Thanksgiving and Arizona

It has been a while since my last post. This is what we have been up to the last week or so. We went to Rexburg for Thanksgiving to be with Seans family. A few days before Thanksgiving. Seans very sweet Grandma passed away. We still decided to go to Rexburg for two days for Thanksgiving. We came back earlier than planned so we could get ready to take a trip to Arizona for the funeral. Considering the circumstances Thanksgiving was as good as it could be. We had a yummy dinner! Everyone was busy finalizing plans to get to Arizona by Tuesday. On Black Friday I got up at 3:00 to go shopping with my sister, Keri. I am so glad that I finally talked her in to going with me. Thanks Keri! I got a total of 3 hours of sleep! It was so fun though. I was pretty excited about the sweet deals I got. We did all of our shopping and then of course we had to go to breakfast. The rest of the day I was quite tired! Sean and I and the boys spent the rest of the day with his sister and her family. The boys were very excited to see the cousins. We headed home late Friday night. We had to get home and pack up again to head to Arizona on Sunday. The drive to Arizona went well. It was about ten hours. We got to do some fun things while we were there. They had the lights at the Mesa Temple which were awesome. They had so many lights. It was cool to see Christmas lights in Palm trees. It was also fun because we weren't freezing while enjoying the lights. The weather was great while we were there. During the day it was 75-80. The boys were mostly excited to see all the cactuses and to go swimming! We got to visit with Seans family that we hardly ever see. We were sad to say good-bye (for now) to Grandma, but we know that she is in a very happy place and is happy to be with Grandpa again. Grandma kept journals and it is neat that we can read them and see what an amazing person she is. She had a strong testimony of the church and went to the temple several times each week all the way until the day she passed. She had great faith! We will miss her!

We decided since we were going to be in the area to stop at the Grand Canyon on our way back home. It was really neat. The kids and I had never been before and it had been a long time since Sean had been. I was really anxious thinking about it. I was so worried that one of the kids would fall in and I was so scared. Once we got to it I felt a little better, but I had death grips on them. I mean I couldn't believe it in some spots their was no railings. It was very scary, but it was really neat. We only spent a couple hours their. We had to be on our way home. I am glad we stopped because who knows if we will ever be back that way. It is something everyone must see at least once!

I am glad to be home, but now I need to get my tree up and my decorations up and start getting ready for Christmas. It is coming so fast!

The lights at the Temple in Mesa. I was having a hard time getting any good pictures because of all the lights.

Jalen and Landon at the Temple.

Here is everyone at dinner. I really need to figure out my camera. Once again the lights messed it up a little. We ate at this place called Charlestons. It was really yummy and the service was great. It guess it is a chain, but they don't have one around here. Amanda you will have to try it out I saw they have one in Indianapolis!

Gotta love being able to swim outside in December!

The boys were excited to get a picture by a cactus. This was actually in Seans uncles front yard. It is crazy how big they get!

They are so big!

Grand Canyon

This was one of the edges with no fences. Sean walked out on it a little ways, but no way was I. I had anxiety just seeing it.

Family Picture

The initial drop off the side is 300 feet! How scary! It really was pretty once I got over my initial fears. In some places you could see the colorado river. You could actually hear it if it was really quiet.

Another view

Here is Grandma Shumway when she came to visit. We will miss her.