Hill Family Reunion- Utah trip part 2

Saturday evening after the hike, we drove to Allison and Ron's in Murry.

She (Allison) had prepared a true feast for that evening, She had also made it very personal and sweet. She prepared a slideshow of everyone over the years, and had gotten people to say things they loved/appreciated about each other. It really was very touching.

 some of the quotes from that evening:

Of his brother, Kayden: I love when we wrestle together (but when Mama says stop we stop).
—Eli —

Mitchell is very patient and stoic, like when he was holding Eli in his lap at a restaurant and Eli tipped a large bottle of ice water in his lap, he just resolutely went to the bathroom and dried off.
He is also professional and patient at work: When I job shadowed with him, within a couple of hours he was conferring with many teachers, administrators, students, and he was very supportive and helpful to them.
—Dad —
Eli has an inquisitive spirit and adventurous way about him. He is also a great example to his younger brothers and will be a great big brother as they get older together.
-Ron —

I appreciate Melinda’s steadiness. She always consistant about what she does and what she believes. Especially in the wonderful ways she cares for her family, her boys. I admire that she is very athletic—it takes a lot of stamina and effort and have three babies and still go jogging in the morning. Not a lot of women can do that.
—Diane —

Lawrence is a sweet, smiling little guy who fit into our family the moment he came into this world. He brings smiles to all our souls.
—Dad (Mitchell) — 

My best memory of Eli is the smile on his dace when I go and visit Mitchell. You can tell he has a kind heart and a good spirit.
—Carlin —

Kayden is so joyful. He tries so hard even now when he is little to spread cheer. He will smile and laugh and celebrate with you anytime. He has such an open, honest spirit. I am so glad he chose to come to our family!
—Melinda —

I love to talk with Lawrence and play games with him.
--Kayden —

I appreciate Melinda’s joy in literature—because it seems that this joy comes from the same place as her joy for beholding the beauties of life. I see this in the way she incorporates the two in the way she describes things and in the giddy excitement that overcomes her when she’s talking about her a favorite line in a beloved story or a little moment during the day. This joy is something pure and beautiful in and of itself.
—Allison —

Not gonna lie I almost cried.

Sunday and Monday we continued the reunion playing and topped off the day with a picnic at the lake.

A big thanks to Allison for planning the whole thing!

Hill grandparents

Nana and Papa Hill came to visit.

The highlight of the trip was probably the outing we took to Wahooz

Its a fun center, we played arcade games, go carts and mini golf.

Party On! 

At the end of mini golf the titki head puts out a huge fire balls if you get a whole in one. Big hit with the boys.

Birding

we have all taken up birding (causally) its been fun to go on walks and see birds and notice them when we are out and about. Eli is very good at spotting them. We all enjoy it.

The 23rd

We always have a big Durrant family party on the evening of the 23, we also usually use that day to do our families big special dinner, also this year Mitchell's brothers where with us and one of them had a birthday that day. It was pretty good.

Our big dinner this year was amazing , and beautiful. I FAILED to take a picture, Huge regret! I get distracted and intimidated when other people are around.
Anyways , this year we bought a set of beautiful vintage style special Christmas salad plates that where very festive, I used our new linen monogrammed napkins and a vintage linen piano cover from great grandma to decorate the table. Mitchell prepared a feast, amazing ham with ham gravy (soooo good, oh my , so good!) green beans, fruit, mashed potatoes whipped to perfection with extra butter and cream, and grape juice.
I had festive Christmas Crackers set on each plate, just like last year, and we got Mitchell's brothers to talk about their goals for the next years, which was fun. seriously the food was so good i am craving it again now. It was fun to have everything set up too, we used our new dishes the hand me down goblets from my mom and the perfect touch was the new chairs we got for our kitchen! 6 solid wood new non rocky, clean, beautiful chairs!
After dinner we cleaned everything up and prepared a cheese tray for the party that night.
We had a great time at the party , it was much smaller turn out then previous years but it was good anyways, we visited with people (especially aunt Marie) and wee snacked and sang the 12 days of Christmas and got great white elephant gifts!
after the party we went to my parents because the Blair's and Barthlome's had just shown up!
later we watched the Seinfeld Fetivus episode.

Utah Trip-Days 7 &8

 Thanksgiving was a good day I blogged about it a little bit already. After the dinner we helped Nana set up her Christmas decorations including the tree and then we headed out to visit Rebecca and Caleb's family, but not before Mitchell won a round of Scrabble. ;)
We enjoyed a nice evening the boys went to see a movie and the girls and kids stayed and cleaned up the Kids and got them to bed.
The next day was a blast. A long fun day.
First we all took it very slow in the morning up until My sister and I decided to go shopping- good times. We went to several stores and got cute outfits and jammies for our kiddos and some sweet gifts from Ulta for the big peoples.  It was black Friday so they had good deals and long lines but it was fun. A highlight was that my little niece decided she wanted Auntie (that's me) to hold her hand the WHOLE TIME, this is a big deal because this girl really only likes mom and occasionally other people like her dad and grandparents.

In the evening we had made plans with Mitchell's Parents (Nana and Papa) to go out to dinner and then to the Lights on Temple Square.
we had a yummy meal and ran into one of Mitchell's brothers (t) and the kids thought the mall decorations where so pretty.. loved it.
And then!!!
Temple square, As can be expected on the opening night it was VERY BUSY.
 We went last year too and it was a very sweet and memorable experience to have with the kids I loved it so much I knew we had to go again this year. it was Beautiful and Uplifting and magical and I was so glad to go. Unfortunately no one got me in any pictures which is a bit tragic (I am pregnant okay I cry about silly things). We did get some pretty pictures of the evening though.
The kids loved all the lights and seeing the Salt Lake Temple they also as last year loved seeing the Christus statue in the visitors center.
We also stopped at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to get some Hot Chocolate and cookies. SO many sweet fun things.
After all the Temple square sight seeing was done we headed bad the other way and went to Macey', I am so grateful, Mitchell's parents wanted to help us out and so they bought Mitchell new dress shoes for work, black and brown. This si a huge blessing he has been needing new shoes for over a year, like the bottoms of the shoes are split wide open and the seems are coming apart, my sweet husband has been gluing them back together every month or so to avoid the expense of new shoes. (Because he wheres his dress shoes every day and has some back problems we try to only buy fairly nice ones since the other ones fall apert really fast anyways). It was a generous gift and we felt blessed.
After that we all went and got some light snacks from the food court and then headed back to the Barthlomes house.
We got their after the kids where in bed, the boys played a game and us girls talked and made sure all the laundry got cleaned. A long but good day!