Turkey Day in AZ!

We had the chance to spend Thanksgiving in AZ this year and we were all so excited for this break!  Steve's time off got kind of confused so he wasn't on vacation until Thanksgiving Day.  It actually worked out better for us because we were able to fly (flights were actually cheaper the day of Thanksgiving which was awesome!) and still get there in time for the day's festivities.  We were nervous about possible delays but our flight actually left 10 minutes early and wasn't full so we could move to better seats.  The kids did wonderfully and it was one of the best flights we've had with the kids!  My dad picked us up in sunny, warm AZ and we headed to my parents' house.  Preston had said the night before that he was "100 excited" to go to grandma's house so the kids were thrilled to get there.  We were joined by Nate, Katie, and Juliet for our big Thanksgiving meal.  We had a great day relaxing and enjoying each other's company while letting the kids play.  Steve, my dad, and I also got to top off the night by going to the movies to see "Hunger Games".

Our niece Juliet is getting so big!

We were able to spend a week there, Thursday to Thursday, which meant we had lots of time to hang out, let the kids play and do a lot of fun things including... Steve, my dad, and Preston going to see "Frozen", girls doing a little shopping, lots of naptimes, playing outside on the new swing set and in the dirt, going to church together, eating goodies, our family seeing "Frozen" because it's that good, lunch from In n' Out, all going to the Arizona Natural History Museum in Mesa, the Mesa Temple lights, meeting up with a friend that moved there from Idaho, and playing at the mall.  Lots of fun times had by all!

At the museum there was an outdoor area where you could pan for gold.  We all got in on the action and it was so fun!

My parents just got a swing set which the kids loved!

We came hope to temps around 0 degrees and lots of snow and ice.  We even missed a power outage that lasted most of Wednesday and left people cold in their homes... we were not sad we missed that!  We've been staying home and inside since we've been home because I have no desire to go out in this weather... only 5 more months of this!

We're really excited that it's the Christmas season and are trying to relish in it since it seems to go by so quickly. This will be the first Christmas that we will be home and on our own for Christmas Eve and Day but I think we're excited to start some of our own Christmas traditions and just relax and enjoy the family time.  We have a lot of craziness coming up (also some that has already seemed to start) but more on that later.