Giving thanks

We had the greatest Thanksgiving! Tomorrow is coming way too soon-- this break has been amazing. The partying started Monday with some mini-golf with Giselle and Audie and then movie night with the bros and Cari and Ryan. Tuesday we spent the afternoon window-shopping and spent the evening holed up in the house, waiting for the "blizzard." Laura and I did a Christmas craft and we were just glad to not be doing homework!

Wednesday the fam arrived! We met for lunch at Zupa's and then hung around for a while. The whole family gathered at Aunt Sheila's for dinner since we couldn't all be together for Thanksgiving. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and Tyler was not sad about it at all.

Thursday morning Tyler and I went to the store to get fixins for my assignment (mashed potatoes), and we spent the morning hangin' out until Tyler went to play basketball with the boys. We met for dinner at Aunt Dana's house and had a great meal! It was so fun to be with family. After eating, we all napped and then continued eating, and then ate some more- this time dessert. We brought Laura over for a bit (she stayed with us for a few days this week but spent most of her time with our family on Thanksgiving) and left straight from there to go to Park City for BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING! Thank goodness Gabby called early to find out when stores opened- I thought no one opened until midnight, but a lot of the stores opened earlier, so we went up at about 10:30. Can I tell you about the amazing deals we found?? Wow. I found a dress at Banana Republic for $3.16. Yes, you read that right. Then I found a pair of jeans for $6! We found lots of great deals, but those were the most impressive. The whole crew (Tyler, Laura, Kurt, Garrett, Mitch, AJ, Brady, Gabby, and I) was outta there by 12:30, BEFORE all the crowds came in. We were pretty proud of ourselves! I was pretty wired after our success though- e came home and ate and Laura, Tyler, and I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls before going to sleep.

Friday I woke up pretty early, despite going to bed really late. I wanted to hit up Target, and Tyler was sweet to join me, even though he was really tired. We both agree that it was so worth getting up for- we found 3 DVDs for under $4 each, some wrapping paper, and a nice pair of jeans for Tyler for pretty cheap too. We met the fam at Magleby's Fresh for a yummy breakfast (yes, I gained 27 pounds in one week). Feeling a little large, we decided we needed to Jump On It! We had SO much fun bouncing around- we made up lots of fun games and tricks and took tons of funny videos. After bouncing our buns off we relaxed in the lobby of G&M's dorm, and read a great letter from Heidi. It felt weird not having her around! We sure missed her this week. After showering and prettying up, everyone met at the movies to see "Unstoppable." Can you say intense?? We enjoyed the movie, and now Garrett wants to be a train conductor. The movie was followed by dinner at 5 Guys (way better than In 'n' Out, don't even try to fight me) and a way fun game of Signs at Aunt Dana's. The party moved to the Runia's for movie night- Quantum of Solace. I'm embarrassed to say that I fell asleep, but, in my defense, I had seen the movie pretty recently.

Saturday started with Anatomy lab- the first sign of reality creeping back in- nnooooooooo! But it was actually very productive. I'm feelin' so ready to tackle the final on Tuesday. We watched the BYU game with lots of the family and were very sad about the outcome. That night everyone made the trek up to Salt Lake for "Savior of the World!" We loved the play and loved being together. What a way to kick off the Christmas season! Please enjoy the following pictures- taken by our early Christmas present, a new camera! I need to learn how to work this baby, so excuse the not-as-impressive-as-they-should-be-with-this-camera pictures.