Thanksgiving

This year we were supposed to spend Thanksgiving here with Curtis' family. A few weeks before Thanksgiving however, my little brother called and said that he and his wife were going to be sealed in the Mesa temple the day before Thanksgiving. We were SO excited for them and of course we had to go. We took the day off work on Tuesday and drove down to Arizona with my mom and step dad and little brother Colby. It was a little squishy with 5 people in a 5 person car for 11 hours but it was fun to be with everyone. Colby decided to relive car trips past and would poke me repeatedly for about 5 minutes of every hour. He would then protest "Mom, Aubrey's shoulder is touching my finger" to which she would exclaim "what are you guys, like 5?" or "aren't you two old enough to get along with each other?". We spent the night at my dad's house on Tuesday night and it was fun to be able to spend some time with him. Wednesday we went to the sealing which was AMAZING! I am so happy for Rhys and Natalia and the choice that they made to get sealed in the temple. It was a very special day for our family. The sealer was wonderful and gave them such great council. Afterwards we went out to lunch at Olive Garden with everyone and then headed up to Payson Arizona to my aunt and uncles house.

Thursday we all went hiking before the feast. My uncle knew about some old Native American ruins and we hiked out to see them. They were really neat to see. It's amazing that they are still standing. Thursday night my aunt decided that she couldn't miss out on her tradition of black Friday shopping and for the first time in my life I was convinced to go along on a black Friday shopping trip. It was a little bit insane but kind of fun at the same time. Payson is a really small town up in the mountains away from everything. The whole town seemed to show up to Walmart that night for the 10pm sale.

Saturday night my cousin and my brother really wanted to play fugitive and we all decided it sounded like fun. For those of you who have never played, it is a little like hide and seek but with cars and a big geographical area involved. The runners or "fugitives" are dropped off by the drivers or "seekers" at one spot and given a couple minute head start. They have a specified amount of time to make it from point A to point B without getting spotted by the drivers. My aunt and mom drove one car and my uncle and dad drove in another. We were dropped off at one park and had to make it to another park about a mile away in one hour without getting caught. It was a lot more intense then I thought it would be and I ended falling down several ditches head first while trying to hide when someone would see headlights and yell "car". Payson is a country town with a lot of forest areas, even in the subdivisions, so there were a lot of places to hide. When I got home I was covered in thorns and thistles. I still have bruises and scratches all over my knees and it's been almost 2 weeks. We had a ton of fun, even though most of us got caught right at the end by my aunt who jumped out of her car and chased us down. Thanks Aunt Lori and Uncle Barry for the fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!

We were sad that we didn't get to see Curtis' family for Thanksgiving but grateful that we live so close to them.


Curtis, me, my dad, Natalia, Rhys, Colin and his fiance Amanda. The sun was not in the right place when we came out but at least we all got a picture together.


Cute, happy people that I love!