A Sunny Thanksgiving

There are very very opportunities to get away while in school. So Brennan and I took the opportunity to escape Utah during Thanksgiving break. We played hooky Monday and Tuesday so we could leave on Friday and have a nice long visit in Arizona with my sister Mara and her husband Ben. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we tried to absorb as much sun as possible before we came back to the reality of winter. It was quite an eventful trip. There was fishing, ear piercing, horseback riding, game playing, good-food-eating, and lots of laughs all around. I love the Holiday season and the opportunities it gives us to spend time with family. It's the best.

Well anyway, a picture tells a thousand words right? So I will attempt to describe our splendid vacation through a plethora of photographs. My apologies.

First I will show off our wonderful works of art. To get in the Thanksgiving spirit, Brennan and I made these hand turkeys for Family Home Evening before we left for Arizona. We will not be quitting our day jobs to say the least.

After that fun little craft we were off to sunny Arizona. Mara had a strict agenda we had to adhere to on our first day there. All it really entailed was a trip to the grocery store and my ears getting pierced. She was quite adamant about the latter so at the ripe old age of 22 I got my ears pierced.

I look pretty happy about it don't I?

That night we played a game called Quelf. It is really quite random but produced some remarkable photo opportunities.

Here is Ben pretending to play the drums with scissors and a dangerously sharp knife whenever it wasn't his turn. Much to my dismay we couldn't get him to talk like a fiery little gnome but he would comply with this rule.

Finally, we have a wonderful rendition of Kumbaya by Mara. She probably won't be too pleased with having this on the internet but it is my favorite. The sound quality isn't that great and you have to hear my less-than-pleasant voice in the background. I apologize. Oh! And I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get the movie to flip. Lame.

I have to put one more video up. This is of Brennan and Ben during Cranium another night. The girls won by the way. :)



Brennan and I were pretty lazy on this vacation. While Mara and Ben were working hard all day we were pretty unproductive. Here is evidence:

You'd think we spent Thanksgiving in Alaska with the way Brennan has a blanket wrapped around him AND he's sitting in front of the fireplace.

Nathan and Stacy and their girls were able to come down on Tuesday and spend the rest of the week with us. It was fun to have even more family around. Usually the girls in our family go out at the crack of dawn for Black Friday deals. Not this year. Brennan, however, did brave the crowds to try to get us a laptop at Best Buy. He got up at 2:30 in the morning, but because an employee gave him a ticket for the wrong laptop, he came home empty handed. How disappointing.

At least he had good company. His little brother, Quinton, and his friend Kayce joined him in the long, unrewarded wait.

Later that day we went to Ben's parent's house. We got to ride the horse and pick oranges. It was lots of fun. Funny story though. Ben was attempting to bridle the horse, while all the rest of us watched. Keep in mind that the little girls were expecting to ride this horse in a few minutes. Well the horse proceeds to throw a fit right in front of us. She nearly yanked Ben over before she decided to just lay down. I think she must have suddenly realized how much bigger than Ben she is. I mean how much does she weigh?? If she doesn't want to be bridled, what on earth could Ben possibly do about it? Nothin, and she suddenly realized that. He was successful in bridling her and we were able to enjoy some short rides. She managed to behave long enough for everyone to have a turn.

Mallory and I enjoying a ride. Led by Ben, of course. We aren't that brave.


The girls showing off the oranges they picked. And Brennan's belly. :)

We got to celebrate Ben's birthday while we were there. Unfortunately he had to work for half of the day even though it was a Saturday! But he was still able to take the girls fishing.

Here he is with Libbie. The rest of us just got to watch because we don't have fishing licenses.

Ben told me he wanted a hug for his birthday when I asked a few weeks ago. I couldn't let his birthday pass without giving him his birthday wish. Luckily we captured this precious moment.


We were able to go see the lights decorating the Mesa temple grounds for Christmas. It was a bit nippy but quite a sight to see.

Here I am with Claire and Libbie outside the temple.

I just had to include these cute pictures of the girls feeding the ducks at a pond near Mara and Ben's new place.
Stacy brought a super cute craft for us to do while we were down there. It was a lot of work at times and I felt my craft skills were quite inadequate, but I don't think the finished product is half bad considering it was my first time doing anything like this.

It is certainly a time to give thanks. We have been blessed with so much and we are grateful for the opportunity this time of year gives us to reflect on those blessings. Most of all we are grateful for our wonderful families, the blessings of the temple, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.