The day after Thanksgiving we headed down to Richfield, Utah. Richfield is Daniel's Dad hometown and is still home to Daniel's grandma and bunches of aunts and uncles and cousins. It's a big-small town surrounded by even smaller towns, lots of farmland, and the start of the red rock of southern Utah. It's a beautiful and quiet area. I was nervous about the six hour drive, but Sophie did amazing on the way there until the last half hour. That was just too much for her and she lost it. We stayed at Daniel's Grandma Clara's house that was built by her husband years ago. That evening all the extended family had a big party for Grandma's 89th birthday that is coming up. We ate lots of Turkey day leftovers and played games and visited. There are so many great-grandkiddos! There were tons of babies Sophie's age and loads of others running around. It was too much fun. The most fun/shocking thing of the weekend was how social and bubbly Sophie was. Mostly she is shy and hesitant around new people, but she chatted up everyone and smiled and waved like it was nothing. When we first arrived Daniel's cousin and his wife and little guy were there and Sophie had a ball chasing him around the house. She did her best to keep up with him. And then Daniel's cousin scooped Sophie up and she loved her! This rarely happens with our shy girl, but she absolutely was a joy the entire trip. I've never seen her so consistently happy and independent of me. We may just have to move to Richfield because she's been grumpy ever since we got home.
Saturday was the annual Jensen Family Christmas tree hunt. This is a tradition that I have only heard about and couldn't wait to participate. Some camped up in the mountains, but we just drove a short ways up from Grandma's house. Some took off on four wheelers and even horses, but we just drove a short way and had fun traipsing about looking for trees. It was so fun. I was so excited when we found some darling trees to bring back. We don't have a lot of space so we kept it to a smaller tree---and like I've always heard, they always look smaller on the mountain.
We did another Richfield tradition and went to "the dairy." I expected an actual dairy, but it's a restaurant run by a family that has a dairy. It was still fun. We got dinner and ice cream, and the notorious punch bags (literally punch in a bag--think capri sun). Sophie got her first ice cream cone from Grandpa Jensen and she could not have been happier, she downed almost the entire thing.
We decided to break up our drive home and stop Sunday night on Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. I haven't been forever and it was very fun. Sophie instantly started looking up at the lights and pointing and laughing. It was adorable! Like I said, this baby was incredibly fun and bubbly all weekend. Then we had dinner at Macaroni Grill with two of my longtime friends, Darla and Sariah. I'm glad they were able to meet Sophie. We had a wonderful time. It was a great trip and I'm so happy we went. We've now decorated our Christmas tree and I love it even more--even if it's squished into our tiny living room. It's a great addition and we are so excited for Christmas!
