Shawn and I decided to head to sunny Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. Shawn's motive to ride in the desert with Jake. Becky's motive to visit family. In order to make the trip worthwhile, we took off the three days prior to Thanksgiving off. It was a stressful time before trying to get prepared for a sub in my class for three days. We headed out in Shawn's truck down to Las Vegas on Sunday. We arrived to Uncle Brad's and Aunt Chelsea's house to excited cousins all the way around. The kids played and played until it was time to go to bed. The next day we headed to the strip to walk around with 9 kids and 3 adults. Now we can say we have done that. We headed for a little shopping at the one and only Las Vegas DI. We are in the big time now. The next day we headed out to Arizona. We traveled well in our 4 door pickup. Excitement would flare up about every hour and half. Shawn's brother let us borrow his GPS which we liked, except when we got close to Phoenix it kept taking us off the freeway. Shawn was a little grouchy about that. We got to Beth and Jake's house that night. The next morning we met Brian and Shan and their kids and went to the Desert Museum. We learned about a true desert. We saw snakes, spiders, mountain lions, and river otters. I didn't think river otters were part of the desert, but okay. We ended our walk through the desert with dinner at CiCi's pizza.
Thanksgiving was the next day and we worked hard to make a fabulous dinner. We had barb-qued turkey, lots of mashed potatoes, frappe, and wonderful pie. We played games and watched movies on the projector in the garage. We loved the sunny weather where no coats were needed. Beth wanted to it the midnight sales for Black Friday, so away we went at 10 o'clock. We stood in line to no avail. There were others who figured out a better system than us. Got home at 1:30 in the morning with nothing to show but tired bodies. The next day was leftovers and good-byes to Brian and Shan's family. Shawn and Jake took off to ride the desert with the girls finding a part for the truck. I was thinking we might have to stay another day. We had gone to about 5 different parts store and I even crawled under the truck and took pictures of the part we needed. (It was a seal for the drive train.) We finally tried the Dodge dealership and hit jackpot. Once the boys were back from the desert, the girls headed to get our toenails done. We enjoyed the foot massage and cute nail polish.
The next morning we got up and headed out about 7:30 in the morning for the long trip back. This time Shawn ignored the GPS and went the way he thought he should go. We stopped for lunch near Vegas and kept trucking. The kids held on pretty good until the last couple hours. We stopped in Wells, NV for gas and snacks. It was definitely time to put back on the coats. Brady wanted Shawn to sit by him so I drove the last 2 hours. We got home at 10:30 pm from a sunny Thanksgiving trip. We thank everyone who helped us have a great vacation.
