Saturday, November 29, 2008

Sedona Christmas Lights


Ok, so is your memory ever better than the real thing?
When our kids were younger, every year we went to Sedona to see the Christmas lights at Los Abrigados, it was what we all looked forward to at Christmas time, you walk through the resort and everyone has amazing decorations and you look at the lights and drink hot chocolate, and at the end they have huge trees wrapped with tons of lights that go on and off to music it was the best part, we would sit there until we were frozen just watching the lights, it always took a good 2 hours or more. We haven't been able to go for several years, so this year, we decided to go early so that we would not let another Christmas slip by without going. We let the kids invite friends and headed up there the day after Thanksgiving. The drive up was fun, the kids were goofing around most of the drive. We finally got there and had to squeeze into a parking spot. We all got bundled up, and we were off. We remembered that half way through was the hot chocolate stand so of course we were looking forward to that. We head in and the lights are very cool, Peanuts, Tom and Jerry, Sponge Bob, and then the hot chocolate stand. We were very suprised because we had just started, but it was very welcome, we needed some warming up. We saw a few more lights, and then there were people thanking us for coming. What! Thats It!!! That only took us maybe a half an hour to see everything. Where are all of the other decorated condos? Where are the trees with the lights? Thats it???? That was it, they said the lights on the trees actually began to grow into the trees, strangling them so they couldn't do that anymore- can't they just take them off every year? I guess thats too much trouble. It was a big let down. We had a fun time being together and the hot chocolate was really good, but our memory of it was so much better. I guess it is one Christmas Tradition that will have to change. Hopefully we can find a new place to go, maybe one a little closer... :)


Monday, November 10, 2008

Flagstaff Trip






Friday we took a quick trip up to Flagstaff, which was lots of fun, the weather was nice and chilly so we finally got to feel like it was fall. Jake had a meeting when we got there, so the kids and I went to the mall (of course). We shopped a little, but in the middle of the mall was this huge fireplace with couches all around it, so we all got books and sat and enjoyed the fire, it was so relaxing. Then we went to the hotel Little America, and Jake and I went to the restaurant in the hotel (to celebrate our anniversary) while the kids ordered room service. When we got back to the room it was still pretty early, so we taught the kids how to play poker using m&m's (I won), we all had a good time, it was really hard not eating our "money". The next morning we went to breakfast at a "local" restaruant called La Bellavia - it was really yummy, and we were definately where the locals go. We got back in the nick of time, the next day it snowed, I don't think I'm ready for that. I'm glad that even though my kids are getting older, they still enjoy spending time all together, road trips are definately our way of staying close. It was a fun get away for a night, we will have to do it again real soon.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I Voted!


Well, I just got back from voting and it was pretty painless. I was expecting to be in line for quite a while, but it ran so smoothly that we were there only 15 min. This is a real interesting race this year, I will be anxiously awaiting the results like the rest of the country tonight. Lindsay is mad because she won't turn 18 until next year, so she will have to wait a few more years for her vote to count. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that things go the way that I voted.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween








Halloween was a lot of fun this year, Jakes costume was, he was ran over by a car (weird I know, it was his idea) and Lindsay was a cute sailor girl. Jake went Trick or Treating for a while with his friend, and Lindsay went to a party at her friends house. So we had the neighbors that had younger kids come and hang out at our house for the night and pass out candy. We had a fire pit going, even though it felt like 100 degrees outside, we had lots of food, and in the garage we had kids halloween movies going with blankets all over the floor for the little kids to sit and count their candy and watch movies. By the end of the night we were all wiped out, but I think everyone had a good time, we might need to make this a Halloween tradition.