Thanksgiving 2022

 

Everybody say "Shop Vac" ...or  was that Photoshop? Whatever. They smiled and I'm not going to Photoshop myself into the picture. ( Or ShopVac me, either!)

This was a new thing this year. We each wrote on a piece of paper something we were grateful for. All the slips went into the pumpkin jar. During dinner, I read the slips, and we all tried to guess who wrote that one. It is as fun! We had some very grateful people around our table. We were thankful for friends,school, family, church, clothes, life,food, earth, freedom, parents, pet hedgehog, games, animals, nature, health, friends, love, family, family, family. There were definitely a lots of thanks for family. 

We had such fun texting with our kids all morning long about food prep and plans.

It was fun to have Mom here, along with Eric Liebhardt, Caroline, and my nephew Eric Autrey and his wife and their cute kids.

A nice feast. Good company. Much to be thankful for.

Pre Thanksgiving.

 I made a tablecloth.

I baked pies.

I cooked cranberries.

I pre-sauteed the celery and onions for stuffing.

Herriman in November

 We got substitutes for our Primary class and headed up to Herriman to see Logan and Rachel participate in their program on the 20th.

We drove up on Saturday  the 19th. We stopped in Beaver, Utah, to drop off apple cider to Ken and Cheryl Elmer. Then we went to Robert's house to wait for Nick to come and pick up Mike.  They both used Rob's home to layer up....

 Because  BYU was playing Utah Tech at home, so Mike and Nick went to that together. They had to really bundle up because the high for that day was only in the low 30's. Brrr. Their seats were in the shade, and in the end zone area. Happily, BYU won their game, Mike and Nick dressed in enough layers of clothing to not freeze to death.

We had a fun visit with the kids for the rest of Saturday and Sunday..

You might be able to tell by the pictures that Mike had on a beanie hat during the game. That's quite the hair do. Haha.

The kids did great with their Primary Program. We only stayed Saturday night with them, and drove home Sunday afternoon. 

Good weather (tho very cold) for the drive up and back. And Kaylee always fixes such yummy meals for us when we visit. She made a sausage and tortellini soup with spinach and sweet potatoes. I might just have to start exploring that blogger, Mel, of Mel's Kitchen. She's Kaylee's favorite and the recipes have never disappointed. ( Who am I kidding?! I am NOT collecting new recipes!)

Photos of phun.

This is playing with "snowballs" in the basement. Mike and Logan were having a snow ball fight. Nice hair, huh?

Belly blowing is the best! Emily

Jane

How do you type the sound for blowing on the belly? BRRRAAATTTT??

Emily was giggling along with them in the background.

Rachel and a balancing monkey.

A new type of horsey ride on Grandpa's feet.

Reading with Grandpa.

Sunday after church.

Smile, Emily! ( With a little help from Rachel or Jane)

Nick and Kaylee were playing a cooperation/teamwork game with the kids where you have to get to your goal by only stepping on the felt squares, and moving them as you go.

They also have a fun night-time game played in the dark with a flashlight, obstacles and it's kind of like Simon Says. The kids LOVE it. Mike and I were spectators this time. It is as pretty entertaining.

We got home Sunday night in time for me to attend (arriving about 8 minutes late ) our Stake Primary Leadership meeting. I'm glad I went. It was good. I just happened to look at my phone calendar and saw the note about the meeting, was still in church clothes, so dashed off to it.

.

I wish I would have done better on Tuesday that week when I had signed up to work a Temple shift for someone. I totally forgot and was 2 HOURS late! So embarrassing. But I stayed longer to try and make up for it.

AGW 2022, Sunday Nov 13

 Donna and Liz left for the airport very Very early this morning, so Mom and I and Gail and Caroline just slept in and leisurely packed and got ready to leave. We did not have to pay for parking, thanks to Liz's gold or platinum club membership. Nice. Thanks, Liz!

Gail and Caroline and Mom and I headed to the south end of the Strip to the "Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas" sign. 

Here are the Ugly photos I jumped out and took. It was only 50degrees, windy and quite cool. 

There was a long LINE to get a photo with the sign. Crazy. Gail and Caroline waited. I jumped back in the car with Mom.  I didn't know it was a historic marker thing, though.

Gail ran around to the other side to capture the other side.

It says, "Drive carefully! Come back soon." And her photo is in focus, nicely framed, and close enough that one can read the sign. Sometimes you just want to get out of the cold, you know?

Gail had a store she needed to go to since she forgot easier, we stopped for a bite of lunch, hit a couple of stores in the Mall in Henderson,  then headed home. Gail drove and we ALL nodded off....except good ol' Gail the driver. What a sweetheart.

We came home to very cold snowing weather. There's only an inch or less, but

Brrr. We were home by 5 pm or so. 

Thanks, Donna, for organizing it for us to celebrate the 20th year!!!

AGW 2022, Saturday the 12th

 More food!

Breakfast was at Hash House a Go Go, but we took (very long) ride share cars out to the west Sahara location. Apparently the Linq location(which we walked/ wheeled to) had a 45 minute wait for a part of our size -- 9.  I'm sure these weird meals are hard on Mom's diabetic system.

But it was  yummy and we should have done more sharing. I chose to have a pancake. Who knew it would be a pancake the size of my head. Bigger than my head!

Yikes. That was called the "Tractor driver combo" or platter, or something. Two eggs, sausage, and a pancake. I cut mine up into the equivalent of EIGHT servings. I did not eat them all. Maybe four. Craziness. Such waste! All over. So sad.

My girls. On their phones.

That afternoon, it was the spa for me, Donna and Liz. That was Liz's first massage experience. She said it wouldn't be her last. We enjoyed the hot tub, the steam room, scented showers, fixed our hair, hydrated with water and juice. And felt like warm, squishy jelly fish as we left.  Here we are before our massages.

I had a nap in my room while Mom watched Laurence Welk and Antiques Roadshow, Gail and Caroline wandered shops, others gambled.

Dinner was at a very noisy Italian place.

I had to PASS a NOTE to Donna at the other end of the table because she was unable to hear me due to the high noise volume. And we do not read lips that well.

 Very expensive, too. I guess all the food we ate in Las Vegas was. I wish I could have taken ALL the leftovers home! I wouldn't have to cook for a week or more. I had ravioli, and I do plan to keep my leftovers. We are going home Sunday, we have a fridge in our room, and I have a little cooler bag. And access to ice. We should be fine. 

After the dinner, we walked over to the Linq's High Roller Observation Wheel and bought tickets for ALL of us.

This is the Linq from the side. I'm in white, way in the front right, wheeling Mom. It was very chilly and windy.

On the high roller as a group.

Lots of photos were taken, this is just a few. 

The wheel peaks out at 550 feet in the air, takes 30 minutes for a full circle and costs over $30 at night. But the views are spectacular!

 A new events center in the shape of a sphere is going up to the east of the Strip. We hear it will be screens inside and out. Sounds rather fragile.

After the High Roller experience, we went our separate ways. Donna and Liz had an early flight, were tired and headed to rooms, Carine and I walked to the Venetian Grand Canay Shops. 

We saw part of the Mirage volcano eruption on our way.

The canal shops haven't changed much. I bought a cookie, Caroline got a cannoli for her and Gail and we walked back to the Paris through the scuzzy strip. It's really awful. We are pretty much over ever needing to an AGW There again.