Giving Thanks in AZ

Thanksgiving in Arizona has become a favorite tradition for Brent and me. The kids go to SLC every Thanksgiving so we get to travel to visit our family that we don’t see as often as we would like. It’s nice to know that we can look forward to spending Brent’s favorite holiday with all of them.
We made a lot of memories this weekend…many wonderful things to remember and a couple less joyous.
Brent and I arrived Wednesday evening and were met with hugs, as always, and pizza! We settled in and visited with the family.
Thursday morning we woke EARLY (you will see a pattern forming here) and went for a 5 mile run around Gilbert. When we got home we drove over to Dick and Sherri’s for a quick hello and some TASTY cookies that “The BEST Father-in-law Ever" whipped up just for me! Yummy butter cookies with rice crispies, coconut, pecans…and a lot of other favorites! I literally ate them the entire weekend.

Thanksgiving this year was at the Mortensen’s home. Very festive, very delicious, loud but most of all entertaining! A little tramp dodge ball, a few profanity filled games of seven-up, football and food that never ended…pies from heaven and more cookies. We went home feeling overstuffed and miserable.

Friday morning we woke up EARLIER and began our Black Friday fiasco…which started with Brian threatening the ATM machine and spouting words that I cannot repeat and lead to Wal-Mart with some pushing and shoving, great deals, mucho money spent and ended at Best Buy with a big screen TV.

We went home to drop off our purchases, picked up the Ellsworth kids and headed to Chandler Mall to finish up our shopping adventures for the day. After we finished up shopping we loaded up the cars, sent most children home with the Mortensen’s and went back to Brian and JoLynn’s…where to our dismay we found little Mollie (the dog) dead in the backyard. She had been kicked in the head by one of the horses. It was quite tragic and has taken a toll on the family. (see JoLynn’s blog)
That night with sad hearts we ventured out to Gecko Grill for dinner and then to the Mesa Temple for the lighting of the Christmas lights. This night was my very favorite night. Some of my favorite memories were made that night. From the Canadians who asked “Who the HELL is Max Hall?"...as he flipped the switch, as the celebrity guest of honor, to turn on the lights... to Conner reprimanding JoLynn and I for swearing, giggling and acting immature “on the Temple grounds." I also made a memory when the ONLY lights that didn’t light were the ones that members of our very own family had helped put up days prior.



Saturday morning we woke up EARLY…for no reason at all…so I went running. Then we lounged around most of the day, watched football and cared for Minnie. Poor little lonely puppy misses her friend. Yep, she got my sympathy, my blanket and my food.

Brent and I got up early on Sunday morning and headed home. It is always very hard for us to leave Arizona. We miss our family. But I am thankful for all the memories made, for all the love and friendship we share and look forward to going back SOON!