We got to go to Boise this year to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday and Thanksgiving all at once! Pretty awesome. This celebration has been in the works for 2 years. No lie. I've had an invitation on my fridge for 2 years. I decided I wasn't taking it down until it happened. My dad and his siblings did a great job planning everything. I'm sure they were all exhausted at the end of the weekend. It was great to see aunts and uncles and cousins who I haven't seen for years. But the greatest part was seeing my grandma and how happy she was to have everyone together. She's one of the greatest people I know. There are about 150 family members for her to remember, and remember them she does. She doesn't just know everyone's name, but also what they're busy with, what they enjoy doing, and even what they're struggling with. She sends a gift and a card for every single birthday. Yep, all 150. Every single member of the family feels loved by her. Zero judgement, just love. Jake may not have been excited to go to Boise, but when I reminded him why we were going he couldn't complain. She's the best.
The weather tried to keep us from going. There was a huge storm almost the whole week in Utah. Jake tried to say the roads were too bad to go, but I reminded him that we frequently drive on horrible roads to go skiing so I'm sure we could manage. Miraculously, Parley's wasn't awesome, but otherwise we somehow slipped through in between storms. Definitely felt blessed for that miracle. We got to Boise just in time to eat lots of yummy food. We caught up with family and got to watch an awesome slide show of my grandma.
We stayed with my cousin Jenn and her family. They were so great to let us stay. They live on 5 acres with farm animals, so I thought we would fit right in. They even let us ride horses. My kids were sooo excited for that. In keeping with my bad animal experiences, I may have fallen off the horse. People wonder why I don't like animals... We got pictures taken as a huge group. They went impressively fast. We did lots of swimming in the hotel pool. Swimming with Uncle Toby is enjoyable for teenagers and little kids. And we made it up to Ann and Brian's to see their awesome land and have a delicious breakfast. All in all a pretty great Thanksgiving I think.
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| Amazing decorations |
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| Look at all of those people! |
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| Watching the slide show |
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| All of the Mark Spjute Clan |
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| Even the teens were into swimming baseball |
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| Pictures at the capital |
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| Sage finally got to ride a horse! |
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| True love to walk someone else's kid on a horse in the freezing snow |
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| Devouring pizza after swimming. Let's just say they ate a lot |
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| Cute grandma telling us all how happy she is to have us all there |
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| Singing Spjute Family songs |
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| Who can get the balls out of the box fastest? |
