Thankful in St. George!

We were lucky enough to have the condo

over Thanksgiving this year!

The day before Thanksgiving we had some fun visitors.

Amber, Aren, Cael, Jake, and Scott

Amber, Cael, Jake and Grandma

 Cousins!

 

Silly - Paige, Amber, and Courtney

 

Sillier still - Cael and the girls

And Ben

 We promptly put him - and everyone else - 

to work making pies! 

 

 Here is Mom setting the table on Thursday.

 Ticket to Ride is a Thanksgiving must.

Paige's celery family.

 Ben performing surgery on the rolls.

 Chef Courtney and her green beans

and Mark - probably cleaning.

 Then it was time to eat!

 Paige, Ben and Courtney 

 Jennifer - from South Africa - experiencing

her first Thanksgiving ever!

 The best part was our 6 pies for 7 people. 

Isn't this the cutest?

(photo cred bennyptweets)

 The weather was wonderful.

Snow Canyon was as spectacular as usual.

 The Nativity and temple lights were great.

And we got to enjoy them with more Woods!

   Mikaela, Mercedes, Madison, Courtney and Paige

My cool cat kids enjoying the Dixie Bowl.

I was busy having so much fun I didn't take enough pictures!

No pictured but those who joined in the fun over the weekend:

Tony, Cyndi, Mackenzie, Amelia, and Ace - and of course me.

Pumpkins and stuff

 Halloween 2014!

 We carved.

 Mark hollowed. 

 End product

Mark, Courtney, Lisa

Paige could not join us. :-(

 

For Halloween we had a work of art and a pineapple! 

 Then there was an accident in my oven!

Luckily the plastic came up in two pieces.

Mark thinks he is pretty funny - and I do too!

And it has been really cold

especially when you are sitting outside

watching people play football.

Road Tripping

In the fall we like to go on at least one drive to see

 the beautiful fall leaves. 

 This year we decided to 

 

 check out the Nebo Loop.

 And while we were probably a bit late

 it was really beautiful. 

Also as a family we are trying to visit all the temple in Utah.

So we took a little road trip to Monticello.

And since we were driving South - why not have a little 

Cubby's on the way.

Some people might watch too many horror movies

because they thought our motel looked like

the Bates Motel.

 The next morning caught the early session

 in Monticello.

 Incidentally it was the first of the small temples built.

 Then we headed for Arches!

 I used to visit Arches a lot when I was young

but had never shared it with the kids!

And let me tell you - it left them jumping for joy!!!

 

 Park Avenue

 Rare entire family picture. 

 

 It was just all so beautiful! And it was perfect weather.

 North Window

 Turret Arch

 Parade of Elephants

North and South Windows

 But the pièce de résistance, of course, was

 Delicate Arch.

 Let's just say I am 30 years older than I was

the last time I took this hike and it got harder.

 But it was well worth it.

 

It is as magnificent as I remember.

 

 I have the cutest little family!

 We stayed in Moab that night and on the way home

 we had to visit Dead Horse Point.

Where Mark posed for the same picture twice!

All I can say is that we are lucky to live in such a beautiful state!

Visiting Canyonlands is now on our to do list!