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.