Thanksgiving 2009

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Phoenix and had a wonderful time. It was Brad and Myself and his parents, Donald and Jaynann. We were visiting Brad's sister Kelly, her husband Christian, and their son Baby J.

Phoenix has tons fo palm trees which I don't recall having ever seen before.

Phoenix also has tons of cacti. Not the little ones that you see growing along the ground randomly, but the giant ones with the arms that, until you see a real one, you think only are found in the cartoons.

This is Kelly and Christian's backyard. Christian designed the pool himself. Although the weather was absolutely beautiful while we were there, the water in the pool was way too cold for swimming in.

This is the view from the back yard. Don't you just love all those cacti?

This is Christian and Baby J.

Baby J. What a cutie.

This is Anne's dog, Charlie. Anne is one of Kelly's best friends. Charlie is the perfect dog. I love Charlie.

Grandma Jaynann and Baby J hangin' out.

Baby J loves the show, "The Imagination Movers." We watched it alot during the week.

For lunch on Thanksgiving Day we had appetizers. This awesome vegetable tray was brought by Christian's brother, Skip.

Skip also brought a very delicious fruit tray. It was wonderful.

The table looked great!! Kelly did an awesome job and was absolutely the perfect hostess!!

Thanks Kelly!!

Jaynann did the turkey. This turkey was the most moist turkey I've ever had. It was wonderful!!

Donald carved the turkey and did a great job.

Charlie supervised the turkey carving, hoping that some would fall on the floor.

Anne prepared the potatoes.

Kelly got the serving spoon ready.

I made the rolls from scratch and have been informed that I will be in charge of the rolls from now on. YAY!!

Everybody enjoyed the feast. I tried everything and everything was wonderful. The stuffing, yams, cranberries, potatoes and turkey. It was all so good. It seemed that everyone was so pleased with how it all turned out.

On the day after Thanksgiving, Anne took me hiking. Anne is an amazing athlete. She has participated in at least three iron man events. She is a teriffic inspiration.

I love hiking and this was a great hike. It was about a mile to the road at the top and it was steep. I had a great time and the view and weather were beautiful. I wish I had worn shorts.

Anne, Charlie and myself at the top. Well done everyone!!!

From the road we could see 25 to 30 bikers going further up the mountain.

We even came across a geochache. If you've never been geocaching you should try it. We weren't looking for any caches but recognized it as soon as we saw it.

We could see downtown Phoenix from the road at the top of the trail we hiked.

Later that evening the whole family went to look at Christmas lights. I loved seeing the giant cacti all lit up.

See? Pretty cool huh?

We left Phoenix on Saturday morning. We stopped at this lookout on Glen Canyon.

This is the Glen Canyon Dam.

We found a port-a-potty on the edge of a cliff. We couldn't get a good rating because it was padlocked shut. But we find it hillarious at the weird and random places you can find a port-a-potty.

We saw some pretty amazing scenery along the way. I thought this was pretty incredible. I can't wait to go back to Arizona.

Our First Vacation

This past week Brad and I had the opportunity to travel to Dietrich, Idaho to see my folks. I was desparate for a break from my three jobs and I really miss my hubby when we are apart for so many hours of the day. We enjoyed the four hour drive do Dietrich together. Upon arriving in town Brad's comment was "I'm NOT impressed." But by the end of the trip he admitted that it had kind of grown on him.

The town's welcome sign doesn't mention the population. I'm guessing it's because there isn't one. Just kidding. It is a small town but you've never met a nicer bunch of folks.

This is the Dietrich High School. Actually, it's just the Dietrich school. It holds grades K-12.

My dad is the librarian here and my mom frequently substitute teaches.

I thought this was kind of neat. It's an elk BBQ pit. I believe it was built by the high school metal shop class (if anyone from Dietrich is reading this and knows for sure who built it and what for please leave a comment).

This is Dietrich's main intersection. The cinderblock building with the red garage door is the Dietrich City Hall. My mom was re-elected to the city council during our visit.

This is the Dietrich Mercantile aka "The Merc." The rumor is that they used to sell gas once upon a time but they no longer do. If you want to buy gas it's an eight mile drive to the next town down the road...Shoshone.

Brad visits with one of the locals in the Merc.

Just wanted to show everyone the inside of the Mercantile. Great place for that chocolate fix or for a cold soda. They can also hook you up if you run out of milk. You can get a little more in Shoshone than in Dietrich but if you want Wal-Mart it's about 30 minutes to Jerome and the nearest mall, Costco, Target, ShopKo etc. you're looking at a 45 minute drive to Twin Falls.

I think you can get Idaho Spud Bites in just about every convenience store in Idaho.

This is a lovely pasture of goats (in town) at the end of the road that my parents live on.

This is the back yard of my parent's next door neighbor, complete with well and outhouse.

Close up of the outhouse.

This is inside the Snack Bar in Shoshone. Brad ordered the medium cone. He got a couple of good bites off before I could get a picture. This is about the size of the small cone.

This is the Little Wood River where it runs through the city park in Shoshone. When I was about 12 years old I would come to this park and jump off of that bridge (the water level was much higher at that time).

The current would then carry me through the park.

When I got to the foot bridge I would grab it and pull myself across and do it all over again. It was so much fun.

Brad took this picture of me in front of this awesome tree in the Shoshone City Park.

This is Mom's dog Tootsie.

Brad and Tootsie got along just great all week.

We snapped this picture of a wavy outhouse near Jerome, Idaho.

On the way home from our trip we stopped in Roy, Utah at the U.S. Air Force Museum. Brad was absolutely in Heaven. He loves military aircraft and knows everything about every plane we saw there. Brad points out the C-54.

Here he is soluting an S-58 helicopter.

These nifty little things are assist rockets that help the airplane to become airborn. The plane is a C-130 Hercules.

Brad admires the guns on the B-29 Bomber...aka the Super Fortress.

This is a B-47 Bomber.

This is a McDonald Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

In Vietnam this was called the Goony Bird....aka C47.