Thanksgiving and birthdays!

On Thanksgiving we got to celebrate with my parents, my grandma, and our wonderful hosts Ruth and Jordan! (Elise & Paxton were spending the holiday in Park City with his family--we missed them!)



So fun for our kids to get to spend time with Great-Grandma!

We also loved seeing the Carmel High School marching band in the Macy's parade (fresh off their win as national champs, woohoo!)

Another photo from sometime late at night on Wednesday, this day was actually Ruth and Neil's birthday and this is how they wound up the celebrations, haha. Ruth had a very specific vision of magnificent pies and we were her sous-chefs! 

This is one of the ones we made that night, seriously one of the best pies I've ever eaten (that gingerbread crust--perfection). 

I mean really it's all about the pies...(Jordan and I dropped Neil's beautiful turkey on the oven door but managed to rescue it). 

My dad also made prime rib which SHOULD ALWAYS BE A THING AT THANKSGIVING (I think I seriously just ate prime rib for every meal for the next few days, if you know me well you know there's nothing I love as much as cold roast beef). 

Including this picture just for Neil's face 

Let's get another look at those pies...

Let's keep this reverse order thing going! The day before Thanksgiving was Ruth's and Neil's birthday. Neil and I went skiing at Alta for the day--Ruth had a way less fun day with a trip to Huntsman, but she picked up some amazing cakes in Salt Lake! (Can you tell who knew their photo was being taken and who was soooo tired from skiing and just wanted some cake? Sorry Neil!)

We had suuuuch a good day, the snow was amazing for so early in the season (no wonder bc it's been a record year for snowfall in Utah!) and we skied like maniacs. This is the first time we've ever been to Alta together (we've both skied there solo in the past) so it was fun to show each other our favorite runs!



I also made Neil actually stop for lunch for the first time in his skiing life (the man is a firm believer in skiing every possible second from rope drop to last chair, he carries a backpack and eats on the lift). 

And going back in time again--on Tuesday we had a lovely chill day of board games and hanging out at my parents' house, it was seriously so fun. Then the adults all went out for dinner that night which was also really lovely. 

Somewhere there is a picture of Elise about this same age with a very happy Abigail who just finished decorating her hair. It was fun to see that come full circle with Iris!

We had a truly great afternoon!! This was such a fun relaxing day AND we had leftover pie so truly, could not get any better. 

 

BYU and pies

On to Sunday morning!! Evelyn and I went to church with my parents and met up with Abigail and Juliet, who were staying at my parents' house. Then I went back and went to church with Ruth & Jordan's family and the rest of my kids (minus Luke, who stayed home with Juliet). Then we went to brunch at Riverside and checked out the latest progress on the amazing house Ruth and Jordan are building (can't wait to see it finished when I'm there in a month or two!). 



Then we OF COURSE had the Decker Night of Pies. Ruth really brought her A-game as you can see here...actually as I'm typing this now I remember that we were up until like 2 am making pies, haha. 




So fun to see everyone, loved this snap of Isaac cuddling Hope while she told him all about her shoes 



I think this was a very intense conversation about the use of the blow torch between my mom, Elise, and Ruth 




On Monday morning I got up early and met my dear friend Kelsey for a hike up the canyon. 



It was so gorgeous!



I seriously did not turn around but we both had places to be! Love that Kelsey and I manage to get in workouts together a few times every year (we just passed 3 years of texting each other our workouts every day after she moved to CA in 2020, we were so bummed to miss out on running together every day and have just kept this going!). 



We went to BYU and did a campus tour with Abigail and Juliet. I have a few scattered pics from it but please enjoy this gem which shows Abigail in the hallway in the Clyde where she took her first steps. #byubabies

Then we went back to my parents' house and picked up the boys and went to hike the Y with my dad! (I think I logged a ridiculous amount of vertical hiking that day.)

Looking out on Provo from the top...



And here's the view from the base looking up towards the top. 

Juliet fell asleep as per usual, she is so good at chilling out wherever she is.

So beautiful looking towards Mt. Nebo!

Matthew was soooooo not enjoying the trip up (then he ran all the way down). 

Luke's fever finally broke, hurray!

And my dad, just casually being the World's Best Grandpa (TM), I think he ended up carrying everyone's coats while Neil hauled Matty up. Two great guys. 

Then we went to the Creamery and ate all the fries and ice cream as one does. 



Then we went over to Elise's for awhile and Ruth, Elise, and I got a jump on some Thanksgiving cooking and I made the side dishes we were supposed to bring to dinner with Neil's family that night. 

We didn't take any pics of the family dinner with Neil's family, but almost all of his siblings and their families were there! 

I did take these pictures of baby Neil while I was waiting for Matty to go to the bathroom (the halls were lined with family pics). 

And if you look closely you'll spot some pics of our family...quite awhile back! 



Totally out of order, but I took these in Smith's when Ruth and I went shopping for pie ingredients Saturday night. Not sure if it's bc I was so sleep-deprived at that point that I thought they were hilarious? 

 

Colorado National Monument

Over Thanksgiving, we decided to pull everyone out of school for a couple of days and head to Utah for the holiday week (for a whole bunch of reasons--a couple were that we wanted to see my grandma, who will be 100 in two months, and Neil's family, who we hadn't seen in a few years). We also wanted to spend time with my parents and sisters, and we thought it would be a great time to do a BYU campus tour!



The week before we left, both the little boys came down with Flu A. Argh! We went crazy trying to maximize our chances of staying germ-free (I was wearing an N-95 mask around the boys), and after 24 hours where everyone was fever-free, we thought we were in the clear. We left for Utah Friday night after school/work and when Luke woke up on Saturday morning he had a fever (so then we had a few days of isolating Luke as much as we could/keeping a mask on him and the other boys...poor kids). We got our flu vaccines at the same time as our Covid boosters in September (and then promptly caught Covid in October, good times). 



But even feverish, Luke loves a good vista! We decided to swing through Colorado National Monument since it's basically right off I-70. 

And it's so gorgeous!!

Here's Luke again...

We got pretty up close and personal with the wildlife without even trying!

So happy to see blue skies again, it had been a particularly gloomy fall in Indiana. 

This road was so fun to drive, the views were amazing.

Seriously the most chipper feverish dude ever, as long as we were really on top of alternating Tylenol/Ibuprofen he was so good-natured. 

I want to come back and do so much hiking here! (We were trying to get to Provo in time for Neil to head to the BYU basketball game that night...) 

A very fun little side trip and definitely worth a quick stop if you're on I-70!