Epic trip of 2015: part VIII; a Utah Thanksgiving

We got to mom's and straightway celebrated Evie's 3rd birthday, which had occurred when we were gone.

Mom doesn't usually put up the Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, but made an exception this year so that my kids could experience that magic too.

They were well taken care of and well loved while we were away.

McKay was so mad at me that he very vocally preferred grandma until we got back home to Georgia.

I was so happy to see the babies again.

And so exhausted and jet lagged.

 

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I got together with a group of my friends some of which I haven't seen since shortly after high school graduation.

Oh it was so much fun.

We took a picture emulating one we took in high school, Corinne stood in for Minh 

{we missed you Minh! It would have been perfect if you were in too, but we understand Louisiana is a bit far away to accomplish that}

Curt flew back out to us Wednesday afternoon and Dad picked him up from the airport.

And then the night before Thanksgiving we had a feast with my family, who I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving with since I moved away in 2008. 

I didn't document this very well, but I loved it and I love my family.

And then, on actual Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad/Jann ferried us up to the airport so that we could fly home.

Thus concluding our truly epic November trip.

Epic trip of 2015: part VII; Argostoli, Greece & the flights to Utah

The last stop was Argostoli, Greece.

After Athens I was kind of done with lots of people, so I was glad this was a small town.

It was so small that many of the cruise goers only spent a token amount of time on shore.

I thought we might do the same, but in my search for a high point to take pictures we went exploring up through neighborhoods and found a dirt trail that went up the spine of this portion of the island.

We had the place to ourselves, we found some really pretty views, and I could not get enough of the smell (mountain pine and just freshness).

We meandered back down, ate some sort of delicious meat pastry and donuts, and went back to the boat to read.

We actually got off the boat briefly a couple hours later to find a cafe with strong wifi to Facetime the kids.

That night was the second formal night.

 

We didn't take many pictures of the dinners on board, but each were really amazing.

Curt did document this night to send to Aunt Jenni, who had requested 'less crumbling buildings' :)

The last day on board was at sea heading back to Venice.

Saturday morning we disembarked and I wanted to find a glass jewelry shop we had visited the previous week and buy some more pretty things.

We found it again, but they didn't have hours posted and when it got late enough we had to leave in disappointment.

This is what I thought of that.

We took the bus back to the airport, got processed through security, and ate some yummy pizza.

 

 ...and then said goodbye to Venice...

...flew over the Alps...

...and landed again in Paris...

We had planned on spending the afternoon and evening in Paris seeing a few things, but with the terrorist attacks and the fact that it was cold, windy, and rainy we just stayed the evening in the Sheraton in the Paris airport and flew Paris to Salt Lake the next morning.

{the hotel looked like a ship}

 

{we tried the pastries at Paul's in the airport, so good}

It was fun to see Christmas stuff out.

We tried sleeping as we knew jet-lag was going to be a beast, but I know at least I wasn't very successful.

But hey, at least I got to watch the new Mission Impossible and Jurassic World movies.

We got pampered and I loved it.

 And then we rented a car and went to mom's.

Curt visited with the kiddos for a bit, napped for a bit, then drove to the airport for the redeye back to Atlanta since he needed to work the few days before Thanksgiving.