We returned last night from a nice weekend in Morgan, Utah with the Budd Harr family. It is our year to have our Married kids for Thanksgiving but not for Christmas.
Our family, specifically Chandler and Haley, were not going to make it this Thanksgiving because of the distance, and so once again, we went closer!
I want to note that Chandler is a second-year law student in Laramie, Wyoming, and Haley has been working every job she can get as a photographer. She is a beautiful mom to their little 3 yr old Cassidy, and they are expecting to add a little man to their family in March! We are so excited for them! We love to be together, so when they were concerned, we sought an answer that would work to be together!
We met in the middle in Morgan, Utah. It was a five-hour drive for them and about the same for us and for Jed and Annie. Because Budd and Jolene have moved to St. George to have family near, we felt that we could not leave them here in St. George alone for the weekend, so we invited them to come. At first, they said no, but then after thinking about spending the holiday here alone, and after a further invitation from us, they changed their mind and came with us. They said the problem was, if they went up there, they would feel they had to go see everyone. We are concerned about their driving especially up there, and so we sought a solution. We decided we could rent a place that was big enough for everyone to come for Thanksgiving dinner. That meant I had to find a rental that could seat 50 people. Searching, we found one in the Bear Lake area. Jolene didn't like it because it was "too far" from Salt Lake and people wouldn't come. I found another one in Morgan, which is an hour from Liesl's house in Holiday. We reserved the place, the Bar W Lodge, and started making plans.
We told Jolene to invite those people. She wanted more details, so I sent her the link to the lodge. Seeing that the place would sleep like 50 people, she invited them to stay if they wanted. I said early on that I would not do food for everyone. We agreed to a sign-up sheet for the Thanksgiving dinner, and I sent the link to Jolene and with some help (I went over to her house one afternoon) she sent it out to everyone. The next few days, she called to say that some people wanted to stay. This was concerning to me, this was to be our only holiday time this year with our family. I was selfish not wanting to share it with too many people. One morning, on my run (but really a walk with Brad) to the top of the hill, I was concerned about trying to work out all the details of who was staying, for which days, how many beds, and how the rooms would work out. In my tiny mind, these details were a big deal.