Giving Thanks for Family

This year for Thanksgiving the whole Bayless clan was together. Andy and Melissa came up from Blanding, Heather came up from Mesa, and Jordan, Amanda, and their boys came all the way from PA. It was decided that we should take advantage of all of us being in one state at the same time and get family pictures taken. Andy and Melissa arranged everything and presented the pictures to us for our Christmas present! So nice! It has been about a year and half since we had our family pictures so it was nice to update, and the last time we had pictures with the entire family Savanna was a just a baby! There have been two weddings and lots more babies born since then so it was definitely time for a new one.

The whole family!

My loves.

Cousins!

We spent the week of Thanksgiving spending time together. Monday night we had a family dinner at Taco Amigo then went up to Cabela's to shop and let the kids run around and see the animals. Tuesday we went to The Living Planet Aquarium. Miles loved it! He just kept running laps around the place. Miles and his cousin Ben became really good friends and explored the aquarium together. On Wednesday Jordan and Amanda and their boys, Sam, Ben, and Grant, came over to play at our house. The cousins all got along great and played for a long time. My kids really fell in love with little Grant. He is the cutest little kid and Savanna, Miles and Avery loved making him laugh. The morning of Thanksgiving James took his brothers and oldest nephew, Jonathan to Little Moab. They drove the Jeep around and went shooting. They had so much fun that they were a little late getting back for dinner. James called me on his way back and said he was sorry they were late but that they had had such a great brotherly bonding time. They all came back with stories of adventure and lots of pictures. I was so glad that they got to have that time together.

 We had Thanksgiving dinner at James's parents house and spent the day there, playing games, eating, and socializing. The kids had an especially good time. They were all excited to be together. When it was time to go home we had to say good bye to Jordan and Amanda because they were going back home the next day. Miles was beside himself. He loves Ben so much and could not help shedding a few tears (he was also extremely exhausted). Ben kept it together though, he told Miles that he had to go home because he had to go to school and clean his room. He told him he will probably come back when he finishes sixth grade, funny kid. We all had such a great time that week. It was really nice to see family and spend time together. I am grateful to have married into such a great family, they all feel like brothers and sisters to me and I am so glad my kids get to grow up with cousins to play with. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for family!