All my children are near, I am so blessed! We are taking all 13 members of our current family to Israel for Christmas. We leave on December 22nd and return January 4th. Because of that, we have encouraged our married kids to spend this Thanksgiving holiday with their in-law families because they won't have that opportunity at Christmas. Chandler and Haley are in town, but they have spent the time with Haley's family. Last night Brad's parents, Budd and Jolene came over, and Jed and Annie came to dinner. It was beautiful to have them all around the table. It is early Saturday morning right now, and we plan to have everyone join us for a bike ride and shooting this morning, then Chandler and Haley will head north to spend the evening tonight with Haley's grandparents in the Orem area. Tomorrow, Sunday, Liesl will head back to Rexburg. What a joy to have them all gathered together!
Yesterday was what the world calls "Black Friday." Shopping stores everywhere offer sales to shoppers on that day, hoping to lure them into their doors to spend their Christmas cash there. Our team got up and took the horses (now at 5) on a ride to the overlook of Snow Canyon. They said it was a beautiful ride. I am grateful that Brad is such a good Father. He loves to be with our kids, and the joy oozes from the time we spend together. Brad took Liesl, Brinley, Sara and Jakob. I am so deeply grateful for these beautiful young people! We didn't expect to see them, the ride they were planning we were told was a 6 1/2 hour ride. Somehow they took a
wrong turn, and it was only a couple hours before they were back at the truck. They came back, and called to find me with the littles searching out bargains on luggage. We ended up at Costco, and bought 6 new suit cases for us to use soon! We are so blessed! We had a funny gathering at Cal Ranch. Of all places to be shopping today! Sam arranged for us to meet up with these riders there, and when we pulled into the parking
lot, we found Jed's truck there. He was supposed to be spending the time with Annie's family. She had gone shopping with her sisters, so Jed had a few runs, including getting tannerite from Cal Ranch. In the end, it wasn't on sale, and we didn't get any. It was a funny place to have a gathering. Later I joked that we should have taken a photo there, but we didn't. We had just left Kohl's and the line was clear around the store! Sam and I determined that there wasn't much worth waiting in that line! We left and didn't spend any money there!
Thursday morning we had a fun family hike (missing both our married boys) to brand new slot canyons to us!
We started at the Winchester Ranches, and
hiked towards Arch Canyon. We thought we were going to find 3 slabs of pictographs, but we found 4 slabs. We all agreed that the slot canyon we did was "Epic!" Brinley is in a very socially active phase of life. She said all her friends had Thanksgiving dinner early in the afternoon. We finished our hike about 2:30 and didn't have dinner until about 5. We are grateful to not spend so much time on food, but to have spent it doing such fun things together! We had a beautiful dinner and everyone jumped into help make it happen! I am so grateful to be a part of such a great family team! Indeed I am so blessed! Laus Deo!
Yesterday was what the world calls "Black Friday." Shopping stores everywhere offer sales to shoppers on that day, hoping to lure them into their doors to spend their Christmas cash there. Our team got up and took the horses (now at 5) on a ride to the overlook of Snow Canyon. They said it was a beautiful ride. I am grateful that Brad is such a good Father. He loves to be with our kids, and the joy oozes from the time we spend together. Brad took Liesl, Brinley, Sara and Jakob. I am so deeply grateful for these beautiful young people! We didn't expect to see them, the ride they were planning we were told was a 6 1/2 hour ride. Somehow they took a
Thursday morning we had a fun family hike (missing both our married boys) to brand new slot canyons to us! We started at the Winchester Ranches, and
hiked towards Arch Canyon. We thought we were going to find 3 slabs of pictographs, but we found 4 slabs. We all agreed that the slot canyon we did was "Epic!" Brinley is in a very socially active phase of life. She said all her friends had Thanksgiving dinner early in the afternoon. We finished our hike about 2:30 and didn't have dinner until about 5. We are grateful to not spend so much time on food, but to have spent it doing such fun things together! We had a beautiful dinner and everyone jumped into help make it happen! I am so grateful to be a part of such a great family team! Indeed I am so blessed! Laus Deo!
