Mullen Family: Thanksgiving

Here is my recap of Thanksgiving because I am such a blogging slacker. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving my brother, Michael returned from his mission to El Salvador. All of my family was at the airport to welcome him home. It is so much fun to have him home. We missed him so much. Lillian was only 18 months old when he left and Isabelle wasn't even born yet. They were excited to see and meet their uncle.

Doesn't he look so cute? Plus he has a cute little Spanish accent to go along with it. Michael came home to a new family. While he was away both Steven and Daniel got married so he got to meet 2 new sisters-in-law. We all thought he might be a little weird and I guess he was but he is still Michael through and through. That night even he would say something and we would all say, "Michael is back!" It was so much fun.

Then we got to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday. We all went to my grandparents house in Bountiful. There were 40 or so relatives all there for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a packed house but it was a lot of fun to see and visit with everyone. My poor grandma needs a big vacation after feeding everyone! Poor Michael's stomach needed a little more adjusting before eating a big Thanksgiving feast. He got so sick that night.

That night we went home because the next day we drove to Island Park to have Thanksgiving with Kevin's family. Kevin's family celebrates Thanksgiving on Saturday so everyone can spend it with their spouses family on Thursday. It actually works out really well. This year Kevin and I and the girls stayed at the Trout Hunter, which is the lodge that Jim guides for. It was so nice. We had a balcony over looking the river and on the river were swans and ducks, it was pretty. Too bad it was like 15 degrees. But we enjoyed the view from the window.

We took the girls and our niece Audrey up to West Yellowstone to the Bear and Wolf discovery center. We go to Yellowstone at least once a year and I have only seen one bear and one wolf, and I barely saw the wolf. Who knew you could just go to the center and see them right in front of you? Sure they aren't in their natural habitat, but I'm not picky and neither are the girls. We learned a lot about Bears and Wolves like: did you know bear gallbladder is a delicacy in Asia? I bet you didn't; I sure didn't.

You can kind of see the wolf in the background laying down. I didn't realize how big the wolves are. They were pretty cool.

While we were there one of the packs of wolves starting howling. It was the neatest sound, so mournful and haunting.

The bears were really neat too but by the time we saw them we were so bitterly cold we just wanted to go in side. I know I am a wimp about the cold but it was so cold there I couldn't feel my hands anymore by the time we went inside. Don't get me wrong it was lots of fun, but it was dang cold.

After Thanksgiving dinner with the Mullen family we drove back down to Bountiful for Michael's homecoming the next day. We drove so much this week, thank heavens gas prices went down.

The homecoming was great, Michael did a wonderful job. It was great to see so many people. My mom kept hugging us and saying how happy she was to have her family all together again.