Gobble Gobble!

The whole Hansen family (minus Amy and her family who are so far away in Hawaii) journeyed down to Cedar City, Utah to spend the holiday at my sister Carrie's house. We originally weren't planning on going, but decided to surprise everyone. Of course, they pretty much all found out before we got there (how does that always happen?) except for mom...which was worthwhile to see her so happy because mom matters most. We quickly threw our bags in the car that Wednesday and headed down to Costa Mesa to meet up with Justin and Lauren. What is normally a 2 hour drive took us 5 hours. Once I had pulled out nearly all of my hair and declared my hatred towards holiday traffic, we made it and could start the drive to Cedar. It was quite an adventure. Taylor and Justin helped a family push their out-of-gas van about a mile on the freeway to glorious Primm. They were such good Samaritans. Then after following a swervy driver through the canyon and nearly getting killed by her, we called the police. The officer excitedly informed us that we had caught a drunk driver and we were heroes for the night. We finally crawled into bed at 3:00 am after a 13 hour drive (it should have been 9...bitter bitter).
The weekend was wonderful...14 adults and 19 children all staying at the same house for 4 days. Rarely ever do we get to have that much of the family together, so it was pretty special. Delicious food for all, lots of cute babies, and fun fun fun. We spent plenty of time on the Wii, played some rounds of Settlers of Catan, went to the annual Cedar City parade, laughed while we all tried our hand at the Tim-Tam Slam, and took up 2.5 rows at the movie theater. It was just pretty great. Of course the entire trip could not be complete without getting rear-ended on the drive home. Fortunately for Taylor & I, it wasn't our car, but we all endured a few days of beloved whiplash. In the end, it was a weekend well worth it. Can't wait to do it again for Christmas!