Thanksgiving!

This week was of course Thanksgiving week, but I had the misfortune of not being able to go home. I think I did pretty well, though. My awesome Elder's Quorum president, Brandon Quinn, invited me to his house in Bountiful, UT, for the week. We had a great time together and it was neat to see beautiful Bountiful. It seems like a great place to live!

The beginning of the week was a little tough, though. I wanted to leave school so badly! It was just like having a short week in high school: there's not a whole lot going on and you just want to go home. I managed through my classes, though, and had some fun on my time off. Monday night, the night before we left, I stayed up until four with some of my friends. I didn't have any classes until two on Tuesday, so I figured I'd be okay. It was a fun night!

Tuesday, I left for Bountiful with Brandon. It was only about an hour away from Provo, so the drive was fine. After we unloaded our stuff at his home, we went to visit some of his friends and have some fun. Apparently, having fun in Bountiful is exploding water bottles with dry ice. We did that for a while with some of his friends, then headed back home.

On Wednesday, I helped set up Christmas lights at Brandon's grandparent's house. We did pretty well hanging lights on two big pine trees in their back yard. Afterward, we just hung out at his house and I got to watch the Pink Panther with Steve Martin for the first time.

Thursday was, of course, the big day! I missed getting to see my family and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with them. We still had some fun at the Quinn's, though. Brandon and I finished hanging the Christmas lights and helped with a few other things at his grandparent's house, then went back to his house to get ready for dinner. They were hosting it this year, so there were a lot of preparations. We had all of the usual Thanksgiving fixin's, and it was like being in heaven! I didn't realize how much I missed real food until that night! Then, I got to be part of one of their family traditions. All of the kids went to their other grandparent's house to stay the night. We watched movies and socialized all night. Some of Brandon's cousins were painting toenails and were so thoughtful to include us. We had them painted BYU blue! It was a really late night, so getting up of Friday was a bit of a chore.

Friday evening was fun, though! As part of a BYU tradition, we had a Fri-date. Some of the other guys from school that live close by and we got dates and went laser-tagging. For a blind-date, it was pretty good! I went with a girl named Melissa that went to school with Brandon. For each game, we came up with fun code names. We were Maverick and Goose, Sugar and Spice, and Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. It was fun, but another late night.

The Quinns started setting up all of their Christmas decorations on Saturday, so we took all of their Fall things down to be replaced with Christmas things. I got to help decorate their tree and set up their train set. It was fun! After all the work was done, Brandon took me to Keva Juice of the first time. They make smoothie/milkshake drinks that are way good! I had a Tribal Princess with apple, mango, and orange flavor. It was really fresh and very yummy.

I had a really neat opportunity today at church. I walked in with the Quinns, then Brandon left to find someone. When he came back, Elder Neil Anderson was right behind him. He's a member of their ward and often gets to go be there. So, Brandon knows him pretty well and brought him over to shake my hand! I got to shake Elder Anderson's hand! I see this guy in General Conference! It was really cool!

I think this is my longest blog yet, so that is it. I have run out of things to say. Except that I really missed my family this week. I guess I didn't appreciate getting to go to all the dinners until I couldn't. So, during this Thanksgiving season, I am very thankful for my family!