Thanksgiving Break Part II

Well, I kinda dropped the ball with blogging about the second half of our Thanksgiving break.

Yes, I know Thanksgiving was over a month ago.

But, I've said it before and I'll say it again...better late than never.

A trip to Sedona is never complete without some mountain biking!

This year, all the girls got a chance to give it a go at least once...except for Rory, but we'll get her out there next year!

For Thanksgiving the girls made little ornaments for everyone's place setting...a nice touch.

Always after we feast we take a walk around the neighborhood and then feast again on dessert.

Haley held my hand.  I know these days are limited that she'll hold her mom's hand, so I'm glad it was documented!

We ended the week at Talaqapaque to feed the ducks.

We were lucky the weather was so nice for the entire visit!

And luckily, no snow on the drive home!

Win!

Thanksgiving Break Part I

I know we're inching up to Christmas already (how is that possible?!) but I need to post about our Thanksgiving break!

As always, we set out for Sedona!

 Road trip!

 It was raining when we left, and it wasn't long before we hit snow.

For the entire drive it was either raining or white knuckle driving in the snow.  Two different occasions cars slid out coming the opposite direction nearly hitting us.  White knuckle indeed!

Luckily, we made it safely.

One of the biggest hits of the week was going to "Out of Africa", a wildlife preserve only about 30 minutes away from Sedona.  Here they have an assortment of African animals as well as some Northern American animals (wolves and bears and such).  One of the attractions is taking a bus ride to feed the giraffes...the girls loved it!

 We walked all over the park seeing all different kinda of animals.

Another hit were the tigers...and we each got to feed them!

So yeah, the trip started off with a bang for sure!

More to come on the rest of the week!

Happy Birthday!!

Yesterday was Rory's 5th birthday!!  I can't believe my youngest is already five!

My parents had been in town but had to leave a couple of days before her birthday, so we threw an impromptu party the night before they headed back home.

This girl had been taking about having a pinata for her birthday since summer, but the days leading up to her birthday she never mentioned it, and I didn't either to be honest.  I figured a pinata in the winter wouldn't work.  But, when we were walking through Target and she saw this Olaf, she was in love!  How could I deny her?!  But it was a win because this was the type of pinata that you pull the strings at the bottom...no beating required...perfect for indoors!

My brother texted me later in the evening, saying he was bringing over a surprise for Rory.

What do you know, he brought a pinata!! He knows my kids too well!   Except this one you beat...and with frigid temperatures outside and snow on the ground, doing it out doors wasn't going to work.

We improvised!

We all took turns whaling on it...and I'm proud to say, nothing was broken in the process and no one got whacked.

Success!

And since her actual birthday was two days later we got to celebrate again with just our little family.

We went out for burgers and ate more cake!

And the day also marked our first fire of the season!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Rory!!

Love you bunches!