As previously noted this year for Thanksgiving we drove to my brother Jon's house in Tooele Utah.

Where is Tooele? About 45 minutes west of Salt Lake City. It is exactly 710 miles from my door to my brothers. That is if your driving, which we did. A mistake, I supposed given that we had less than 3 weeks earlier driven to southern Utah to visit Zions National Park.

But the trip there was fine. We got in the car on Tuesday around one PM and were planning to stop for the night somewhere along the way, but I got the juices flowing and we just pushed on through and arrived in Tooele at 10:30 PM that night.

Sofi continued her fascination, if not whole hearted commitment to the "potty".

My sister Robyn, her husband Steve and their 4 kids, Sam, Ryan, Adam and Abby arrived the next day after having left at 4 AM. (They live near Phoenix Arizona).

Sofi and her cousin Abby.

Steve and Abby having fun with the bouncy

Three amigos, Sofi, Adam and Spencer.

Precocious Kiah.

Adam the terror.

Ryan doing cartwheel's.

The kids spent a lot of time in the basement watching videos.

Anne spent a lot of time with her hair and curlers.

Jon and Sofi.

Thursday morning Jon and I drove into Salt Lake City to pickup my Grandpa and Grandma Lindquist who drove down from Cache Valley. (They are in their 80's) I guess they thought they could make the drive to SLC fine but weren't sure about finding Jon's house.

I probably have 50 pictures of my Grandma in this exact same pose, she always throws up her hand when you try to take a picture of her.

Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandpa and Abby.

Then of course the big dinner. The usual turkey, stuffing etc. A highlight was Grandma bringing her homemade rolls. Of course not everyone looks there best in this picture, but for some the camera does not lie.

All the kids sat at their own chaotic table. The adults got about 5 minutes to wolf down their food in peace and quiet.

Ryan went wild with the raspberry jam.

On Friday we all went into Salt Lake City to walk around Temple Square and see the lights.

Each of us posed for the Christmas Card photo.

Later that evening Sofi ran into Santa on the street.

It snowed on Saturday and the kids went out and played till their hands turned blue from the cold.

Saturday evening Anne had a couple of teenagers in her church come over and baby-sit the 8 kids, while the adults all went out for my birthday dinner.

By this time everyone had had their family fill of each other and we each longed for our own homes. So Steve and Robyn and Stacey and I ended packing up that evening and heading out. Oh what an awful drive home. It was snowing. The snow was sticking. It was dark. The wind was blowing. You begin to fear for your life, you grip the steering wheel tighter and tighter. You lean forward peering into the dark. The wind blows the snow directly at you and the combination of thick snow and your headlights creates a tunnel of vertigo. Fishtailing on the freeway at 40 miles an hour is no fun, nor is going 20 up a hill behind a Geo Metro and having a Semi pass you at 40 on the left in 5 inches of snow. We creeped into Elko after something like 5 hours our nerves a ball of steel and slept the night away. Next day the roads were clear and it was smooth sailing till we hit Tahoe where we sat in traffic for about three hours. Not because of the roads or the weather but just too many people on too narrow a concourse.

Finally we got home at like 8 PM. Next year we are staying here for Thanksgiving!