Thanksgiving 2008

We enjoyed a Wonderful Time during the Thanksgiving Season with Glenn's Family in Sunny Mesa Arizona! (It even thunderstormed and rained the 10 days we were there! We had lived their for nearly 3 years and I can count the days on one hand that it ever thunderstormed and rained... what's that ALL ABOUT!) Anyway... we were especially excited to be able to visit the temple with all of Glenn's Siblings in honor of the youngest sister, Melanie and her spouse Clark! (And guess what - they are moving to the Midwest this coming year! Score for us!)

I have to tell about a few of the things we enjoyed doing while we were visiting. We hiked a few of the kids up to Arnett Creek near Superior Arizona.

Here we found Apache Tears - legend has it that about 75 Apaches and the US Calvary squared off against each other in battle on a mountain overlooking what is now Superior, Arizona in the 1870's. Rather than face defeat, the outnumbered Apache warriors rode their horses off the mountain to their deaths. The families of the warriors cried when they learned of the tragedy. Their tears turned into stone upon hitting the ground. Today these beautiful translucent gemstones are known as Apache Tears Good Luck Stones. The kids were all so excited when we began to find the stones!


After the hike we ALL enjoyed Grandma's Delicious Banana Bread - she had made over 20 loaves I bet! I think we cleaned out her freezer! Score for us!




A lot of us participated in the Turkey Trot. This is either a 10K run, a 2-mile run or a 1-mile fun walk. Quite a few of the cousins participated. I believe Nick led the pack in for the 2-mile run! (17.47)! Go Nick! Ben completed his Very First 10K with a time of 1:02.



Of course there was the traditional turkey dinner. We found a bowl of peas (that never made it to the table) in the microwave the next morning. Some of my kids were excited that the peas STAYED in the microwave!

We met up with Glenn's cousin Alice and her family over at the Mesa Arizona Temple. We went over to see all the beautiful Christmas lights.

We had a fun evening over at Aunt Melissa's house to celebrate Uncle Eldon's 40th b-day! It was fun to eat grilled burgers and yummy cake! All the cousins had fun jumping on the trampoline and watching movies and playing with toys. There's starting to be LOTS of cousins! Fun, fun fun!

Goofy golfing - keeps getting goofier each year I guess! Aunt Mindy started this outing last year and it proved to keep everyone occupied for a good part of an afternoon. The kids definitely enjoyed themselves!

It felt as if each night we indulged ourselves with leftover cake, pie, flan, you name it while playing obnoxious card games that PROVED that it's ALL IN THE DEALER'S DEAL on who will win the game! I totally won one game BIG TIME, BIG SCORE... all playing were wanting to play again and I should have bowed out... BUT NO... we played again and I landed FLAT ON MY FACE! No fair! It was so much fun though!

As we packed up all the gear, plus all the kids, we were just so thankful to have been able to come out this year to be all together. We have a wonderful family and we're excited to be back again next year! Happy Holidays!