Thanksgiving in Arizona

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday down in Arizona with my family this year.

Ashley and Brooke flew down and meet up with us there for 5 days of fun 

with my dad and my siblings and their families that live in the valley. 

 It was so good to spend time with my dad and you just can't beat that warm Arizona weather in November!

On Wednesday, we went over to watch my nephews, Josh and Zach run in their school's turkey trot.

Zach was very happy to see his grandpa and happy to pose for a picture with him.

 Here is Zachary and his classmates at the start line.  

 And the first graders at Ryan Elementary are off and running.  
They had the kids going between the backstop and the brown pole on the right at the beginning of the course.
Unfortunately, a few of the kids weren't paying attention and ran right into the brown pole, taking it head on.
I'm not quite sure why they had the course routed that way and 
it actually took more than just a few kids running into the pole
before they decided to change the course and have them run around the brown poles.

 It was a long course for these little first graders 
so by the end, Zach was just casually walking to the finish line.

And then as soon as he crossed the finish line he stopped and posed for a photo.

 Josh on the other hand, was not messing around at all.
Here he is crouching at the starting line, totally into it, anticipating the start of the race.

 And there he goes.

While Josh is racing, Grandpa is strolling around the blacktop with cousin Tammy's little boy, Brody.

 Aren't they cute?

And here comes Josh as the finish line in a full on sprint,
 passing this little girl on his left.

And then he was happy to pose for a photo with Grandpa, Brody and me.

Early Thanksgiving morning, these three participated in the Mesa Turkey Trot.

Dad and Ashley ran the 2 mile while Brooke ran the 10 K.

Grandpa came to watch the kids.

He was such a good sport getting up that early, waiting around

 and walking all over the course to see the girls and Mark run the race.

These two are the best of buddies!

And they are off!

When we spot Ashley and Dad in the mass of runners,  
Ashley realizes that she is on the wrong side for photos, 
she crosses over about 5 lanes of traffic to say "hi!" to us and pose for pictures!

Yep!  Those are my 2 milers!  You can see that it is all about the photos this race!

Don't worry... Ash only took our a couple of little runners making her way over to us!

SO excited to see her momma and Brooke cheering her on!

One more thumbs up as she passes us!  
I think for a moment Ash forgot that she was running a race.

And here they coming around the last turn, heading to the finish line.

Ash having way too much fun with her dad.

And Ash and Dad sprinting to the finish line.

These two were very proud of the red "participant" ribbons that they earned!  
Nice job!

And of course, this kind of award deserves a "lunge" photo!

Meanwhile, this little turkey was warming up for the 10k 
and found another turkey that was trotting that day.

And the 10k has started and Brooke is the one with pink shoes near the front of the pack.

Here comes Brooke with this guy trying to chase her down.

Love the pink skort and the matching pink shoes!
Look sharp, run fast!

Brooke as she passed us.

And here comes Brooke on the last leg of the race. 
Notice the same guy behind her... he is still chasing her!

Grandpa wore his BYU shirt because he wanted to match Brooke

just like Dad and Ashley were matching too.

Grandpa with his turkey trotters after both races!

And so was Dad.

Grandpa loves his Ashley.

The little girls pose for a lunge photo together!

Cute!

Love my little girls!

The prize for winning your age group is a frozen turkey.

Brooke and Dad went over to the table to check out the turkeys 
and decide which one Brooke would pick out when they announce her age group.

On their way back, from inspecting the turkeys, a little tiny girl that was probably 9, maybe 10 years old,
 came up to Brooke, pulled on her shirt and asked her "how old are you?"
  Brooke told her she was 19 years old and the little girl excitedly said, "YES!" and ran away.

Brooke and I looked at each other and started laughing hysterically
 because we both knew that she must have ran really fast
 and thought that she probably won for her age group but then saw Brooke picking out her turkey
 and worried that Brooke just might be in her age group.  
Yep!  Brooke's age group was 16-19 and the next age group down is 9-15. 
 She thought that Brooke might be 15 years old!  The story of Brooke's life!
Even in Brooke's moment of glory, she is quickly put back in her place:)!

The Bear (or should we say turkey that day) and her dad having a moment after the race.

And Brooke is presented with a turkey at the awards ceremony.

Ash couldn't be prouder of Brooke and her turkey!

Like Sonya said on Instagram, "Brooke will run for money or food!"

After the successful Turkey trot, we took our pumpkin and brown bag apple pies 
over to my sister Susan's house and joined all the other family in town for Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm embarrassed and kind of ashamed to say that I didn't even pull my camera out that afternoon. 

I think I was just a little tuckered out from the turkey trot:)!

But we had a fun time with everyone and really appreciate Susan hosting dinner!

On Friday, we met up with our dear friends the Scott family at BJ's.

Brady and Karen were some of the first people that we met when we moved to Granite Bay 22 years ago.

Kari was my main baby sitter and she LOVED these two girls.

When Brooke was a newborn baby and I was a bit overwhelmed with five little ones,
 Kari would offer to take Ashley at church and then take her home with her to play.

Those two had so much fun together and have kept in touch after all these years!

It was a fun reunion and we enjoyed every minute with the entire Scott clan!

Brady and Karin.  Wish these two still lived in Granite Bay.

We sure miss them and their kids!

We got to meet Arin's new husband, Sean.  Aren't they an adorable couple?!

That is Molly, Kari's little girl, that is sitting on Arin's lap.  I don't want to start any rumors:)!

Arin and Kimber were cheerleaders at Cavitt Jr. high together 
and Karin and I had so much fun going to all the games and competitions together.

The entire Scott family and my sweet dad with us that day!

Afterward lunch, we met up with my other siblings at the movie theater
 to see "Lincoln" which I thought was excellent and so did my dad!

It was a wonderful trip spending time with my dad and family in Arizona!

Showering me with love...

It was almost 30 years ago that the four of us met, while our husbands were attending dental school at UCSF.  

Wow!  Thirty years sounds so long ago, especially since we were all in our early 20's at that time of our lives. 

We were young newlyweds, poor and busy putting our husbands through school, 

 living in married student housing together in San Francisco.  

It sounds so cliche' to say that these were "the best times of our life" but truly they were.  

Even while we were going through those dental school years, we would all agree 

that those days living up on the hill above Parnassus Drive were really special, almost magical 

because of the close friendships that we made and the experiences that we went through together.

The four of us, along with a handful of other gals first met at the Dental Wive's Auxiliary opening social.

This group met often in the evening, planning and participating in social activities 

that would keep us busy and preoccupied while our husbands studied every night.

We often joked that we spent more time together than we did with our husbands during those years.

We all had our first kids while husbands were in school and we would always threw a big shower for each other.

These are my dear friends that threw a baby shower for each of my children 

(except Allison because we were in Oklahoma.)

And I don't know why I thought it would be any different when the grandkids came,

but their kindness did surprise me and brought tears to my eyes, 

when I arrived at Mary's house in Clayton on Tuesday morning to join the gals for "just lunch" 

and was greeted with sweet gifts in celebration of the impending arrival of my first grandchild!

I love these gals more than they will ever know.

We have celebrated some of the happiest times of our lives together

and unfortunately, supported and been there for each other through some of the saddest times.

This past year has been especially tough, probably one of the hardest things I've had to do 

is watch my dear friend, Mary, lose her husband and sweetheart.

I won't go into details now because it is still so near and dear to my heart

and I can't even wrap my head around it all.

But this experience has brought us even closer, as we have leaned on each other for comfort and strength.

 I have watched these friends love and support each other in ways that I never knew before

and I'm learning what it really means to be "willing to mourn with those that mourn; 

yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort."  Mosiah 18:9.

While we still grieve and are sad for our dear Mary, we are grateful that we can still laugh together 

and after all these years, we can find joy in knowing that have each other 

to celebrate the happy times that still await us as we grow old together!

Tuesday morning was one of those happy days of celebration and joy!

Thank you, Mary, Laurie and Molly, for showering me with love!

Invisalign Summit in Vegas

We spent last weekend in Vegas with Ken and Jina, our neighbors, good friends and Mark's associate.

Ken and I just hung out while Mark and Jina attended classes at the Invisalign Summit.

I always look forward to this convention because even though we live across the street from each other,

 I don't feel like I get to hang out with Ken and Jina enough. 

We always look forward to the fancy dinner parties with incredible food that Invisalign host every night.

And it's always fun to catch up with other friends and family in the orthodontic world like,

 Mark's brother, Gary and Dr. Bob Boyd, Mark's mentor when he was at UCSF.

It was a quick trip but very fun because we always have such a good time with these two

and reminds us how lucky Mark is to have an associate like Jina:)!