thanksgiving

we sure missed being in texas to celebrate thanksgiving with david and his family, but it was fun to be in arizona for thanksgiving this year.  cody didn't have school on wednesday, so i took the kids down to thatcher on tuesday after school.  wednesday morning nicole and annie each drove over and we spent the better part of the day making applesauce.  we ended up with over 120 quarts!  

ryan drove down to thatcher after he got done with work on wednesday and after a quick dinner we drove over to sierra vista.

we had our thanksgiving feast with ryan's parents and sean's family.  it was nice to be there with a smaller group and get to enjoy everyone a little more.   we ate during bonnie and atlas' nap time (and didn't take a single picture of the beautiful spread), but ryan snapped a picture of bonnie eating her feast.

we made a small attempt to take a picture of bonnie and atlas to compare to prior pictures.  this is the best we got....  we really want to take a picture of them lying in their jammies on the floor to compare to when atlas was brand new and so tiny.

friday we just hung out around the house mostly.  the girls went and did a little bit of black friday shopping - more just to pass the time than to snag any super great deal.

on saturday, we all drove up to tucson and checked out the sonoran desert museum.  i haven't been there since about the first year we moved to arizona.  it was so different to be there with kids. 

there is a hummingbird aviary where we saw some of the most beautifully colored hummingbirds.  we went there first to take up a little time before the aquarium demonstration. 

the kids all got to feel some sea creatures in the tiny tide pool, like sea stars,  

sea urchins, 

and cody and isaac even got to let hermit crabs walk across their hands.  there is a hermit crab in one of the aquariums that has a glass shell so you can see how his body curls up into it.  that was probably my favorite thing of the day to see. 

next we walked down to the stingray area.  they didn't actually sell tickets for the sting ray experience at the site, so we played on the turtles while ryan and his mom went to get tickets for cody and isaac. 

ryan took the boys in to feed/touch the sting rays.  cody said they felt like a peeled mango on one side and a wet marshmallow on the other - which i'm pretty sure is what the workers to them it would feel like.  they loved it.

we walked through a few more exhibits and then grabbed some lunch at the museum restaurant.  

after lunch we headed to the cave.  we each tried on some bat ears and it was pretty amazing how it amplified the sound. 

outside of the caves, we did some digging for dinosaur bones while bonnie and atlas napped just a bit. 

this was about as close as we got to any animals.  when we walked up the mountain lion was nowhere to be seen, then all of a sudden she was right there by the window. 

the black bear was next.  isaac stood at the fence and yelled "what do you want for your birthday?" like in "happy birthday moon" 

then he got to try out being a vulture.  they're pretty huge! 

this heron cracked me up.  it kept getting all puffed up and squawking at the kids when they got close. 

the desert museum was so fun and the overcast weather all day was just perfect!  we split up after the museum.  nicole, jim, and i took all the kids home while ryan, sean, and his mom went to the tucson symphony performance of 'home alone.'  they watched it all the time growing up, so it was a fun date for the boys to take their mom on.  nicole and i snuck out for ice cream after the kids were in bed with grandpa home and got our own little date night.

we snuck into a 9 o'clock sacrament meeting and then left for home after dinner.  there was snow in the forecast, so we wanted to get home!