Thanksgiving week

We love it when Grandpa and Grandma come visit! 

Day 1, we went to the Musical Instruments Museum. I legit had no idea there were so many different kinds of instruments. Rooms filled with all sorts of string instruments, blow instruments, etc., all organized by region. It was really cool.

We went out for lunch and ice cream afterwards, but I didn't take any pictures because I was busy picking needles out of Alexis' hand after she touched a cactus. Yep, that happened.

 

Day 2. I went on a 5K run around the neighborhood with Shelley. I used to HATE running. In fact, last year my legs felt like noodles for days following this Turke Trot. But I've been running 3-4 times a week, and it's actually not too bad. I can't believe it took me 36 years, but I might actually be in the best shape of my life. Or at least pretty damn close.

LeiLani and I split up the sides. I brought 2 different kinds of potato dishes, creamed corn, roasted Brussels sprouts, rolls, and a pumpkin pie. And that was lunch at Paul's.

For dinner, we went back to our place where we ate catered food ordered from Fleming's. There's only so much food one person can cook in a day.

The boys went golfing in the morning. Meanwhile, I set up for Christmas. Then in the afternoon, we went out to eat and went to the movie theater.

On Sunday we went to church, then the kids decorated gingerbread houses. I thought it was a great Sunday activity and the kids really enjoyed it.

Weekend with the boys

Fun weekend with the boys! Friday night we went to a Suns game, which, let's be honest, is so much more fun when they win. Which they did!

Then Saturday morning I took the boys to a Bubble 5K Run. Let's be honest, no one ran. But we got a nice 5K walk with some good talk.

 

Stake Festival

We almost didn't make it to the Stake Festival, mostly because I felt like crap, following my Covid booster shot. I was so exhausted! I just wanted to stay home and go to sleep. But, for the kids, I decided to go anyway. And it was worth it, because they had a blast.

Alexis found her friends Juniper, Jane, Jones, and Blake. Kendall, Logan, and Taylor spent 75% of the time holding the baby chicks. They were definitely cute. Too bad they all turn into terrifying chickens.

Alexis did a cupcake walk, milked a (fake) cow, and went down the giant slide at least a dozen times. I went down the slide, too, a couple of times, with Angela and Ashley. Haha. 

The kids also help puppies and ate cotton candy, which I told them is called "barbe a papa" in French, and literally means "dad's beard." It was a lot of fun, actually!

 

Mesa Temple Open House

The Mesa Temple has been undergoing renovations for the past 3 years. So when they started giving out tickets to attend the open house (open to the public), I immediately reached out to Shelley. Shelley has been a great investigator. She even showed up to the church to be taught by the youth last month. Logan and an older young man ended up teaching her about the gospel (for practice purposes).

So I took Shelley and we walked around the beautiful temple. I had never been into the Mesa Temple before, so I couldn't tell what had changed or what had remained the same. But either way, it was beautiful. The celestial room, especially, with all of the sparkly chandeliers, was amazing. It was a neat experience.

I later went back with the kiddos, and with Rachelle and her family. William was supposed to meet up with us, but he had to work late. 

Ryan Elementary Festival

The kids always look forward to Ryan's Fall Festival. They always go all out on the inflatables and games. But most impressively, they go all out on the raffle baskets, which we never win. This year, I only donated $10. Then I probably spent another $10 on tickets. 

Since her 2 daughters now attend Ryan, we met Rachelle and her family at the school. Between the majority of our kids, we took over the entire swing set. Haha. The most eventually went missing, going out to do their own thing. I stayed with the girls who got their faces painted and jumped until they dropped.

Then at one point, as I was talking to Rachelle, I heard "Beeston". What?! They were announcing the basket winners, and we'd won one. I ran over there and found out that we'd won the fun activities basket, which Kendall had put some of her raffle tickets into. Yay!