Pre-Thanksgiving in Utah

Right next to our new house is what Liv likes to call "the end of the earth." It's just a wilderness path with a great view of the valley below.

Here is Liv looking out over the edge of the earth at sunset.

For Thanksgiving we took a trip down to Las Vegas via Boise and Sandy. In Boise, Sara had just had baby Lucy a few days before so she was still at the hospital but we were able to see the boys. We also picked up my dad who totaled his car while visiting Sara and needed a ride home.

On the way out of town we picked up some Dairy Queen for dinner. While Kylee was eating her dinner she swallowed her loose tooth (her first!). She didn't even know it was gone until I looked back and said saw the hole in her smile. Earlier that day Steve had checked her tooth and didn't think it was ready to come out, so we were all surprised!

Then she wanted to use my phone so she could see what she looked like. I ended up with just a few self-portraits and a video.

In Sandy, the kids loved playing with the pinball machines in Grandpa and Grandma's game room.

We even braved the mountains and went hiking around Silver Lake.
Even though it was super cold we still had fun.

Kylee kept accidentally stepping off the boardwalk into the snow covered lake.

Liv did great hiking until her feet froze :)

Near the end of the loop everyone was cold!

But we still managed to get one more family picture...

...before everyone's smiles fell off. That's when you know it's time to go home.

Sunset from my parents front porch.

We visited my mom at work one of the days. She arranged for the manager of the store to give the kids a mini tour. They got to go in the back of the store and see where they cut meat and wash produce, she let them pick out an apple, and they got a free ice cream cone.

Liv had fun with the drums at my parents house.

After church on Sunday we went downtown and took a tour of the Conference Center. We didn't expect the kids to last through a whole tour but they actually loved it and we're excited to tour more of SLC each time we visit Utah.

In the auditorium of the Conference Center.

To help keep our kids engaged in the tour we let them take turns with the camera. By the time our 45 minute tour was done we had 800 more pictures!! Some of them turned out pretty nice and some were blurry because of their shutter-happy fingers.

We even went on the roof to see the gardens and fountains up there. It was so fun.
I can't believe I've never gone up there before.

After ending the tour on the roof, we went across the street to check out Temple Square before heading home.

Grandpa Dean and the kids

We spent a little bit of time in the South Visitor's Center, mostly because everyone was getting tired and cold. The model of the inside of the temple they have in there is pretty cool.

Knowing that we can go back soon made it pretty low stress. When the kids decided they had done enough we headed back to the car.

The next day we headed down to Las Vegas!