Happy Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went to the Grand America's "Grand" Thanksgiving Buffet up in Salt Lake City with my In-Law's. It was a lot of fun. I was a bit nervous, to tell you the truth. We had to dress up, in Sunday clothes. This meant it was going to be very fancy and that my kids needed to be on their best behavior. Hhhhmmmmm! Which way was it going to be today! We could flip a coin to see, but that doesn't always work. They had breakfast, but for some reason, by the time we got there, they were starving and cranky. The hotel had a photographer there, so before we ate, we had all 26 of us get together for a picture. I will post it when I get a copy of it. I think it is cute. Anyway, it was a beautiful buffet. And whomever set up the room was extremely smart to section off part of a hallway into a private room for our family! It was just for us, with our very own waiters. Just perfect. No more nerves for me. I didn't want my kids to ruin someone elses wonderful dinner (that they paid a fortune for!)



After we came back from Salt Lake, we went over to Uncle John's house to see Great Grandma Ione. She is doing well. I have been thinking a lot about her lately. We just celebrated her 91st birthday this last October. I really like it when I can just call and talk to her anytime I want. Wes can hardly believe that she will actually be 100 years old in a few years!


I am starting backwards here. As you can see, Dave turns into a dork when his sister Tracy is taking our picture! We are taking a break for a minute from eating, just to get ready to head back out for another round. I started of my day with a mixed berry crepe with a creme anglais sauce and a touch of fresh whipped cream. Then I went on to have a plate with eggs benedict, stuffing with craisins and apples, chicken with some fancy sauce (I forgot what it was), a potato cake, cranberry compote, a ham and cheese omelet, a bite of a couple of desserts (nothing to write home about), mud pie, cheese cake (I didn't eat the entire pieces of these desserts), bread pudding with rum sauce and whipped cream (I did eat this one! Yummy) and then I waited again, for this picture and then went back out for another mixed berry crepe with creme anglais sauce. Lovely dinner. Absolutely nothing Thanksgiving about it, but completely delicious.


After the kids (Wes, Coltyn, Jordan, & Dylan) finished eating, they decided to color in the coloring books from the kids buffet (you will see in a second). See how nice this hallway/room turned out to be for our family?


After dinner, I went around taking pictures of everything, this was our room and our long table. Yea, I know, it isn't the best picture!


Brooke had a little fever, but she still had a smile on her face as long as we were feeding her the mini M&M's from the kids buffet table and letting her color!


Here is a quick look at some of the buffet tables, this one is where the Prime Rib was, they also had one like this for the turkey.


Along the sides of the "meat buffets" were the "sides" and "salads".


Here is the kids buffet. They had things like mini corn dogs, french toast sticks with syrup, macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs, chicken strips, tater tots, mimi M&M's, rice crispy treats, chocolate chip cookies, coloring books and crayons, just about everything that a child needs to be happy. The other genius thing about it was they made it small so that the children could go and serve themselves.


The luscious chocolate fountain that everyone loved. Wes loved dipping pineapple into it. The other kids like to dip strawberries and pound cake into it. This is one thing that I didn't indulge in.


Here is Dave's favorite buffet table that he went to the most, the seafood table. All the crab legs and jumbo shrimp he could eat! Heaven for him. Wes thought the carved ice tray was cool too!


After we just couldn't eat anymore, we went out into the courtyard and walked around. Wes, Sam and Jordan hitched a ride on the carriage.


In the lobby of the Grand America everything is over the top beautiful. Wes and his Grandpa liked this gold clock, so Wes and his cousin Sam had a picture taken next to it.

Our end of the table voted that this needs to be our new tradition for Thanksgiving, the "Grand" Buffet at Grand America. It really was a treat for us. We were so lucky to come here this year. Everything was perfect, the food, atmosphere, and most of all the company! Thanks for everything Kay. We truly enjoyed ourselves.