some to borrow. I think David secretly enjoyed have Carmen rely on him so much!

 No trip to Utah is complete until you've been to Temple Square to see the lights. It's always so gorgeous and always way overcrowded. 

Somehow we ended up with just Dallin in our group. All the girls got separated from us and were with Aunt Melissa. So it was kind of fun to just be with Dallin and the oldest cousins. 

Charlotte had a school assignment to interview a family member about traditions. She chose Grandma Bean. I wish I had recorded this little discussion, because it was awfully sweet. 

I arranged to see my cousins from my Teerlink side of the family. There are so many that live in Utah right now. So we got together at my cousin Shaila's house for Sunday night ice cream. I think Grandma Teerlink was there in spirit. Some of these girls I haven't seen in years, so it was fun to catch up with them.

 And I got to have breakfast with one of my sweet college roommates, Calli. We shared a room together at Ricks College and shared a lot of late night talks. We hadn't seen each other in over a decade, so it wasn't nearly enough time to catch up, but still so fun to see her. 

And this was our last night in Utah. I think we got up at 2am to catch our flight back home. Here's Dallin enjoying one more round of BS and more snuggles with Roxy. 

We sure love to visit our Bean family. While we wished we lived closer, none of us would really want to live in Utah. We just take every opportunity we can to visit them and make the most of long distance cousins.