Thanksgiving in Utah!

 We flew to Salt Lake City, Utah this Thanksgiving to visit Dan's sister, Robin, and her family! Dan's parents joined us for the trip, which made it even more fun. Robin's husband, Rob, is the pastor of New City Salt Lake Church, and Robin is the music director. Their daughters, Naomi and Miriam, are close in age to Emma and Hallie, and the four of them were SO excited to spend time together again!

We arrived late on Saturday, so the first time we saw Rob and Robin and our nieces, Naomi, and Miriam, was on Sunday morning at church. Rob and Robin hadn't told their girls that we were coming, so they were shocked and thrilled when we walked into church that morning!

Rob preached about the story of Tamar and Judah.

Lovely music by Robin (at the piano) and other musicians

The four girls were like peas in a pod during our entire stay. From morning until night, they had so much fun together.

While the girls were busy playing one morning, Rob suggested a scenic drive through the mountains. Dan, his parents, and I hopped in the van for an hour drive and enjoyed breathtaking views.

Dan's mom and I kept making Dan pull the van over so we could take photos. Heh!

Later, we took the family on a short hike overlooking Salt Lake City.

After working up an appetite, we stopped at City Creek Center, a beautiful downtown shopping mall, to eat lunch and let the girls buy souvenirs. 

The following day, we went skiing at Brighton Ski Resort! Dan and I loved skiing when we lived in Colorado, and we were excited to hit the slopes again. Rob, Robin, and the girls have season passes at Brighton, so they get to go often.

Emma and Hallie had never skied before, and they had to get used to waddling around in ski boots on the snow. We decided that they should take a half day ski lesson to learn the basics.

Hallie was excited to learn to ski!

Emma, not so much.

Dan and I took turns watching the girls' lesson and cheering them on. We each skied a bit, too. I'm riding the chair lift with Naomi and Miriam.

Dan skied some more difficult slopes with Rob at the top of the mountain.

As expected, Emma and Hallie both did a fantastic job and learned how to navigate the bunny hill that day. 

One of the best features at Brighton is their "Magic Carpet", which you can ride up to the top of the beginner's hill. In the picture below, you can see the long, black conveyor belt on the left side. It's much less intimidating than a chair lift for first time skiers!

At the end of the lesson, Emma was able to ski down independently with her cousins!  While Hallie did an amazing job during her lesson, too, without her professional ski instructor to guide her, she ended up falling a lot when Dan and I tried to ski with her. We're still up the hill in the background behind Emma's head, trying our best to keep Hallie upright. 

Here's a zoomed in view of why we put the girls in lessons that day. Dan's holding Hallie upright and skiing backwards while I hold all the poles. Haha! 

New skills learned and fun memories made! We took some family photos before we let the girls take their ski gear off, because we knew they'd never put those uncomfortable boots on again willingly. 

Rob, Robin, Naomi, and Miriam

Dan's dad and mom

We took a break to eat lunch and warm up

Then the girls played in the snow outside the lodge while Dan, Rob, and I skied for a while longer. This huge hill was perfect for sliding down, and there was a hole in the side of it that they pretended was their burrow.

Emma and Naomi's snack of choice was nice, clean snow (hopefully).

Somehow, the kids still had energy the day after our big ski day. So we took them to an indoor trampoline park to play.  It was a huge place with rows and rows of trampolines, a playground, and other features.

There was a ninja obstacle course

A bouncing surfboard that you could balance on

Bungee swings

And a big slide that landed in a ball pit!

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and head back to Virginia.

We caught a glimpse of the Great Salt Lake as we flew over the area. It's at record low water levels because of drought and the growing population in Salt Lake City.

We also had a bird's-eye view of the gorgeous mountains. We loved our visit there!