Tuesday November 20th
We took our time getting ready Tuesday morning and got our new van all packed up and then we headed out after lunch. We arrived at our hotel in Flagstaff that evening and went to bed...I think..I didn't take notes.
Wednesday November 21st
We had a continental breakfast which I remember being a bit difficult. I vaguely remember Sam spilling milk and wanting to do everything himself. When we arrived at Evan and Crystal's Blake was already there. He had decided to fly out and we got to bring along his golf clubs and Evan's new golf bag (his Christmas gift from Blake) so Blake didn't have to check it. Once we got there it was really nice to be inside and out of the car. Evan and Crystal had Me, Steven and Sam all set up on the main floor in Jessica's room. Everyone else was in the upstairs rooms and all the little kids slept on the floor in the play room. I think we lucked out. We were right next to a bathroom which was great because being pregnant cause me to get a lot of use out of it. Also, downstairs was cooler than upstairs...after all we were in Arizona. There was some Wii playing, relaxing and visiting. My mom and Spence's family arrived and Evan/Crystal cooked us all dinner. Eric, Suzy, Nicole, Jordan, and Trevor all stayed at a hotel but they stopped by for a minute for dinner.
On November 10th Steven was being a nice husband and getting his pregnant wife a snack. As he walked down the stairs his big toe got stuck under his foot causing him to fall down about half the stairs. He feared he had broken his toe. It looked SO gross! I called Blake and he semi-willingly came to sit with the kids while I drove Steven to the ER. Fortunately it wasn't broken but he needed 8 stitches. As it turned out he was supposed to get those stitches taken out while we were going to be in Arizona. To save me from having to find an in network doctor Evan took Steven to his brother in laws house. He is a physicians assistant and he took the stitches out for Steven. Because the tear was so bad Steven had to walk around in a foot brace for a week or two so that the wound wouldn't open back up. Lucky for us (and AYL) he didn't have any shoots going on at this time that his injury would prevent him from doing.
Thursday November 22nd
Evan and Crystal really did make us feel at home. They purchased all the food and cooked it all. I tried to jump in and help with cooking and clean up whenever Sam would let me. So we had breakfast (this may have been the "hot cakes" day). Then there were chips and salsa and sandwiches to snack on while we waited for the big dinner. The kids just played with their cousins and kept themselves busy while the rest of us relaxed, visited, and helped with dinner. Evan has a smoker so he smoked the turkey in it. They even took the TV outside where it was pretty cool so the guys could enjoy some football. Steven and I took the kids for a walk because the weather was perfect and Boo joined us. I made my game plan for black friday. I even went as far as scoping out their Walmart so I'd know where everything was...twice. I had it all mapped out and felt very prepared. I just asked the kids what they remembered about this trip and they said that Jessica and Ashley slept in the hall closet. It's true, the did. They didn't want to have to wake up when everyone else did.
Friday, November 23rd-
Technically all this fun started on Thursday but they still called it Black Friday so I will call it Friday as well. I convinced Blake, Spence, Jessica and Ashley to go with me. We started out at Walmart. We arrived about 30 minutes before the sale was to start and to my surprise a lot of stuff was missing and people had filled their carts up and were just waiting for 10pm to hit. I was SO mad! At our Walmart everything is wrapped up and an employee opens it right when the sale starts. Some of these people must have been her for hours. NONE of the movies I wanted were left...in fact, I think ALL the DVD's were gone even before the sale started! Fortunately there were lots of toys and I was able to get everything but the movies I wanted. Spence even managed to snag a Wii thing that he really wanted. So I told the girls what to do and which toys to grab. They were great help. Oh, and Jessica also brought a friend with her...Megan I think...she also took our family photos. The line was SO long I was stressed about getting to Target but then Blake and Spence figured out that there was a really short line and we just had to make our way to it so we got to check out really fast. By the time we got to Target, which opened an hour later, we still had to wait in line. That's how fast we got out. It was quite the line. I had to tease the girls because they were FREEZING and it was only like 67 degrees. I felt nice and warm and had no need for even a light jacket. We made the rounds at Target and the girls when off on their own for a bit and we met back up at the registers. I was bumbed that they didn't get to experiance all the excitment..you know, not fist fights or rumors of fist fights. :) Because of how they did things at Walmart no one was really fighting for anything and because we were so far back in line at Target by the time we got in things had settled down. Despite me feeling like they had been "let down" they actually loved it and thought it was a really fun thing to do.
Then we went home and went to bed. It wasn't too bad...I think I was in bed by midnight or 1am. I slept in. Kids still played and played. We got ready for family photos. We got lost on the way...the newly licensed Jessica was driving the lead car and lost us at a light. There wasn't any place on the side of the rode to pull over so she had to pull into a neighborhood. Anywho, we eventually got there and had our photos taken. Sam was difficult. He wanted to run and play and wanted nothing to do with being still for a photo.
Later that night Elese wanted to do some photography of her own...
While we were relaxing Suzy made her famous chocolate chip cookies. It has become my favorite recipe. Here it is. :) I use butter instead of Smart Balance. Also, Suzy makes them perfect. She makes sure there aren't any chocolate chips on the bottom of the cookie and she takes them out when they still look slightly raw and lets them finish cooking in a closed tupperware. They look perfect. I cannot make them look perfect but I can make them taste good...mmmm...I could really go for a cookie right now! Also, here it is for posterity so it can get printed in my blog book.
Makes 24 servings
Recipe Ingredients for Western Family Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
| 2 1/4 | cups flour |
| 1 | tsp baking soda |
| 1/2 | tsp salt |
| 1 | cup smart balance |
| 1/2 | cup sugar |
| 3/4 | cup brown sugar, packed |
| 2 | tsp vanilla |
| 1 | egg |
| 10 | oz bittersweet chocolate chips |
Recipe Directions for Western Family Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cream butter and sugars until fluffy
- Add vanilla and egg and beat well
- Add dry ingredients
- Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes
After eating yummy cookies (which disapeared VERY quickly) we headed out to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights. Steven wore his I'm Super-Human shirt and a missionary told him he had the same shirt. It turns out that he was one of Drew's students and he had helped out on the 48 hour film project earlier in the year...we just must not have met him.
Believe it or not, Sam was difficult...there seems to be a theme here... He wanted to just run around. Oh, and Violet peed on Blake while he was giving her a shoulder ride...HILARIOUS!!! They had nativities displayed in the the visitors center and when we went in the room Sam was being very loud. I finally had to take him out. We were ready to go home and go to bed so we left right after that. It was very different seeing the lights in a warmer climate. It just didn't seem as festive. They were also in the shapes of different flowers and such. It was fun to see the difference and FANTASTIC to take the kids to the lights without having to be all bundled up but it just wasn't quite the same. Oh, and I think we had a cake for Blake this day. His birthday is the 25th and since most of us were leaving the next morning we celebrated a little early.
Saturday November 24th
Even though we woke up early to leave Evan and Crystal woke up just as early to fix us breakfast and see us off. Seriously, they were FANTASTIC hosts! Blake also decided to stick Logan and Max into one shirt. They thought that was pretty fun...
Then we drove home. We made a stop at the over look the the Glen Canyon Dam and the kids all climbed around and played. Sam wanted to climb just like the big kids so eventually Steven came to get him and helped him climb really high. Me and my pregnant self preferred to stay at a little lower elevation.
It was nice to be home to recover on Sunday...I think Heidi and George were in Utah for Thanksgiving so we went to Steven's parents for dinner on Sunday so we could see them...but I don't remember...it may have been the Sunday before we left.
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