Spring Break

We took a trip to Arizona for Spring Break.  We love seeing Sunny, Hayden, Courtney, but this time there was a new little guy to love on, so we were extra motivated.

Meet Mr. Hudson

We had so much fun playing at Sunny's house and sleeping at Sharon's.  Natalee was certain that Abby and Crew were so anxious for her to come back to visit them and sleep with her.  Sure enough, they spent the first night not in their own room, but curled up at her feet. 

We were able to bless Hudson between sessions of General Conference.  We felt so lucky to be able to be there for the occasion.  After Conference my mom had planned an Easter Party for the kids.  They got to run around the yard looking for treats and gifts.  It was quite a lot of fun.

I made these deviled eggs for our Easter party.  I just love cute food.

We went out to dinner at another Food Network place.  This is Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert,which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  We totally recommend it if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

 On Monday we took the kids to paint pottery at As You Wish.  This is a favorite activity of Natalee's and one of the things she requested that we do on our trip.  We made quite the mess, but it was a lot of fun.


Before we left we'd arranged to meet Brett and Kae and their family in Tucson.  We arrived a few hours early so we killed some time at the Reid Park Zoo.  It was a perfect stop and we had a fun time seeing all the animals. 

In the evening we met up with our Harrison cousins at Oregano's.  Wow!  What yummy food!  We were so glad that we were able to visit this place that Brett and Kae have raved about to us for years!

The next morning we got up and headed to Tombstone for a little wild west fun.  We roamed the unpaved streets, walked into the gift shops and watched a shootout.  We went to "Boot Hill" the town's old cemetery for lunch and a little more exploring.  We got to see the final resting places of several who'd met their end in the mean streets of Tombstone.  

 Natalee with the gunslingers.

 We were grateful for part of one more day that we spent playing and digging the the garden.  Before too long, it was time to be back on the road. 

Thanksgiving Under the Palm Trees

We decided to go to Sunny's house in Arizona for Thanksgiving and were so happy almost all of my siblings were able to come too. We missed Skipper, Nia and their girls and wished they could have been there. We got Natalee out of school on the 21st and headed to Kanab and spent the night.

Guess who didn't want to have her picture taken?

We got up the next morning and headed to Mesa. We made a stop in Flagstaff for lunch at Long John Silver's. I love that place. We don't have them in Utah. Gotta love these hats! Bennett is telling Nat to say "Arggh" for the picture.

We were able to stay at Sharon's house where Natalee got hours of doggy kisses and was able to sleep with Abby and Crew by her side every night. She was in heaven!
Thanksgiving was amazing. It's always so fun to eat outside and Sunny has the nicest patio. We brought potatoes and corn from our garden that we were able to share for the feast. The turkey was wonderful, but the company was the best thing of all.


Besides the actual Thanksgiving day there were a few specific highlights.

This is a fantastic photo. Man, we're blurry. Anyway, we drove over to Ahwatukee to this Mexican restaurant that we saw on Diners, Drive in's and Dives. This was almost the best chili rellano I've ever had in my life. It was certainly the biggest. Oh ma werd!

We went to the swap meet where Sunny buys Webkinz. Natalee took her money that she's saved to buy a new one, as if we need another one. She bought an Ice Fawn and named it Fawn. Bennett got an English Springer Spaniel that he named Non and Hayden got a Pug that he named Gidget. They all had fun playing with them.

The day after Thanksgiving I was able to spend more time shopping with my sisters than I've ever had in my life. We went to Target, Toys-r-us and the Mills Mall. I'm so sad that I didn't take any pictures, especially of the certain toy that MarKey found for me (well, for Natalee) at Toys-r-Us that made her squeal so loudly that we attracted stares.
The kids all loved being at Sunny's house. She's got so many things to play with and her backyard is awesome.

We got up early Sunday morning and left. Dallas wasn't feeling well, so we took turns with the kids in our cars to free up the back seats for him to sleep on. This was the cute view we had for a few hours of the 12 hour drive. It was such a fun little trip. We do love heading down south just when it starts to really cool down.