Thanksgiving in Wyoming

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Ryan's family at his parent's home in Riverton, Wyoming. Ryan grew up in this small town in a cozy house on a large piece of land out in the country. I love that house and all the memories it holds, both from before I met my husband and after. Though the way of life in Riverton is much different from what I am used to, I love visiting there and just escaping from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the world. I love my in-laws, who are all wonderful people and such fun to be with. All of Ryan's siblings and their spouses were able to come except for one, his youngest sister Melissa and her husband Seth, who we missed a lot. But the rest of us had a great time stuffing our faces together, sitting around visiting, watching movies, watching the two grandbabies play and just enjoying each others company. It was a nice, long, rejuvenating weekend, and Ryan's family has so many great holiday traditions. Here's the breakdown:

Wednesday - We left around lunchtime to make the 5.5 hour drive...not too fun since many of the roads in Wyoming are very long, straight, and lonely with nothing but sagebrush on either side, but we were excited to get there. Thankfully Thomas was very good and we made it through without him being too miserable. When we got there it was great for him to get to play with his nearly-3-year-old cousin Julia. They were so cute to watch together!

Thursday - Turkey day! Ryan's family has so many delicious traditional foods they make for holidays, and the cooking is a huge family activity. I'm not much of a cook, so I'm sad to say I wasn't much help in the kitchen, but Ryan's mom and sisters are masters. The menu was huge! We had turkey and stuffing of course, pork roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, the family favorite frog eye salad (a fruit salad with marshmallows, whipped cream, pineapples, mandarin oranges, and little "frog-eye" pasta), and one thing I have dreams about: potato rolls. These rolls are so soft and buttery, I say they're bits of clouds from heaven. I could eat a meal of these alone. Oh, and we had lots of pie of course! Pumpkin, pecan, apple and cheesecake too. So yeah, um, I'm not getting on the scale til Christmas is over.

Friday - Getting our Christmas trees! This is a wonderful tradition that I look forward to every time we go to Wyoming. The day after Thanksgiving we drive up to the mountains near Dubois, Wyoming to cut down Christmas trees (its totally legal...you have to buy passes and everything). We usually meet up with some family friends of the Laidlaws and build a fire, roast hot-dogs, make smores, play in the snow, and take the four-wheelers up into the different trails hunting for the perfect tree. They're not as picture-perfect as the farm trees you can buy at the stores, but its endearing when they're a little bald or scraggly in places. I had lots of fun buying Thomas all his winter gear for this trip: snow pants, snow boots, hat and gloves, and his big fat winter coat. Needless to say, he could barely walk when I got him all bundled up, but he was a happy little camper with cute rosy-red cheeks, waddling around in the snow and falling down every two seconds (the boots were a bit big). It was also his first time sledding! And he LOVED riding the four-wheelers...every time you took him off he would run back up to it and try to get back on! We went back home, had left-overs and went to bed early. Christmas tree hunting is tiring!

Saturday - I was totally spoiled. Ryan agreed to watch Thomas and we girls decided to hit some of the after-Thanksgiving sales. There's not a ton of shopping in Riverton, but we had lots of fun and each bought ourselves a bunch of cute new clothes. After we got back, Ryan's mom and dad babysat Thomas for us so we could go on a date. We had dinner at a pretty good little Mexican place and then went to see the movie Enchanted...which I LOVED! I have been dying to see this film, and it was just fantastic! I was grinning like an idiot the whole way through. It took some convincing to get Ryan to see it - he's notorious for avoiding anything that looks like a "chick flick" - but even he admitted that he really liked it! If you haven't seen it yet, you gotta. It was a very clever, funny, romantic, feel-good kind of movie...and I have to admit, I'm a sucker for anything that involves people breaking out in song! I can't wait til it comes out on DVD!

Sunday - We left in the morning and were sad to say good bye. Its always nice to go back to your own home of course, but its hard to say farewell to your days of vacation! We had a truly enjoyable time. I am so very thankful to have such a wonderful husband, such a wonderful, beautiful baby boy, and both of our wonderful families!

Now...on to Christmas!!! =)