Thanksgiving Trip to Utah

The best part of our Thanksgiving trip to Utah was that Olivia got to spend a lot of time with her grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Andrea and Olivia spent two full weeks in Utah, while I only got about five days there.

On the Saturday before I flew out to meet them, Andrea and Olivia went to Andrea's uncle Kirt's home to make fresh-pressed apple cider. After making 40 gallons of cider, Andrea's family left the local deer with a nice treat of apple pulp.

When I arrived on Tuesday, I was pretty excited to spend some time with Olivia, especially since she had started clapping, waving, and taking her first steps in the previous days that she had been in Utah. It was also nice to get some alone time with Andrea. On Tuesday night, my parents watched Olivia while Andrea and I celebrated my passing the California Bar Exam.

On Wednesday night, we attended the annual Blessed Dinner, where I saw several of my closest high school friends. Olivia enjoyed seeing the other kids and begged me to let her ride the tricycle.

On Thanksgiving morning, several members of the newly formed Ricks Running Club participated in the South Davis Thanksgiving Day 5K/10K. Mom and Andrea did the 5K, and dad, Adam, and I ran the 10K. While we all had a great time and enjoyed burning off the pumpkin pie calories before we even put them on, the most excitement came after the race when we found out that dad, mom, and Adam had each won their age divisions. Hurray for them!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, our family again spent the day apart. Olivia stayed in Centerville with my parents while Andrea and I went to lunch with Andrea's family.

After lunch, Andrea and her family went to see the new movie A Christmas Carol. I drove down to Provo to join Adam, Kristina, Whitney, and Amanda at the BYU-Utah game. It was a fun game to watch, especially because the Cougars beat our rival Utes 26-23 in overtime.

I flew back to Washington, D.C., on Sunday night so that I could make it to work on Monday. Among the exciting things I did at work was attending the Senate confirmation hearing of Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman.

Before Andrea and Olivia flew back a few days later, they enjoyed spending some more time with all the girls.