This Thanksgiving, the whole of Mom's family gathered in Colorado for a fun Johnson Thanksgiving. I wasn't very consistent with the camera but I'll share the photos that I did happen to snap.
Ben and I left in a rush on Tuesday afternoon. We were planning on leaving Wednesday, but "blizzard conditions" were in order. BYU cancelled all classes, closed all buildings, and even closed the testing center. After we received multiple emails and text messages from the BYU Police warning us of the dangerous conditions, we decided it would be safer to leave right then and run from the storm rather than attempt to drive in all of the snow. It turns out (or so we heard) there wasn't much of a blizzard - there wasn't even much snow - but we weren't about to complain about an extra day of vacation for we were happily on our way belting "Wicked" at the top of our lungs!
Both Ben & I and the fam bam arrived at the hotel late Tuesday night. I could not wait to see my family the next morning. Ben & I had breakfast with Dad and then I got to see this little champ:
Emily had a nasty cold all week and I couldn't help but think she was cute as she left the hotel with a box of Kleenex in one hand and a bottle of Triaminic in the other. On Wednesday, my whole family wore Giants World Series Champions t-shirts. I am so sad we didn't take a picture of all of us. It was a beautiful thing and a wonderful way to rub our victory in the faces of Rockies fans. Or . . . was it Angels fans this year, Kelly? We spent the morning walking around downtown Durango and the afternoon playing at Grandma & Grandpa's house.
On Thanksgiving day, Durango held their Turkey Trot and we had multiple stars among the Johnsons for running 5 miles in what, 8 degree weather?!
Check out that time - 39:32 for 5 miles, and in freezing weather and 7000 feet altitude! Ben, as usual, was uh-maze-ing. :)
The runners: Jay, Kelly, Reece, Peggy, Creed, Adam, Ben.
The supporters: myself, Scott, Mom, Darren, Grandpa J, Delanie, Jerry, Sara, Kate, Matt, Lucy, Sam, Henry.
That afternoon (after delicious breakfast burritos at Patty's), we congregated at Grandma's for pictures, football, chatting, and Thanksgiving dinner!!! What a delight.
These are all of the cousins, oldest to youngest. (Baby Caden is being held in the middle.) (Thank you Aunt Lucy for letting me steal your pictures from your blog!!)
The boy cousins.
The girl cousins.
After dinner, we had a small impromptu talent show followed by dessert (yummmm). Then, we broke some pinatas! The girls had a unicorn and the boys had a piggy. I love being the oldest cousin because I got to hit first!
On Friday, everyone drove to Monticello where Grandma & Grandpa J are the temple president and matron. The adults did a session and the youth got to do some baptisms. It was wonderful.
Then it was time to say goodbye and we began our drive back to Provo. As per usual, we stopped at Hole in The Rock and ran up! I love my brothers for taking such good care of Emily while hiking and freezing. I totally trust them walking down a scraggy hill with her in their arms. Love it.
On Saturday, we hung out with the Rowans before they began the rest of their trek home to Merced. First we shopped and played at Sports Authority and then we watched some of the BYU-Utah game while dining on Brick Oven pizza and Graham Canyon ice cream - Provo classics. We also played some Uno and Emi decorated our fridge with new pictures. Such fun. Then it was time to say goodbye - thank goodness we will be together again in just 3 weeks!
Back to reality: I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and said "Geez, snow, we would have gotten the point with just one inch!"
Happy Thanksgiving and hooray for Christmas celebrations!
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