Thanksgiving

Matt, Emily, Zach, Quinn and Chloe came to visit us for Thanksgiving weekend. It started off with a bang. Quinn threw the full trash can down our carpeted stairs - sorry, I forgot to get footage. Later that evening we tried to make turkey-lurkeys. Zach & Quinn acted like they were going to help us by unwrapping the Rolos, but between unwrapping and handing them to us, most made detours into their little mouths. Sometimes Quinn didn't wait for unwrapping. Thanksgiving was a big success, as we only spent 1.5 hours on preparation (with the exception of the turkey, but it basically makes itself). On Friday we went to the zoo. Emily's favorite animal was the basilisk, Ryan liked the bayou, Quinn liked the fake lizard, I liked the white tiger, Zach liked the giraffe (which we didn't see, but that's okay) and the lion cub liked Zach. The lion cub ran after Zach from behind the glass wall when Zach started running with the stroller.

Early Thanksgiving

In mid-November we had a wonderful trip to Utah and squeezed in as many visits around the valley as we could. We started with the Grandparents Johnson, and you can see here that Helen was a very happy traveler. We came with lots of family history questions and we left with answers, pictures, and all sorts of great stories.

At my Dad's we had a delicious early Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a pumpkin story presented by Jubal, Natalie and Cyrus (click on the pictures here to see more). Here you see the table were all the fun was - no adults allowed.

Here we are with Brice and Craig for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Burger Supreme. I discovered the delicious Western Burger here during my BYU years and have not yet found it's equal.

Natalie let us stay at her house and get her boys all wound up for a few days. Here's Cyrus caught in the act of stealing Michelle's slippers, a favorite pastime.

We were lucky that Mom and Nate's trip to Utah lined up with ours. Over at Natalie's we celebrated Nate's 12th birthday and saw Regan ordain him a Deacon.

Gingerbread Around the World

Every year in our stake each family is asked to donate a gingerbread house. The theme this year is Gingerbread Around the World. Ryan and I quickly decided that the Taj Mahal was beyond our capabilities so we drew upon our international pictures; and what do I have tons and tons of pictures of? Fruit stands. Ryan was in charge of drafting the design, I made the gingerbread (the first time ever), Ryan put the walls together, I made about a bazillion stars, Ryan put the roof on and I made some sweet bananas and sign. Here is the final result, click on the picture to see the process.

Here is the gingerbread house that I made and we decorated at our Relief Society Enrichment Meeting. We called it Christmas in Pompeii.

Happy Halloween

Helen was a kitty this year complete with kitties on her socks. We were unsuccessful at getting a picture of her socks, you will just have to trust me. We only had three knocks at our door which means I will be saving all the spooky pencils, bugs, erasers and bubbles for next year. At this rate we have enough for the next 10 years. Hopefully they stay good as long as our powdered milk food storage.