Bright and Earl-y: Thanksgiving in Utah

Wednesday, November 16th-Friday November 25th

After spending four whole days without Owen, Brad and I were pretty anxious to get to Utah to see our little buddy and visit my family.

Playing at the park 11.16.16

Soon after we arrived, Brad and I took Owen to the park. We hadn't realized how much we missed him!

BYU Basketball game vs. Coppin State 11.17.16
On Thursday night, Brad and I drove to Provo for the BYU basketball game. Before the game, we met up with Brad's sister Kendall, his brother Bryan, and his cousin Corbin & his wife Kelsie at Guru's for dinner. We also got to sit with Corbin & Kelsie at the game! The Cougars won too which made the night even better.

My family was nice enough to babysit Owen for us and I got this picture while we were out for the night :)

Visiting the Packards! 11.18.16

On Friday night, we got to visit our good friends, Weston, Katherine, Cora & baby Kate Packard. It was so fun seeing Owen and Cora play together again. They were born within days of each other!

BYU football game vs. UMass 11.19.16
On Saturday, Brad, me, and my parents drove to Provo for the BYU football game. Before the game, we shopped at the BYU bookstore and grabbed some lunch in the WILK which definitely brought back some good memories! I'm just mad they didn't have Chick fil a when I was there for school..

Here's Brad and me on campus and my parents at the game!

Here's Brad and me and me and my mom during the game :)

Dinosaur Museum
While we were at the game, my sister Jess took Owen to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point with her friend Seth and his daughter Olivia. These are the pictures she sent me. It looks like they had a good time!

Owen trying out his new BYU hat that we bought him at the bookstore!

Visiting with Corbin, Kelsie, Kowen & Emerson 11.20.16
On Sunday after church, we went over to Corbin & Kelsie's house for dinner. Owen and Kowen had fun playing together. And Owen, being the good second cousin he is, taught Kowen how to jump from the table which I'm sure Corbin & Kelsie were super happy about.

Building the train with Pop pop 11.20.16
Owen's pretty obsessed with trains lately so he was excited to build the train with pop pop. I love the picture of him just lying on the floor watching it go around the tracks.

Lunch with Gigi 11.22.16

On Tuesday, we went to a Chinese restaurant called Water Moon with my mom and it was super yummy!

The left picture consists of Brad and Owen smiling and happy that lunch was almost there. The right picture is immediately after Owen bit into a lemon.

My first real Swig Cookie 11.22.16
After shopping at Traverse Mountain outlets, Brad and I stopped at Swig to try their popular sugar cookies and they did not disappoint!

Playing at the park 11.22.16

Here's Brad and Owen at the park. Owen's sporting the other BYU hat we bought for him at the bookstore.

Playing "horsey" with poppop 11.22.16
This picture just brings back childhood memories.

The Aviary 11.23.16
On Wednesday, Brad, me, my mom, and the Calverts (who arrived the night before) explored the aviary in Salt Lake. The kids all had a blast and their favorite part was the Owl section!

Lunch after the aviary

Afterwards, we all went to lunch at Jim's Family Restaurant.

Escape room with the Lacey's 11.23.16

On Wednesday night, Brad and I met up with Kristy & Trevor and some of Trevor's family in Provo to do an escape room. (It wouldn't be a vacation if an escape room wasn't involved!) We did one called "Reactor Room" which was a lot of fun and we escaped with time to spare. Afterwards, we ate dessert at The Chocolate. Mmmm cazookies!

The Uncle Chris series 11.23.16

Here are some pictures of the kids "playing" with Uncle Ca. You'll see a common theme of the kids jumping/crawling/climbing all over him. That's what happens when you're the fun uncle.

THANKSGIVING DAY 11.24.16

Owen playing with cousin Andrew

Sisters!
Jess, Amanda, me

Family photos

Transitioning from Thanksgiving to Christmas
It's Denardo tradition to put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving night. All of the grandkids loved helping and my mom proudly stated that she's not rearranging any of the ornaments. (good call for letting them decorate the basement tree, mom)

Christmas Jammies Pictures 11.24.16
After decorating, it was time for cousin pictures in their Christmas jammies! The picture on the left is probably the best one. And I don't think the picture on the right is exactly what my mom was going for.