Thanksgiving in Utah

 Had a great Thanksgiving in Utah.  As usual, we drove all night after work on Wednesday.  The van was running well and the kids slept predictably.  Our tradition is to stop at a Wendy's near Sacramento, and then do the drive in thirds.  I went to Fernley, NV, and then Heidi drove a few hours.  Winnemucca is the halfway point, Elko is the next major point.  The last half we had to split up a few more times.

Thanksgiving day was nice.  My parents made bacon and had doughnuts and chocolate milk for us.  That was always a favorite growing up.  On Friday we did professional family photos, so all the cousins were there.  The weather was record-breaking warm and it was nice.

Scott's fake teeth from ebay.

Action shot of Tyler throwing the football

After pictures, we went to this fun center in Kaysville called Boondocks.  It was better than expected.  Tyler and I drove the go-karts and they were faster than the ones in Bear Lake.  They could have been faster still, but I could still drift.  Dad's was faster than mine and I was ahead, but he was gaining on me.  I was driving such that he couldn't pass, but I felt it was unfair that I slow him down.  I moved over so he could pass.  After we parked, I said, "Your car was faster, so I let you pass."  

Dad said, "Oh, sure you did."  

The batting cages were fun too.  The boys and I took a couple of turns and did well.  Then we did laser tag.  Even that was more fun than expected.  

On Saturday we went down to BYU campus.  There's always some construction going on and they are always beautifying the campus.  We went to the bookstore and I treated us to some fudge and cookies'n cream milk.  Yum.  The student employees asked me if I had a student ID.  Afterwards, I said, "Dad, they asked me if I had a student ID!  Maybe they think I'm a student!"

Dad responded, "Well, Dan, they asked me too."

Oh.

Heidi asked if being on campus again brought back memories.  Yes, some good, some bad.  I remember feeling lost, overwhelmed and alone the first few weeks.  But I was grateful to have Dan-o as a roommate for most of my time at BYU.  By the time we were seniors, we were on pretty different paths and we didn't have any classes together, but we would still find time to go diving on Friday night and pick up pizzas on Monday at Little Caesars.  

I reminisced about my last semester at BYU, in which I would purchase a bottle of cookies'n cream milk and a bagel and then go to my microbiology lab.  I would store the spent bottles in a cupboard and they started culturing all kinds of stuff by the end of the semester.  By that point, I had been accepted to dental school and was less stressed about high achievement.  

After that, we went to Thanksgiving point to a natural curiosity museum.  It was a wannabe exploratorium.  Some attractions were cool but the obstacle course was too claustrophobic and there weren't enough exits.  We told Kira that if she got lost to go to the front and tell them she was lost.  Well, she was playing with her cousins for quite a while so we didn't constantly police her.  Then, an employee holding Kira came to us.  Apparently, Kira had done what we said.  We were pleased that she took initiative.  

Dad spent most of the afternoon in his Sequoia.  

We left for California on Sunday morning.  It started snowing in the middle of Nevada and four cars were off the road in the embankment.  I like driving in the snow but it wasn't sticking during my shift.  In the middle of Nevada, we came up on a grey Sienna.  I said, "I wonder if that's Britton."  As we overtook them, we realized it was them!  They were coming from Idaho.  Of all the places to see your friends, we see ours on westbound 80 in the middle of Nevada.  We caravanned for about two hours, and we had no service to plan a pit stop.  They pulled off before Reno and we stopped in Reno.  

Anyway, it was a great trip.  Much better than my trip last year.  It was nice having Heidi and Blake come and I am in a more secure place professionally.