Thanksgiving 2012

Well, the day finally arrived - Thanksgiving!   My mom was explaining to me how we should think about what were thankful for on Thanksgiving - so here's my list:  Playing Candyland, making crowns, and going to Papou's house (well, it's a start!)

Granny took us to the park before dinner to help burn some energy before we all sat down for dinner but I'm not sure that it worked (see video below)... none the less it was fun!  We even got to climb a tree - check me out!

And somehow we managed to get everyone together for a family pic with Great Granpa holding down the middle of the photo at 96 years old!

Sunny Arizona - take 3

So we ventured up to the highest point in Tucson today, Mt Lemmon (at 8,000 ft it's higher then Mt Hood!)....   After driving up miles and miles of windy roads (it took a while :) we pulled off to check out a spot called "Windy Pt" - it was full of fun boulders to run around and climb on - and the views were pretty awesome too!!   And to top it off we saw rock climbers (that's what mommy and daddy like to do)

After then we headed to the top... to a little town called Summer Haven - at first when we were lower on the mountain, it was full of cool rock formations and cactus - then as we got to the top, it was almost like we were in Portland again... full of tall pine trees and cool air.  Even thought it was "cold" according to Granny, we talked her into a hike through the trees (she later admitted it was fun).

I loved running on all the rocks but climbing them was my favorite!

Sunny Arizona - take 2

We decided today was a perfect day to hit up the pool!  We have one in our backyard - pretty cool huh?

The water is a bit chilly but that doesn't stop us...  

Sunny Arizona - take 1

So for Thanksgiving this year, we decided to come see my dad's grandpa (who's 96!)  He lives is sunny Tucson, AZ so it was a good reason to escape the rain in Portland!   The part I was most excited about though was staying in a house with my cousins Megan and Cam.   We all got the house around the same time and I think within about 10 mins or so we were all in princess dresses (Caits included) and walking around in high heels (well, not Cam :).    Let's just say it took us a while to go to bed that night because Megan and I got to share a room! (ie trouble).

We kicked things off in true Tucson fashion at the Old Tucson Studios...  It's an old movie set town where they've filmed all sorts of cowboy movies (according to the tour guide John Wayne was in some of them I think).  We had fun on the carousel and old time cars and then checked out some "shows".. let's see there were the flamenco dancers at the Grand Palace Saloon, then there was the shoot out in front of the courthouse (it scared me and Caits so we didn't watch much!)    We topped it off with an old fashion stage coach ride and an ice cream cone... and one more ride on the carousel of course!

Dad's muddy bike race

So my dad and my friend Amelia's dad decided to do this muddy bike race out at the farm last weekend... since he was willing to get all wet and muddy, we figured we should go cheer him on :)

He was awesome... he even had to get off his bike and run (and jump) carrying his bike - it looked like hard, dirty work to us, but to him - it was fun (guess big kids like to play in the mud too:)

original artwork... by Sophia Self

For my friend Chloe's birthday, we all got to be artist for the day!  With our own easel and everything!  Check out my little piece of artwork... it's was a collaboration between myself and my mom... I let her do the beginning piece and then I put on all the finishing touches...  it's a one of kind original :)