I have been incredibly busy the last couple of months with Christmas sessions.  I can’t wait to share them with you (plus all the ones from this summer I haven’t posted – oops!).  I’ll get around to them, but in the meantime I wanted to share a few pictures from our long Thanksgiving weekend.

First, we went to the Riley Farm in Oak Glen.  We got to see the farm animals, eat lunch at their colonial house, and pick apples from their orchard.  I loved all the rustic buildings and farm areas.  I could have photographed my boys all day!!  But… they get bored of my taking pictures really fast.  :)

Then we drove up to Utah to see Brian’s side of the family.  It was a good thing we brought our snow gear because they ended up having a huge blizzard while we were there.  We got caught in it driving the mountain pass between Park City and Heber and oh boy was it scary!!!  I thought we were going to slide off the road like the many other cars we saw.

This picture is actually before the blizzard hit.  We took the boys on the Heber Creeper for a North Pole Express train ride.  It was too dark for good photography once we were inside, but it was all decorated for Christmas.  They served hot chocolate and cookies, we sang Christmas carols, and had a visit from santa!!  The boys, especially Elijah, loved it!

A few days later, we drove to the LDS temple in Salt Lake City.  This statue of Christ is in the visitor’s center and I have always loved it (I have smaller version in my home).  I really wanted to take my boys to feel the calm and peace in this place and temple grounds.

Next we walked around the temple square.  These are the steps leading up to the temple.  The carving is so intricate and beautiful on these doors.

Temple square was already decorated for Christmas so we got to see their amazing manger scenes (this one and larger depiction on the grass area).  I think it’s cute that there was a wedding couple on the far right getting their portraits done.

And lastly, I wanted to share my favorite photo from the day – our family in front of the Mormon Temple.  I was so grateful that my sister-in-law was there to photograph our family in front of this amazing temple.  Thank you, Chrisann, for being extremely patient as I had us redo this shot at least 4 times in the bitter cold.  It came out just as I had imagined!

Shortly after this, we drove home the day before Thanksgiving.  As luck would have it we all came down with that awful stomach bug as we were coming home.  Elijah my three year old was sick the whole drive home (like really sick – yuck)!!  And Brian and I were so sick that we didn’t even get a Thanksgiving dinner the next day.  All I had was toast!!!  And that is why our poor Thanksgiving vacation pictures are so late in coming.  :)