We Are Thankful for Friends and Family

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both. Our friends, the Evans, hosted their annual feast and we enjoyed catching up with everyone. It was warm enough that we let the kids ride their bikes around the neighboorhood after dark to look at Christmas lights!

Our own little family post-Thanksgiving meal was a little bit low-key. Both kids ended up getting sick: Jacob had a fever while Josh threw up over several days. Even though I should have been disappointed after cooking for five hours only to have Josh puke at the dinner table all over his meal, it was still worth it just to be with our family all weekend. We've been getting better and watching lots of Christmas cartoons!

Speaking of family, here is an adorable project that Jacob brought home from school:

Jacob's Family

This is the house where I live with my family.

This is my Mom and Dad. I love them.

This is me and my little brother.

My family likes to go to the movies together.

This book was the sweetest thing to have over Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoyed time together with friends and family, as we did. We are thankful for friends and family!

Staycation

We had the most wonderful family weekend in Prescott. It was so much fun, that we've decided we need to take more "staycations" when time allows. We only had to drive about 1 hour north to feel like we were completely on vacation. And, it was chilly with fall leaves in abundance! We loved every minute of it. Some highlights:

Hiking on the Peavine Trail

Prescott's Minor League Hockey Team: The "Sundogs"

The hotel we were at had an indoor swiming pool which was also a perk. We honestly just hung out and enjoyed being together as a family (and watching cartoons, as you can see below).

Happy Fall-o-ween!

Hello everyone! It's been a busy month, so we're going to have to combine this post to include fall updates, halloween activities and the like.

As far as the "fall" goes for Arizona, we've still been getting a few heat waves. It was 85 degrees earlier this week. I know--we can't complain. However, it does make the soul yearn for some hot-chocolate drinkin' weather. Here's a few photos from our pumpkin patch escapades, despite the warm weather. The pumpkins were later turned into silly, scary, and U of O jack-o-lanterns (wonder who had that idea?). A bonus photo of Jacob being very scary is included.

Halloween was a fun time this year. Both kids were old enough to really enjoy it. They boys were ketchup and mustard, which is a really cute combo costume. However, it didn't go over as well at school since they were separated into their own classrooms for the costume walk. Plus, one of Joshie's classmates wore a Star Wars storm trooper outfit which made our kids super jealous. But, we got through it and the boys even managed to enjoy holding Marty long enough for one photo: he was the "hot dog."

Due to the warm weather post-Halloween, we decided to enjoy a fun day off for Veterans Day at the Phoenix Zoo. We decided to try the family bicycle for the first time. Doesn't it look like fun?!?

It is fun. For the first 15 minutes. Then, the muscles start to really burn. The zoo has a few steep hills and windy paths which makes the hand-operated break kind of interesting. Too bad we paid for a full hour, so we sweated and huffed our way through it in order to get our money's worth. We've checked the bike off our list, so we probably won't do that again. However, Jacob did mention wanting to do the paddle boats next time... we'll see!

We are escaping the heat this weekend and heading up north to Prescott, Arizona. There's guaranteed cold weather and even a slight chance for snow!!! We can't wait. First order of business I think will be some hot chocolate. Yum!