Thanksgiving 2013 in Idaho!

What an amazing weekend! It's so true that time flies when you're having fun. :)
After four days with Matt's extended family in Idaho, it's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is over and it's already December. Let's rewind for a minute!

It all started on Wednesday morning. Matt played in a Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl football game - BYU ROTC against Utah Valley University ROTC!

I WISH I had been there to watch, but showed up to catch the end of the game and ended up missing it by about 30 minutes! Ha! I was at home getting the last things packed and totally lost track of time. At least there's next year!

Not too long later, we picked up Zac and started our trip to Idaho!

We set off for Boise late Wednesday morning and got there in the evening. I knew we were getting close when we passed a tractor on the freeway!

Welcome to Idaho!

The drive was long and flat. The highlight of the trip happened about two hours outside of our destination: the Malta gast station! 

Yes, we were desperate for someting to entertain us! Haha. This gas station has llamas and a donkey to feed and pet, and is actually really funny. It was the perfect diversion from the boring drive! 

"Welcome to the Middle of Nowhere"

This is also where we stopped last spring when we drove up for our wedding. Just like last time, we got a good laugh out of these guys. :)

Eventaully we made it to Boise! The city is large and busy, and a happy, buzzing place. I heard someone compare it to Denver, Colorado and I thought that was pretty accurate.

It was so good to meet up with Matt's family!

This Thanksgiving was the first one in FOUR years where Matt's siblings have all been together. Because his and his brother's missions were back-to-back, they've been apart for a really long time. It was so fun for them to all be together again!

And, although Matt's immediate family lives in Oregon, all of his extended family - with a few exceptions - lives in the Boise area. So it was really easy to have big holiday get-together!

We had different events at differnet relatives' houses all weekend, but Grandma Neuffer let us stay at her house every night. :) We love her!

The next day was Thanksgiving. :D We snuck away early, before everyone else got up, to spend some time at Starbucks to use their internet. 

It was the perfect way to charge up before the day of festivities. And the peppermint hot chocolate on its own was worth getting up early! :) Yum yum. 

As soon as we were done emailing, Facebooking, and blogging, we headed to Matt's Grandma and Grandpa Hill's house, where the majority of the family members were staying. 

By the time we arrived everyone was up and chatting, wrestling, eating, and enjoying themselves. And it was a beautiful day!

One of the best parts of Grandma and Grandpa Hill's home is their big, beautiful back yard. There are frequently wedding receptions and other events in their yard, and it made a great place for our pre-meal Thanksgiving games :) We all headed out to have some fun and healthy competition! 

Once we were all outside, we split into teams and Jenica explained an obstacle course :) When she said go, each of us sped through and around the yard :) Pretty soon it was my turn to go. I was happily surprised to realize I got to race against Matt! Here's a picture of me beating him ;D

Coincidentally Heidi and Mike were also paired against each other, and I'm preeeetty sure Heidi was the winner there too! ;) 

Go Heidi!!

 The guys got pretty into it!

Next was rope climbing... for those brave enough to give it a try. :)

After we were all tired out, we headed back inside. For the next couple hours we hung out and cooked. 

Matt wins!

Then it was time to eat!

We all filled our plates (or 2 or 3 plates), took our seats, and dug in. The next hour or so were absolutely lovely as we all chatted, laughed, and listened to stories from Grandpa Hill.

After we'd eaten all we could, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out around the house, playing instruments...

Jenica was happily playing Christmas carols when Matt decided
 to cut in and start a duet with a mandolin he found a Grandma's house. Hahaha

...watching football on TV...

...eating some more...

...even more eating... 

the leftovers from our feast

... and a four-wheeler ride out to the fields behind the house.

Idaho sunset from the back of a four-wheeler :)

Later, a smaller group of us went on a trip to a new mall in town. They had recently set up Christmas lights, and we went to check them out! 

It was so beautiful! We considered going ice skating but decided to come back when more of us remembered to bring socks. :)

It was a perfect Thanksgiving Day!

The next morning Matt, Grandma Hill, Jenica and I piled into the car for another outing. :) We headed to the Idaho Humane Society to play with puppies!

Inspired by my trip to a puppy adoption event a couple weeks ago, Jenica asked if we could go to a dog shelter. Of course I was more than game to go with her! 

We drove about 20 minutes away to a very busy dog shelter! When we arrived, we learned that all dogs were 50% off that morning. Talk about a great Black Friday sale!

There were plenty of dogs there to meet the demand. It didn't take long for Jenica to fall in love with this pup:

So she leashed it up and took it outside to play!

The shelter had a large enclosed area in the back for the dogs to run and play. That's where we took our favorites!

Look at that face :)

I found a cute Basset hound and got to take him for a walk.

Matt's favorite was a fully trained German Shepard. 

It was an amazing dog!

We also found kittens :)

We got a little carried away with all the cute animals and were almost late getting back for lunch with the Neuffers.

Fortunately we arrived back just in time, and had a wonderful lunch with about 15 family members - a different group than we'd had Thanksgiving with the day before (other side of the family).

It was almost like a second Thanksgiving!

It was fun to chat with people we hadn't seen since the wedding. After eating, Matt "taught" me a duet on the piano... and we even caught a few moments of it on camera. Hilarious!!

Unfortunately my phone's memory filled up after only a few seconds of footage, but it did capture my entire contribution to the duet. Haha! I was cracking up!

During all of this, people were taking turns riding the family horse up and down the street. :) I even got to give it a try!

Me on "Soggy" the horse. Haha!

It felt SO out of place to ride a horse down the middle of a suburban neighborhood - but it was so much fun!

Riding up to the arriving family members. What a welcome committee!

Matt led the way!

Later it was time for family pictures. :)

Matt, his parents, siblings, and I walked with Aunt Barb (who photographed us) from the house to a cute neighborhood park for Christmas card photos.

We barely had a serious moment during the whole photo session - we were laughing and goofing off the whole time!

Of course these are just 'teaser' iPhone photos - I'm excited to see the final, edited photos that Aunt Barb took! :)

After family photos we rounded out the night by watching the Oregon State v. U of O football game. Tough loss, Beavs! :( Try again next year! 

The next day was our last one in Boise! 

Before the sun was up, we met Matt's Uncle Ben at the gym - he had a membership that allowed  guests, so we got to join him for an early morning work out!

It felt great to exercise. On the way out we were amazed to discover this hilarious stationary bike - it came with its own biking instructor! What more could we ask for?!

Nothin' like some motivational queues to get us going :D Hahaha.

Our next stop after freshening up was the Boise Temple. :)

It was so beautiful! We weren't sure whether we'd be able to fit in a trip to the temple, but ended up being so glad we'd made time.

The temple was busy and bustling, and incredibly beautiful as always. 

Our visit added light and extra happiness to our day!

We got out of the temple just in time to change clothes and make it to our next destination - the shooting range with Matt's cousins!

To fill you in on the back story, I have never shot a gun and wasn't ready to break that trend just yet. So I didn't do any shooting, but everyone else had a good time testing their aim at targets and clay pigeons out in the open space. 

After our afternoon fun we all drove back (two suburbans full of us!) and we packed our bags. It was time to go!

Goodbyes took 2 hours as we had a final round of conversations, pictures, and laughs. Then Matt, Zac and I were back on the road, heading for Provo again!

Goodbye Idaho!

The ride home didn't seem as long as the ride up, and before we knew it we were back home. 

Now that we're back, the trip seems like a blur of family, food, and laughing. We really had a great time! 

And now it's time to start planning Christmas! :D

Happy Sunday, friends! We love you!