We drove to Utah for Thanksgiving week - stopping at D's parents' house in Vegas on the way up. The days in Utah were spent visiting friends and family in the area and enjoying our old stomping ground.
I bought the turkey cake mold on the drive up and made the cake for Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's (same makers as the beehive mold used for Little S's b-day..Yeah, I'm obsessed with the cake molds now). D cooked the turkey again this year, as he has in years past. After watching different turkey brining on the Food Network, he decided to try one of his own. The pros on TV used 7-up so he made up his own version and used the only 7-up we had in the house: the limited edition Pomegranate 7-Up that is pink! After brining all night, the turkey was bright pink Thanksgiving morning when we went to cook it. But it tasted great and the pink color baked away!
Little S made the turkey pine cone above at school and gave it to my mom for her dinner place setting. My mom made name cards for everyone else (pictured below). She needed extra hands at the last minute so my totally-not-crafty brother was enlisted to help finish the project in time for the feast. :) He came up with the clever turkey-day-themed nicknames for everyone's card.
Other activities during the week:
Lunch in Park City and wandering up and down Main Street (above).
Little S and I went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Salt Lake with my friend Karrie and her son Jack. D spent the hours at his favorite old book shop downtown, Ken Sanders Books.
No children's museum is complete without a miniature grocery store! Little S loved the self-check-out stand. She played here while Jack got creative with the waterworks display (classic boy/girl play preferences. The boy enjoys engineering different routes for water distribution while the girl spends time filling her shopping basket :)
They loved making music on the giant xylophone above.
A full-sized helicopter on the roof for the kids to play in!
When asked what her favorite activity was at the museum, Little S replied: "the crane!" She loved loading this thing up with foam blocks and then cranking them up to the other kids on the upper level. I think her passion for large machinery comes from all of the rides her daddy gives her on the scissor lift and fork lift at his office.
One other major activity was meeting D's extended family at a bounce house facility one afternoon. Three of his cousins, two of his siblings and 12 kids met to play together and catch up. They were all in town from various states visiting D's aunt and uncle. The kids had a blast bouncing together.
The morning photo shoot of the sisters in pajamas. Little S is still learning the proper baby hold.
Little S insisted on posing in the same way Baby J was positioned in the first picture. Needless to say, she is still adjusting to the idea that she is no longer the only princess in the house :)
