Three Legged Dog: Christmas in Salt Lake

For Christmas 2014, we enjoyed a large family gathering in Salt Lake City. The gathering was a blending of two families--the Anderson crew, with all three brothers present, plus our sister-in-law Emily's family. Emily's sister, Amy, and her family live in Salt Lake. With them being there and due to its central location, it seemed a reasonable meeting place for the two families. We rented a large house that easily accommodated us, Matt's parents, brother Mike and his family, brother Stephen, and Emily's parents, Bill and Rita. Amy and her husband, Harry, and their children spent time at the house as well. We were definitely a large group!! We enjoyed having lots of low-key time around the house to hang out with family and to let the kids romp.

We also managed to get out and enjoy the city some. We visited the children's discovery museum and the Hill Air Force Base aviation museum. We saw a cool, extravagant display of Christmas lights in a nearby park (Isaac insisted that we take advantage of that opportunity twice). I squeezed in a tiny bit of shopping. We went to a Jazz basketball game. We had hoped they would be playing the Blazers while we were in town, but instead the opponent was one of the worst teams in the league. It was still fun to take Isaac to his first NBA game. It was fun that Grandpa and Uncle Mike joined us for what was their first NBA experience also. We wrapped up the trip at our favorite mexican joint in the city where we ate with just our nuclear family and Nana and Grandpa. That was a really nice way to cap off the trip before heading back home.

Oh, and while there, Caden starting taking his first steps! His very first ones were right into Nana's arms. That was pretty special.

And now, the dumping of pictures. Here come a whole bunch.........enjoy!

Emily bought hats for everyone and managed to get us all outside to take family photos. Mike and Emily's daughter, Eleanor, was surrounded by her entire extended family! We did take a picture of the whole, big group, but I don't have a copy. The above photo of folks lingering before the final shot is the best I have, and it is missing four of us.