Thanksgiving & a Visit from My Parents

I invited my parents to come for Thanksgiving, and they surprised me by coming! I was excited for them to come. I didn't take any pictures of the actual Turkey Dinner, but it was delicious! My mom even brought blackberry pies - the blackberries picked in Oregon! YUM. (I ate every last bite... in fact the last piece of pie I ate for my birthday breakfast - I figured it was my birthday & I could eat what I wanted to, even if it meant pie for breakfast.)


More on cooking the turkey. Jesse had seen shows on the Food Network last year about making "the perfect turkey" and wanted to try it this year. I got him all the supplies he needed and he did everything else. (I had a pretty relaxed Thanksgiving with little cooking/preparing myself... that was nice.) Needless to say, Jesse researched every in and out of the recipe (e.g. why so much salt in the brine? why brine a turkey? why kosher salt? etc.) which definitely paid off - that was probably the most delicious turkey I have ever eaten! You can find the recipe HERE. It may just be Jesse's job every Thanksgiving from now on... :)

The day after Thanksgiving we took my parents on the hike we call Slots. (We took Emily & Christian on this hike when they came to visit - it's one of my favorites!)

The first set of petroglyphs
Jesse, Lincoln, Mindy, & Craig

Mary & Craig with the red mountains & Utah hill in the background

Mary in the slot canyon

Jesse & Linc

It was such nice weather! (I understand why my parents wanted to come!)
Notice the short sleeves...
Jesse, Linc, Craig, & Mary

After the morning mayhem, we even went shopping on black Friday. It wasn't even bad at all and we got some great deals. It is really nice when we get visitors - especially Grandma & Grandpa! The last time they saw Lincoln was at his baby blessing. I'm glad Lincoln was able to see them for the few days they came to visit. :) Thanks for coming!! (& Thank you for the early birthday & Christmas presents!)