eCard

This is an eCard to say Thank You to Paul and Becca for being excellent Tucson hosts. If any of you thought Arizona was just dry boring desert, think again after watching the following footage from our trip:

Thank You Paul and Becca for a great start to our Thanksgiving week!

Piano Recital and Aircraft Carrier!

This was an amazing weekend! Saturday morning started out with a momentous occasion: Larry's first real piano recital! He and I played a Christmas duet: Jolly Old St. Nicholas! Dawna played piano and played violin for the first time in recital! She and Marisa did a great job together!

The poor students had one little difficulty... the E and F notes on the piano would stick down when played and not come back up... it was a bummer when it caught them off guard and made the duet-playing more difficult, but on the whole, they handled it well :)

Dawna and Marisa played Jungle Bells together! It took a lot of practice to get Dawna ready to play with the bow for the recital, but I think she did great!

After the recital, we had an exciting evening planned: Jon's work party was on the USS Hornet--the old WWII aircraft carrier/ museum in Alameda! It was quite a fancy affair! Jon rented a tux and I got much-needed fashion help from Brooke... so we looked Good!

At the party, we enjoyed many delectable dishes such as horseradish mashed potatoes (Jon's favorite),  Sesame beef (my favorite--served in mini take-out boxes!) shrimp, sushi, hot apple cider, ice cream bar, and butternut squash ravioli! I LOVE all the good food!

Also, we got to ride the flight simulator, which was programmed to simulate a Desert Storm strike. It was made in 1991 with cutting-edge graphics... which means the group of brilliant software engineers we rode with were making hilarious remarks through the entire ride... it was awesome...

 Out on the flight deck, where it was FREEZING COLD--by the way... I mean actually freezing, not wimpy California girl is freezing...the puddles were ice!--there were old fighter jets displayed and there was also a fireworks show over the bay set to a medley of James Bond music... awesome...

We got to ride the jet lift back down to the main level, which was also amazing! It felt like the floor surrounding a group of about 200 people just dropped 30 feet... woah...

And after being disappointed by the lack of effort put into my EANABS (Equally Attractive Non-Alchoholic Beverages), I requested a "beautiful" drink from the bar tenders and got this awesome pomegranate/lime/ginger/mint drink... it was beautiful :)

Our night finished off with exploring the Apollo museum--The Hornet was the ship that picked up the astronauts from several of the Apollo missions. It's actually an amazing historical place... we want to take the kids back there to tour someday... Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us get away for a late night party! 

There is One Arizona!

Thanksgiving week was spent in beautiful, warm Arizona! We went to Paulecca's early in the week and then joined up with the Blacks for Thanksgiving festivities! Enjoyable memories included, but were not limited to:

 Nature walk and learning about interesting cacti :) This is our K Cactus!

 Hanging out with cousins, giggling while laying on tummies...

 Desert museum! There were so many great animals and things to see! We got to explore climbing caves...

 ...and try on monstrous BAT EARS! I wish she would listen this well all the time :)

 Meeting our new nephew, Conrad! Such a cutie chunk :)

 Feeding the ostriches at the Cogburn ranch! Lots of fun animals were there...deer, donkeys, goats, prairie dogs, and...

 ...Lorakeets!  Larry LOVED the lorakeets!  They perched all over us and enjoyed lapping nectar out of the little bowls!  Dawna had birds perched all over her head and arms; Xochitl giggled like crazy!

 Thanksgiving Day Turkey trot! Jon, Lynn,and Weston beat the turkey! Jon and I were matchey Neon runners with Xero shoes!! Poor Jon forgot his trail glove shoes :( But he made it with only a few blisters :)

 Hiking the wind caves the day after Thanksgiving. It was a great hike! Way better than black Friday shopping!

 Uncle Mike and Larry changed the oil together and got to see car on the life and everything!

 Seeing the Mesa temple lights and nativity display! It was amazingly crowded, but also amazingly beautiful around the temple grounds!

 Little Jade meeting new family! Gwen, Mike, Kim, and Tommy...

Also, Dan and Karla! They drove over from Ramona to celebrate with us!
Jade did really well on the drive, and thankfully she ate some solids so we didn't have to stop very often... although upon return, Jade is now very wary of getting in the carseat...

So, that's a quick snapshot of our Arizona trip!!!