Thanksgiving 2012 was thoroughly enjoyed with Michael and Ryan's families joining us in St. George on Wednesday and Adam's family arriving on Friday. Here we sit down to our feast at the pretty table, if I do say so myself.
I tried something a little different this year other than our usual "raisin" tradition. I interviewed every person and asked each to tell me two things that they are grateful for other than our families and our Heavenly Father and Jesus.....else we would all say the same things, and why they are grateful for that blessing! I wrote each response on a piece of paper, rolled it up and inserted one in each dinner roll. Then as each was discovered it was shared with all. Michael and I cracked up when we took a look at Parker's plate. He had quickly taken his two alotted rolls and taken them apart, piece by piece...sacrament bread style. His plate was full of little roll pieces! My two "blessings" were "I am thankful for....this beautiful world because it helps me feel God's love for us." And, "I am thankful for... the temple because when I am there I feel Heavenly Father's peace and when I am there I feel more like who I really am." That probably doesn't make any sense to anyone other than me!
The meal was yummy (I had made good use of my crock pots and early preparation on Wednesday) ...though there was one major setback to my meal. The crockpot in which I was cooking the turkey lost power after two hours of cooking. So...at meal time, there was NO TURKEY! Fortunately, we had a yummy ham, and lots of both for leftovers.
On Friday we drove out to the middle of nowhere to what we call the Crystal Mine. It is really a gypsum mine, but the gypsum sparkles like crystal and was used by the early settlers for window panes until they could obtain glass panes and was called Ison Glass (not sure of spelling) as per the lyrics in "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" in "Oklahoma." Cute Mason was SO EXCITED to go and the first thing he asked when they arrived in St. George was, "Can we go to the Crystal Mine???" (Question repeated many times until we finally went!) He and cutie pie, Ava, are little hoarders and filled their bags though we talked about picking out their favorite 5 -6 pieces. I loved that the kids had such a good time there.
Michael had brought his new mini motorcycle from Boise and we have our 1986 Honda that our kids rode when they were young. Both were taken out to the mine and the boys did a little dirt biking in the area. They were so darn cute on those bikes. (As you can tell by the pictures, the weather was fabulous for late November. We had PERFECT weather the whole time!)
Adam's family rolled in pretty late on Friday night, but we had a full, fun day on Saturday. The daddies went golfing at Sunbrook (is anyone surprised?) and the rest of us went to the movies to see "The Rise of the Guardian"...a cute computer animated film about Jack Frost. Then the boys played a little "two on two" basketball, played the Wii or Crokenole with Gramma (well, I definitely have NO idea how to spell that one...it's played on a Carom board, but we never called it that), the little ones loved the "Kid's Club" room. We managed to pass the time very well awaiting the daddies return.
It is impossible to describe how beautiful the area is...much like the feel of Snow Canyon but with it's own personality. Even the little ones loved the hike and did so well. Then it was back to the clubhouse to go swimming and home to warm up in our hot tub.....both a daily activity.
A darling picture of Steph and Ellie on our hike! Love it!
One tradition is a ride in one of Grampa's vintage cars.
Here he takes the kiddies for a spin in his 1965 Mustang.
And since it was Zach's 7th birthday...we had a PARTY! He opened presents and we all had cake and ice cream...vanilla cake and frosting with Cookies and Cream ice cream...his favorites. He is a sweetie pie with the best laugh in the entire world!
Sunday morning everyone did their best to get away early as it's a LONG drive for the Boise families and Ryan and Julie were speaking in church in their ward in Henderson. So it was kind of a mad dash out, but everyone did very well collecting all their belongings with only a few things left behind. I can't say that I'm not tired. We went to bed between 1-2 every night and the kids woke up around 7 each morning. I could have fallen asleep when the kids went to bed, but then I would have missed good conversation and fun games with the adults. We'll head north in the morning and try to rake up the leaves before the winter storms begin for real...and then HAUL OUT THE HOLLY!!!
Michael called on his way home to say that Mason likes St. George as much as he likes Lake Powell!!! Now that is one of the best compliments I've ever had! Later he also said, "I miss St. George already." The sentiment could have been slightly improved to include...."and Gramma" but I'll settle for the good feeling knowing that he had a great time and loved being here. I think we all feel well satisfied and blessed!
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