A Taylor Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Arizona and spent it with my family. We left on Tuesday late in the afternoon and got there pretty late that night. Poor Lance had to drive the whole way because we recently got a new car and its a stick shift and I have yet to learn how to drive stick shift.

 The next day was a pretty lazy day, Lance wanted to go eat at this place over by ASU campus where he ate on his mission called Chuck Box. Its a hamburger joint and it was really good.

These hamburgers were bigger than I anticipated, but I  was pretty proud of myself for eating
the whole thing plus fries.

 Later that night we went over to Tempe Market Place to look for phone covers and just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. I love walking around Tempe Market Place during Christmas and seeing all the lights and listening to the Christmas music playing.

We walked into this store filled with candy, it was hard to resist buying some.

The next day was Thanksgiving so most of the morning was filled with making pies and preparing food.  Normally when it comes to the pies for Thanksgiving my mom takes care of them, but this year Lance asked me if I could make a couple special ones that he likes to have for Thanksgiving. So my mom made her usual three pies that we have every year and then I took to the kitchen and made three on my own. I made a banana creme, coconut creme and a chocolate creme pie. I was pretty proud of myself with the turnout and Lance said they were delicious. 

After we ate, the rest of the day was filled with playing games. My dad started this big contest last Christmas when Lance came down for the first time, we play all sorts of games and try and get the highest amount of points. In the end the first place winner gets $50 and the runner up gets $25. Lance took video of the games we played and then made one big video out of them. It turned out really good and its fun to look back on and watch.

My mom, my sister, and myself debated whether we wanted to go black Friday shopping. There was nothing any of us really needed from the black Friday specials, we were just thinking of going to be part of the atmosphere. In the end we decided not to go, and after all the horrible stories I heard on the radio Monday morning of the crazy customers I'm glad we didn't.

We decided to go shopping Friday afternoon at Scottsdale Mall. It was crowded but not as bad as I was anticipating.

Lance was sweet and didn't complain when he came shopping with us girls.

Lance loves the palm trees in Arizona, and I agree. Especially seeing them in November,

when all you see in Utah at this time are dead trees covered in snow.

That night we met up with my friends to hang out and catch up on life. It was so fun catching up with them and seeing all their cute kids. It's crazy to hang out now with spouses and kids in the picture but I love it.

It was fun seeing Ali's cute new baby girl, baby Kate
Trisha left before we took this picture

Saturday was our last full day in Arizona and that day my family decided we would go paint-balling. I have never been paint-balling and to be honest I have always been scared to go. Lance on the other hand has gone in his younger years and was excited to go. I think the ratio of people who have gone paint-balling to never gone was about even, so we knew this was going to be an interesting experience. 

Don't we look pretty intimidating
I was told that wearing puffy clothes would help lesson the pain from the paint-ball,
well it hurt pretty bad with a puffy jacket,  so I wouldn't want to know how it felt without it.

The first game we played was a little nerve racking just waiting for that first hit of a paint-ball and wondering how much it was going to hurt. The first hit would come soon enough and it was on the top of my head and that hurt pretty bad, but the pain went away and I kept going back in for more. I slowly grew more confidence to start moving away from the wall and closer to the enemy. Each game I would come away with a hit somewhere on me but none so bad that I refused to stop going back in. However  one game I got hit right on my googles, blurring my vision, I was squatted down trying to wipe off the paint-ball splatter and someone from the other team nailed me about 5 times in the bum. That did it I was out. I just wanted to cry from the pain on that hit, I could barely sit down without it hurting.

Lance had a blast paint-balling. He was really good at moving toward the enemy's side and there was even one game that he was the only guy on our team who hadn't gotten out until about 6 guys from the other team all tagged up on him. He came away with several bruises, oddly enough they were all  on his left side. 

 It was a fun experience and even more fun that we went with my whole family. Plus it was nice having my mom and sister there with me because they also had never been paint balling. And for a couple of first timers, we did really well.

For dinner that night we went to a restaurant called Tia Rosa's. Its hard to find a good authentic mexican restaurant in Utah so when we come to Arizona we have to go to at least one.

The day we drove down to Arizona (Tuesday 22nd) was my dads birthday. We didn't get in till after midnight and he was already asleep so I had to wait until morning to give him his birthday gift. I had been waiting anxiously for a month to come down and give him his gift. (A little background), my dad graduated college from the University of Utah, but both me and my sister graduated from BYU. So you can imagine how torn my dad is when it comes to Utah vs BYU games. One day at work a patients husband was wearing this hat that was half Utah and half BYU. I thought I had to get that hat for my dad. 

 My dad loved the hat!

Sunday, the day we had to head back to Utah, came all to soon. That morning we took an updated family picture because my mom had been wanting one since Lance was part of the family now. We went to a near by gated community that had a nice entry way and set up the camera on the tripod and took the pictures ourselves. I say they turned out really good.

It was so fun spending Thanksgiving with my family, we always have so much fun spending time together. We are so blessed to have them as our family!