Thanksgiving in Arizona

We are so, so glad we drove down to Arizona for Thanksgiving! It was a highlight of my year.

We loved having Bell de Mar (the Tempe house my grandparents have owned since I was little) to stay at, on our own. The boys went down amazingly well every night in the teddy bear room, and my sister Mary had the kitchen stocked with Cinnamon Toast Crunch (a family favorite!) and plenty of other food! Plus, we took home oranges and grapefruit from the trees in the backyard!

On Thanksgiving, we spent the entire day at Mary and Tom's, just riding bikes, playing with toys, and cook-cook-cooking. Mary and I loved being head chefs together, and I'd say we pulled off a delicious meal! Even if it was a couple hours late because we semi-forgot about starting the rolls. :) The beauty of it was that we were in no hurry!

Bikes in front of Mary & Tom's. Not sure I would have signed off on this little stunt had I known about it at the time! haha 

On Black Friday we visited Tia Rosa's, a Mexican restaurant that holds a lot of memories for us, from family meals with G&G to Corey and Sally's rehearsal dinner to my dear friend Kimber's wedding luncheon. Both the decor and the food are always amazing. Equally amazing was how much green salsa Chase put away while we were there. He was literally drinking the last drops of each bowl, before his refill. (Raising 'em right!)

We visited our childhood home, which has changed a lot since my parents sold it while I was a sophomore at BYU. The new owner noticed us snooping around and came out for a friendly visit. She sweetly filled us in on their changes to the house and all the latest with the neighbors. (I was holding back tears when we introduced ourselves!)

I've always loved Hold in the Rock (who wouldn't?), near the Phoenix Zoo, but it brought some added jitters now that I have children old enough to climb around!

From this trip, I'd like to always remember Chase gripping Mary's hand on the hike back out, telling her all about the different fruits he likes; Tom taking Chase's socks off after dinner one night and Chase laughing like crazy; and Trenton stroking Kizzie the Dog through an entire episode of Busytown.

I didn't get many pictures with Corey and Sally's family, but this blurry one is proof that we did party at their house and, obviously, we had a lot of fun doing it! 

We can't thank you enough for such an incredible trip, Babb and Williams families!