Thanksgiving

I love having Thanksgiving at my home. Every year my sister and I switch off and take turns. This year was my year. When I was little my mom was the Thanksgiving host. Sometimes my Grandma and Grandpa Williams would come and Uncle Al and Aunt Debbie and my cousins Brett Brock and Brandon. Now my Grandparents and my Uncle Al have passed away but my cousins still try to make it. Also, my family trys to gather on this one holiday. This year we had a great group and I love seeing them all.....my dad even came all the way from Africa, my brother and his cute boy from Mississippi, my sister and her family from Maryland, my brother and his family from Utah, my brother from Oregon, mom from Utah, sister and her family from Vegas, 2 of my 3 cousins, and some friends from Craig's work......LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a couple including the annual turkey bowl!

I usually can get one nutty picture of my brother Aaron...


Our annual Turkey Bowl.....Craig was sore for a couple of days! (Granted he had played earlier with the young men from our ward!)

Annual Trip to Washington D.C.

I love our fall trips to Maryland. I love the cool air, the fall leaves, seeing my sister and her family, seeing my kids playing in piles of leaves, riding the metro into the city...okay okay, I love it all!

This year we were out there for Halloween. We were able to trick or treat with cousins. They had a great time and made a huge haul of Halloween candy!

We went to this fun park place that had a carousel and a spooky train through the forest. It was so much fun. You would think that the kids would be scared of the guys with chain saws and masks, but they would just mock them the whole time!

We made a trip to Lurray Caverns in Virgina. They are sooooo cool. It was enormous and had so many formations! They even had an organ hooked up to the stalagmites that would play different notes...it was amazing!

We stayed with our friends the Beverleys who moved to Virgina a couple years back. We went on a walk thorough some civil war areas.

Craig picked up this little walking stick friend.

I love the sight of leaves falling like rain. We love to run and try to catch the leaves as they fall. It is trickier than you might think....those leaves can be quite wily.

The kids played in the woods by the Beverleys house and caught critters in the stream. Look at that crawdad! My kids could get lost out there forever...and of course I would worry forever that they are picking up deer ticks.

Civil War fields

This is a church near Valley Forge

There was beautiful stained glass everywhere. I loved the depiction of Washington praying

These were cabins at Valley Forge

One of our favorite places to visit is the National Arboretum in Washington D.C. There is a koi pond with hundreds of koi fish.

The Bonsai tress are so interesting and old. There are some that are hundreds of years old!

Of course the National Zoo is a must see. We were so sad that "Happy" , the enormous hippo has been moved to a different zoo. He was one of our favorite animals! They are doing some remodeling and I think he was off to find some new lady friends.

Taking a rest at the Native American museum.


Jefferson Memorial is Craig's favorite memorial.

I loved this holly tree so we had to get a picture with it

Hunter's favorite memorial is the Lincoln memorial.

I love family vacations!

October Fest.....Family Style!

The kids had Monday off from school, so a group of us took a little trip up to St. George to Staheli Family Farm. We had a great time. Here we are in the 20 acre corn maze.....yes we got lost! We wandered around in there found a way out somewhere on the side, had to go back in and finally ended up coming out the same place we went in.

The kids all picked out a pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch.

My mom lives in St. George so she also came and spent the day with us.

The kids had so much fun swinging from hay bales,

and playing on the slides that landed in a pile of corn,

where they also found it necessary to bury themselves and each other in the corn.

After the farm we went to the pizza factory and terrorized that establishment for an hour and then made the trip back to Vegas. Alanna and Zane were asleep before we even got out of St. George. We had a great time....and were completely beat by the time we got home!

Shark Reef Field Trip

Zane's class had a field trip to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. It was his (and my) first time there.

Zane and his friend Hailey are sitting in a tunnel where the fish and sharks swim over and all around you.

I made Zane pet one of the sting rays....it took some convincing but he was glad he did!

I know you can't really see this, but this is Zane and Leighton in an area that was so cool....it was like you were in a sunken ship


They kids went in a little learning room and talked about different parts of sea animals and their defenses....and made one super creature.....Zane the sea monster!

Sierra's Choir Performance

Sierra had a choir performance for her Madrigal choir group. They sang before a play, Taming of the Shrew, in downtown Henderson.

She is standing by her friend Emily in both pictures.