Mesa Temple Lights and Friends

The last part of our Thanksgiving trip ended with the Mesa Temple lights.  These lights are such a special thing for me cause we did it every year growing up since we lived down there.  The kids were old enough to enjoy it and while we were walking around they would say "wow" and "so cool" and point out the colors of the lights.  I love sharing some of my favorite past times with my kids. 

Saturday after Thanksgiving we used the day to go visit our friends.  We started going out to Chandler and seeing the Zanzucchi's, one of Nate's old mission buddies and his family.  It's always fun being with them and the kids have fun playing together.  We talked at their house for a while and then we headed out to Red Robin to have lunch together.  It seems to be the spot we go to when we eat out together.  The restaurant was fun and the kids had fun in the lobby waiting because they had a tv in the ground playing a football game so they all sat around and stared at it until we were ready to go. 

After lunch we went to the mall and met up with our friends the Hummel's who are some of our old friends from Flagstaff. 

Checking out the fish and alligator at the Rain Forest Cafe in the mall

We didn't get to hang out with them for too long because we had to get my brother who was flying home from visiting his girlfriend and drive home to Show Low.  It was such a long week but oh man did we have so much fun.  We love the valley and all the people we got to see that weekend. 

Thanksgiving 2013

As always, it was great.  We went to the valley with my mom and step dad and we had dinner with the Peterson family.  I haven't had dinner with that family since I was in high school so it was nice to go back after all this time.  

So we got there on Tuesday for Merrick's eye doctor appointment and it was Nate's birthday so we celebrated as good as we could and even with my Dad.
Then on Wednesday we just hung out and relaxed.  We had some birthday money left over so we heard about this place that had some awesome jeans and so we did a little shopping.  Nate got himself a few pairs of jeans and then we went to the mall and walked around and had lunch at the food court for fun.  Later that night my mom came into town and we enjoyed a night of seeing my Grandma and Grandpa.
Then the wonderful day of Thanksgiving was here.  We got up and Mom and I did some cooking for the Peterson dinner and we got ready and looked through Black Friday ads.
Peterson dinner was at 11 so we headed out there.  We got to see our step siblings who were there for a some time before going to another family thing that they had.  It was a super good lunch and it was nice catching up with all the aunts and uncles and being in the tradition of things.  One being that we all got caramel from Grandma Peterson as an early Christmas gift.  This was the first Peterson family event that Nate went to that had most of the family there and I think he liked it.  There is definitely a lot of people to remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the day was relaxing and I did my planning to go to Best Buy for Black Friday.  I really wanted to get a tablet for the kids and they had the Kindle Fire HD for $100.  We were really excited for it and knew we could afford it so I went and braved the line 2 hours before it opened and got what we wanted.  It really wasn't too bad and I liked having the rush of getting there and getting what I wanted.

 

That was Thanksgiving Thursday.  Friday morning, my mom invited all the kids and siblings over to Grandma and Grandpa's house so that we could have breakfast together.  Kayton was really excited to see his cousins Isaac and Jonah and Luke and they had fun playing together.  What gathering with Grandma wouldn't be complete without a bear exchange.  My Grandma Nielson loves bears and has a bear Christmas tree and has a little collection with one representing each grandkid.  Anyways, she collects stuffed animal bears throughout the year and then she does a game where everyone grabs a bear and then she tells a left and right story and you pass the bears around until the story is over and then that is the one you end up with.  Kayton and Merrick didn't care too much but we all went home with a bear. 

The Peterclans minus a few of the siblings

Grandpa gave rides to any of the little kids that wanted to on his golf cart.  They loved it. 

 

Except Kayton, he didn't want to go. 

Later that night, there was one more family thing to go to.  It just happened to be my step Grandma's 86th birthday.  We had a big party for her at my Uncle's house.  Nate and some of the boys had fun playing with the ping pong table in the backyard while we did a few games inside.  One game was raising our hands at things that we are like Grandma which was fun.  The present they decided to give her was to index so many names for genealogy and they ended up doing like 1,500 names.  She loved that for a present.  We also got to Skype with one of the cousins who got her mission call that night.  We all enjoyed running around and playing that night too.  

It was nice being around that family for all these big events.

Nate's birthday

Happy Birthday to my best friend and awesome hubby Nate.  There was a lot going on around his birthday, but we celebrated the Sunday before at my mom's house with dinner and his favorite cake.  He got to open all his presents there too.  He got socks and I made him a sign with his name on it to hang in his classroom.  There were more gifts later in the week.

Then his actual birthday was 2 days before Thanksgiving.  He the day after and the rest of the week so we ended up going down to the valley that morning to get Merrick to an eye doctor appointment.  I promised Nate we would make the most of it while we were in the valley even though we had to drive and go to a doctor appointment.  And we did.  We got settled in and then went out to dinner.  We have been to this really good BBQ place in Gilbert before and we found out that on your birthday they give you a free meal so that was where we met.  Lucky for us, my Dad was in town that night and we had dinner and ice cream with him.  We loved seeing him and were glad he went out with us.  What's better than BBQ and DQ on your birthday?!  Overall Nate said he had a good birthday.  Happy 30 something birthday Nate. 

Kayton Started Preschool

Yup, my little boy is growing up way too fast.  He is now in preschool.  He was accepted to the local Head Start School here in Show Low and we happen to know his teacher.  Her name is Miss Ashley and Kayton just loves going to school.  We got him a Woody/Buzz backpack and he takes it with him every day.  The first day was the 25th.  He went he wasn't so sure, but Nate dropped him off and he went right in and had a great first day.  The first week he went, Merrick had some withdraws of not being able to go with Kayton, but he does good now and just makes a big deal when he gets home from school.