Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014 American Arizona Style

With a mish-mash of photos from my phone and the camera... here is a brief overview of our (American) Thanksgiving holiday.
We left on a Friday, picked up Jamie and Chet's new couch and then drove to St.George and were lucky to stay at Chet's parents place for the night.  We got up early and drove the rest of the way to "Grammie's Phoenix".  There is something about 70+ degree weather in late November that I really like.  I am pretty sure that we warmed up the hot tub and we all went for a swim.

On Monday we did a hike (or part of it) and Tracen happily said "good-mornin" to everyone that walked past us.



After the hike we ate a delicious breakfast. 

We were the crazy Canadians on Tuesday morning as we went swimming at the marriot in the 56 degree weather. 
Luke got to go golfing on Tuesday with his Dad, Dave Cichy and Bill Gibson.  I took Tracen to a movie with Lucy, Summer and Ashley.   They got home just in time for Sharon and I to go to a cooking class at Sur La Table.  I already told Luke that when we move to Denver I want to go to a cooking class once a month.  Nothing like cooking a great meal and eating it, and not having to clean up.  The only disappointment was that I couldn't try the dessert because of all the dairy and chocolate... if Rai only knew how committed I am to his happiness.
Our dinner: A turkey soup, pork tacos (that we ate with this green salsa) and a jicama orange salad
Thanksgiving Day was beautiful and we all spent the morning at the Marriot again, but this time in 85 degree weather.




I asked Tracen if he wanted to try swimming without his water wings, like his friends, and he said "No, I don't want to die".



With the passing of a dear friend on Wednesday, we were reminded of just how blessed and lucky we are to have all that we have.  We are so thankful for our knowledge of the gospel and eternal families, and for our good health and the countless blessings. 

 Dinner was followed by some swimming for the kids and then we put them to bed and headed out to do some shopping.  We went with Dave and Ashley and it was fun to just be shopping and hanging out with friends, without kids. 

Friday night we went to Backyard Taco and the Mesa Temple lights (along with everyone else in Arizona) per Erika's suggestions.  We were impressed with both.  Tracen loved to run down the ramps and up and down the stairs and almost caused a lot of falls of unsuspecting adults.











Look at this cheesy smile.  Rai has the funniest little grin, and it must be the Asian in him coming out, because when he smiles like this, his eyes close.


Luke's parents had to head back on Friday, but we stayed until Sunday and took advantage of the swimming and delicious food.  We also finally got pretty much all of our Christmas shopping done. 

4 comments:

Radfords said...

ok. I hate you. You had waaaay tooooo much fun! Plus you have a stinking rotten bod, and your baby is way younger than my baby! yep, hate you! Plus warm weather? Everything looks better in nice November weather ;) Let's get to planning that february warm trip!

Mariko said...

My gosh, I love your kids. They are so dang cute. And seriously, you look so good.

May Takahashi said...

Loved reading your blog. Seems you had lots of fun on Thanksgiving.

Wilma said...

Great pictures! You look amazing....and the others look good also.