Albuquerque Hobbs: November 22-25, 2021: Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City UT

December 29th: I had to add some more photos to this blog posting. Here, Jared's family is dressed for church and for Christmas photos in their Salt Lake city home.

This year we decided to visit Jared and Jenny in Salt Lake City for Thanksgiving! It ended up being a very short trip, and we had our Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday instead of Thursday so that we could drive back to Albuquerque on Thanksgiving. Mike is a shift coordinator at the Albuquerque Temple, and he needed to be home the night before to be prepared for his assignments.

Jared's family also left on Thanksgiving Day to fly to the Dominican Republic for a resort vacation--my kind of getaway!

November 20th: We enjoyed a delicious ribeye steak dinner our first night at their lovely home, followed by games at the dining table. Mike especially had fun learning how to play Virtual Reality games with Milo in his bedroom.

November 23rd: We got up early and went with the family to their new cabin near a little town named Fairview, an hour and half south of Salt Lake City. Jared named his cabin site Hobbs Hollow! They have a main cabin and two bunkhouses on the property, which is all surrounded by pines and trails. There's also a nice set of ponds and waterfalls in front of the main cabin. It was FUN to tour their properties.

Early on, Jared and Jenny had sand laid along the creek to create their own little beach. Of course right now it's cold and wet at the cabin site. Plus there have been contractors updating the structures who left piles of debris to be cleaned up later.

But Mike and I can see what a great investment the property was for Jared. He has a lot of usable land with utilities, septics, and other improvements. His vision is to use the completed projects for campouts, young men's activities, and family reunions. They've already done a LOT of work to clean up the vegetation overgrowth, made the trails more walkable, and started the remodel on the outdated cabin and bunkhouses--including new bathrooms and a picture window in the kitchen.

It's no wonder that Jared is so excited about his cabin! Wish he lived closer to it though. There's plenty of projects in and around the cabin, but things will need to be on hold till spring.

We snarfed down a yummy lunch of burgers, fries, and milkshakes at a local In and Out Burger restaurant on our way back to Salt Lake. Mike arm wrestled Milo (and Jenny)!

We visited Gilgal Sculpture Garden and looked at the strange sculptures created by Thomas Child, Jr. who lived from 1888 to 1963.

We also visited the Utah State Capitol, which is up on a hill overlooking the Salt Lake valley. The building is all lit up, and the interior is made of marble and limestone, with gold and paintings of Utah's history. Such a gorgeous building!

An elegant Reception Room in the Utah State Capitol

After leaving the Capitol, we went to a fancy Gelato place in downtown Salt Lake and enjoyed a cool refreshing treat on a cold night! We also went to an awesome restaurant to pick up some dinner entrees to take back to the house with us. We had BBQ pulled pork, cubed fried sweet potatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts, and quinoa with rice. The food was great (not shown here).

November 24th: We started the day with a long and exhilarating electric bike ride down the Murdock Canal Trail. It was so beautiful and fun! Jenny wanted me to wear Jared's skeleton onesie to match her and to be warm on the ride.

Our rich and fancy Thanksgiving desserts

For our early turkey dinner, we had an incredible, gourmet spread of homestyle stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, the most succulent brined turkey, rolls, roasted vegetables, sweet potato casserole with a pecan crumb topping, a cranberry chutney, and Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. It was a feast for the Gods! Jared and Mike did all the work while Jenny took me to her favorite spa for a facial treatment.

We had a wonderful time with Jared, Jenny, and our sweet boys. And Jenny is such a gracious and thoughtful host. She and Jared made us feel so loved and welcome. I sure love, love, love them and their family!