Thanksgiving Festivities

We spent a wonderful week in Cedar City to celebrate Thanksgiving. I am so grateful that ALL of my siblings were able to come play, although we did miss the padres there to keep us under control. Fortunately we get to visit them in December, woo WOO!

Our Thanksgiving festivities were full of hide and go seek, capture the flag, volleyball, massive face stuffing, hikes/walks, sushi, Mr. Bug, karaoke, dance parties in the dark with both a strobe light AND black light (yes we had to have the dance party in the dark, b/c Lewises just don't have that rhythm...well maybe Alethea and Steph do...), story time each night, dart gun wars, rock climbing at Pocket Rocks, cow branding/vaccinating/de-horning, chocolate chip cookie variations every day, and decorating for Christmas. Quite the jumble of F-U-N!

For Thanksgiving dinner everyone pitched in and had one or two assignments so it didn't seem like too much work to put together a yummy feast consisting of: broiled turkey (click on it to go to our recipe blog for directions for a juicier, faster-cooking turkey), Alaskan cranberries, stuffed mushrooms, sage stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, browned turkey gravy, whole wheat rolls, roasted sweet potatoes, steamed kale, sparkling cranberry-pomegranate-ginger ale, and pumpkin cake.

It's a good thing pictures are worth thousands of words...it saved me a lot of typing tonight. Enjoy!

Action shot of Capture the Flag

Proof that Steph got Mac!

Kaden aka Flag Capturer

Cow branding - this group of 40 cows were wild and frisky! Two cows jumped over the 5 1/2' fence! Abbie and Shawn both got kicked. And here in the pic Abbie was trying to calm down the wildest of the bunch, poor cow was 'having a cow' the whole time.

Sadie's cuteness is too much! Alethea you are pretty cute too :)

David and Kaden hiking at Three Peaks

Beautiful Cactus

Sara, tough-girl-mom, hauling around Sadie, sleep fighter.

Kyson & Kaden the little elves that helped decorate.

Mr. Bug!

Dance party in the dark. See Chris I didn't get you, sheesh!

Cedar Breaks why do you have to be so ugly?

Steph taught us how to make sushi. I want it to be a family tradition every time we get together. SO yummy!

David or Mac?? climbing at Pocket Rocks.

Kaden turned 4 somewhere in the mix of it all! And Chris and Alethea got way older too...Happy Birthday!!

Sisters and the one and only niece! (Mamasita we needed you in this!!)

My dad used to tell us stories about "Petey and Bobby" when we were growing up and I LOVED listening to him, so we tried to have story time every night for the kidlets. This is the perfect topic to end this post...it's 2 am and I'm going to bed. Good night!

Cankles Continued

I forgot to add the wonderful "Get Well" card that I was given during the cankle injury:

Here is what my loving siblings said:

"Better you than me. -Chris"

"Dear Liz, Our last chase was an epic exit of your athleticism. I feel you used my laughter against me in an unethical way and if you wouldn't have made such ridiculous maneuvers than none of this would have happened. Your battle wound is a poor description of what it looked like in the end, but I will always remember the image of this disaster. Still Love You, Alethea"

"Dear Liz, This is an impish attempt at commandeering attention...and don't think I'm unaware of the impending business. (He then drew a picture of himself picking his nose) Just joking. Bounce back quick. We would've had em. Love, Mac"

"Have you ever read the 'Girl Who Cried Wolf''? Lizi...I still love you. Ab"

"Knew it was the ankle from 100 yards away ♥ Dave"

"I will nurse you back to full ankle health unless you become too demanding and then you are on your own! Steph"

"You still have one left! This is great news - Be positive, bounce back, never down, it's uncomfortable :) Sara"

Cankles

All my siblings are gathered in Cedar City for Thanksgiving. It's been such a party being all together, I love it! A couple days ago we were playing a rowdy game of capture the flag. As I was valiantly rescuing Mac from 'jail' I did a super human jump and flew from the big trampoline into the dirt pile squirming from a painful ankle sprain. It's still quite swollen and getting some good color.

Check out that cankle! I'm too old for games like this now, sheesh!

Bye-bye Circus

Circus Bathroom

At some point one of the previous renters in our duplex bought paint and actually took the time to paint pink and yellow stripes all over the bathroom. Wow. Who does this on purpose? Needless to say I never was fond of it and yesterday decided it was time to give our bathroom a little makeover. Lucky for me she left the yellow paint and it was easy to cover up. Painting is not my favorite job...I don't mind rolling, but the edging is especially annoying for my impatient self.

I like this much better, plus the yellow makes our bathroom a lot brighter.

And mother nature decided to help with my bathroom decorations...yes that is a dead frog on our skylight. I think it ties in well with the fish hangings on the wall. And props to the frog, he's got hops!

Beach Cruisin'

I went from the scene above in Utah...

To this lovely scene in Florida :)

I'm back with my amazing husband!! It's SO good to be home. He made me delicious blueberry pancakes for breakfast...fresh cut flowers for the table and everything! And he surprised me with another fantastic beach cruiser...we love yard sales! Now we both have a bike to ride which is perfect. We took them down to Cape Canaveral yesterday and it was SO pleasant riding along the beach. George taught me how to bunny hop. I always thought it was so hard to get the back wheel off the ground, but by the time we got back to the car I could clear 2 feet. I'm really enjoying the weather here in Florida, especially appreciating it since I left snow and freezing temps back in Utah. And of course life is just blissful to be back with my George :)

This is what I get for posing for a pic and not paying attention to the ocean...shoes full of water!