A Nielson Family Thanksgiving

It has only been three years since I was home for a Nielson Thanksgiving, but it feels longer. I was so grateful that finances and school worked out so that we could go to my home for this holiday. I was even able to convince Dustan to skip two days of classes (mine were already cancelled) to make it home for an entire week! Most of the family was home, we were only missing my sister, who is being awesome and teaching English in China until the end of the year!

PS: This is what Dustan looked like when we came home. A little rough, right? Haha

Forehead scar, new scar on his nose from working in the machine shop, AND a mustache for "Movember"!

Vacations with my family are so relaxing--it was a great break from school. We had both finished nearly all the homework we needed to in order to be completely school free over break. Since the boys (my dad and brothers) still had to work or school the first few days of our break, we spent most of our time relaxing around the house. I got an eye appointment in and we each read a couple books and watched movies. We went our for lunch or dinner to places that aren't as good in Provo, like teriyaki and sushi. It was just the break we needed to prep us to finish up the school year strong!

On Monday, Dustan and I went and did an endowment session at the Seattle temple. It was so fun to be back there, just the two of us! I had never actually done any endowments in my temple before because we hadn't spent a chunk of time in Kirkland since we got married. It was so good though.

After the temple, we picked up my dad from work and went shooting together! We shot three different pistols: two types of 9 mm and one 40 (did I write that correctly? I have no idea anything about guns...). My grandparents and some of my distant cousins came to join us part way through.

One activity I particularly enjoyed was when we spent the afternoon in Seattle together. From past visits home, Dustan had already seen a majority of the Seattle and Kirkland tourist sights, so I found a couple that he hadn't seen yet. One of these was something I had never seen either! We went to see the Fremont Troll. This is a giant carved stone troll underneath an overpass bridge. Interestingly, there is also a real VW Bug underneath one of it's hands.

Dustan rocking his new blazer we found at a boutique for $5

Husband and brothers

The overpass behind us

Next, we zipped over to the Ballard Locks. These have been around since 1917 to provide a way for boats to go between the salt water of the Puget Sound and the fresh water of the Ship Canal (which eventually connects over to Lake Washington and Lake Union). Also at the Ballard Locks is a fish ladder, which is neat during salmon season, but not as fun in the winter haha. We were here for sunset (at about 4 p.m., so early!) so we got to see some pretty colors. Afterward, we headed to the nearest Dick's Drive-In to get some classic Seattle burgers :)

My parents and little brother

The next day was Thanksgiving! I don't really have any pictures from the meal, but it was great. We spent the morning cooking and prepping the house. Including my family, we had 27 people at our house for the meal! We had tons of dishes, loud humans, and family. It was great. Some of mine and Dustan's favorite dishes were the yams and pecans, crock pot turkey (my mom was trying a new recipe, and it was a HUGE success!), and of course pie!

Sugared cranberries--too pretty not to picture!

Doing some post Thanksgiving reading by the fire

Our last day there, Friday, we spent the day hanging out with my family playing games and watching movies. It was a great end to a great vacation :)