Paul and Stacy Jensen Family

Thanksgiving Weekend

A multi-post travelogue of our adventures in Utah.
Part IV

Sunday was a day of 'rest'. We got to spend the day with Minda and Chad at home. In between activities I had been working on assignments for my last class at school. The final assignments were due for turn-in on Monday and I still had work to do on both personal and group assignments. While Minda and Chad went to church I stayed home and wrote my final papers. In addition to the writing I also had an assignment to design a brochure to promote a fictional business my group was assigned to create and manage. Stacy helped me tweak the logo using a program similar to Photoshop and I was able to complete my last homework assignments that morning.

Minda and Chad's children were returning from their respective other parent's homes that evening after the Thanksgiving holiday. The plan was to invite Dayna and Brandon, cook a turkey dinner, and get all of the Jensen cousins in the area together for the evening.


Leading up to the trip and up until Sunday, Alayna had been fixated on meeting Chloe. Alayna has seen pictures of Chloe, heard stories, and been told she looks like Chloe, but hadn't seen Chloe in 2 years and didn't have a real memory of her. Additionally, Alayna had her first experience on a trampoline at Minda's house and was looking forward to watching and jumping with Chloe.


When Chloe, Aubin, Brooklyn, and Drew came home, it was love at first sight. Alayna followed Chloe around like a puppy dog and loved every minute of it. The rest of the cousins were acknowledged as present and than laser focus returned to Chloe. Trampoline and tumbling demonstrations were followed by dress up and Barbie doll play.

Dayna and Brandon arrived in time for dinner and visiting. The highlight and maddening low-light of the evening was our well intentioned attempt at taking a picture of the Three Amigos. Cavell, Kellen, and Jaxton are bound to grow up to be lady killers. They may even be able to live close enough to work their way through the girls together. Unfortunately, we will not look back on this particular night as the proof of that claim. Getting three kids under or just turned 1 to take a picture together is not an easy task. Moms were tasked with taking pictures. Dads were tasked with directing the gaze of the kids and promoting the idea of the smile. The Moms were successful in that they took pictures. The Dads were successful in getting smiles and looks from the kids. The only downfall was in synchronizing all of those efforts. Surely next time we get all three boys together we will be able to take a nice picture.