Sunday, November 16, 2008

Trip To Utah

My mom was called to serve as a missionary in the Baltic States Mission and was scheduled to report to the Missionary Training Center on Monday, November 10. So, everyone got together for a celebration on Saturday, November 8.

Julie, Ashley, Cori, and I flew up to Salt Lake City early on Saturday morning (our flight departed at 7:10 a.m.). After arriving in SLC, we picked up our rental car and drove to Mom's house. Jared, Nicole, and Dan drove up from Provo to join us.

The kids made themselves right at home, with the girls playing Kerplunk! and the boys reading the newspaper:

My sister Julie had arranged for a photographer to take family photos, so after lunch, we headed over to Murray Park. We arrived first, and waited on a bridge over a little stream for everyone else to arrive.









Everyone else finally arrived. It was great to see everyone; I couldn't believe how much older some of the nieces and nephews had become!

We had a total of 26 people to work with, and with our group, that was no easy task.










He finally put us altogether, and I think we got a pretty good photo of everyone. I'll post the photos when we get them back.

After the photo shoot, we all headed over to a stake center near Mom's house, where we enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a 25-pound turkey and all the trimmings, plus a dozen or so pies. We had nearly 50 people there. Thanks to all who made the trip to share in the celebration. It was great to see everyone.

Of course, the night wouldn't be complete without an updated photo of Nicole, Ashley, and Cori: