So Thankful

A few days before we traveled north for Thanksgiving, 

we met my sister, Kay, and her husband, Ken, 

for dinner at the Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant.

I am so thankful for this wonderful and talented sister 

and her kind husband, and grateful to have them in my life. 

We stayed one night with Mindy 

in her lovely new home in Highland.

We are so thankful for our five wonderful kids 

and their spouses, and we love to visit them!

We got to sleep in Addie's new Sleeping Beauty bed.

We attended Ray Haslam's funeral in Logan at noon on Monday.

Ray, who is Susie's husband, Craig's, dad, 
was a wonderful man - 

generous, talented, spiritual and so very kind.

We are so thankful to have known him.

We saw Sadie play her third basketball game in the same day.

She made the varsity and plays on the j v, 

and they had some kind of a tournament to start the season.

She's an amazing little hustler and fun to watch.

We are so thankful for all 24 darling grandkids!

We joined Jodie's family, all the Nilson's,

for pizza and the Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving Eve.

We are so thankful that each of our five kids 

married such great spouses 

with wonderful families.

Though we can't pick our relatives, 
we actually enjoy the company 

of the Nilsons, the Gilberts, the Youngs, 

the Smiths and the Linds.

 They are our friends.

We also met up with the Nilsons  

on Thanksgiving night to see, "Frozen."

How lucky are we to get to share Thanksgiving 

with Roger's 88 year-old mom, Lois!

Anyone who knows her 

knows how truly amazing, loving and giving she is.

And anyone who knows us knows how 

so very thankful we are for her!

Bren, Heidi's (Gordie and Janae's daughter) son

and his wife, brought their two-day-old daughter

to introduce Lois to her great-great-grand-daughter.

Grandma is always a top priority

on all of her posterity's list.

And it should go without saying 

that I am so thankful for this guy!

Thanksgiving Feast at Grandma's house is always so delicious

and brings back so many happy memories of Thanksgivings past.

I am so thankful for all of our family members - 

Stratfords and Gabrielsens and all of their posterity.

The brilliant Plan of Family

is the system that God has figured out

where we can take care of each other 

so that we can return to his extended Heavenly Family.

And His extended family is every one of us.

I feel so loved!

Grandma had only 24 this year for the sit-down dinner,

but by the time other kids, grandkids and great grandkids

came for turkey sandwiches and pie that night,

we lost count!

Before we had eaten our last bite of dinner, 

Todd, Shellie's husband, 

had his arms in the sink,

washing dishes, with his son, Carson's, help,

and he didn't finish until over an hour later!

It was then time for catching up, watching games and hangin' out.

Todd and Shellie have only one grand baby, Hadley.

But she is soon to be a big sister.

And she will get a new cousin.

We got the good news on Thanksgiving 

of two more little ones on the way.

We miss Shaylee in Dixie - 

she is still deep in study in her medical program at Weber.

This pic of Glynn

kind of sums up our wonderful Thanksgiving weekend - 

tummies got full and contentment reigned.

And now, on to Christmas . . . !

The Arizona NKF Book and Author's Luncheon . . .

 . . . A Good  Excuse To Visit The Mesa Grandkids

One of my VERY favorite things to do 

is to go to the Arizona National Kidney Foundation's 

Book and Author's Luncheon with Stacy.

It is held at the lovely Biltmore Hotel in Scottsdale.

Stacy used to work for her brother-in-law, 

NFL Quarterback Steve Young.

 His children's charity

buys a table to support the NKF every year.

Roger served as President 

of the Utah chapter of the NKF for two years, 

and we have known about this wildly successful 

fund-raising event for years.

Erma Bombeck and Glenna Shapiro 

came up with the idea 

34 years ago. 

Erma, who had contact and clout with best-selling authors, 

lived in Phoenix. She had kidney disease for years and

supported and was involved with this worthy charity.

Glenna was Deen Vettterli's sister.

Deen is the Director of the Utah NKF, 

and she worked closely with Roger 

during his tenure as president.

   

So I was so excited when Stacy 

invited me to go with her about five years ago.

 When Michelle, one of the event directors for Steve's charity, talked with me that first year, 

as we were seated at the table together,

and heard our history with the NKF and about

Roger giving a kidney to his brother, she said,

"Stacy's mom, you are invited to come with Stacy every year!"

Wow! It is a very entertaining event, with each of five or six authors taking about ten minutes each 

to tell us about their latest book, 

while we feast upon a very tasty lunch.

So, when Stacy sent me the line-up of authors for this year,

Emcee Meg Wolitzer, Delia Ephron, Linda Fairstein, 

Wally Lamb, Kathy Reichs and Lisa Scottoline,

I was excited!

We checked our calendar and determined that 

it was our stake conference weekend 

followed by Veteran's Day with Roger off work,

so I fired a quick email saying we couldn't wait to come!

Then Stacy checked her calendar

and realized that she would be in Hawaii!

Tom planned a trip for just the two of them 

to celebrate Stacy's 40th birthday.

Anyway, long story shorter,

Stacy convinced us to come and I could go to the luncheon 

with Sherry, Tom's mom. 

Grit and Sherry would be taking care of their kids

while they were in Hawaii

(they have a second home in Mesa, 

and arrived just before Stacy and Tom left).

 We got to Mesa on Thursday night,

and took over until Stacy and Tom got home 

on the red-eye Sunday morning.

Take a gander at some highlights of their Hawaiian Get-Away.

  

We jumped right in to the kids' hectic schedule,

starting at 6:30 AM.

Syd and Jake left for high school,

 Roger drove Londyn and Maddy to grade school, 

then the twins were walked to catch the bus

for kindergarten.

Friday at 6 PM, Luke and Max had a soccer game,

and off we headed, minus Jake, who went to a party,

and Syd, who had a date to a Phoenix Sun's game.

Blurry iPhone pics

Sherry and I are at the Book and Author's Luncheon - 

it did not disappoint!

While we were at the luncheon, 

Roger took the kids to Maddy's soccer game.

Roger picked up Stacy and Tom at the airport Sunday morning.

Their church block didn't start until 1:30,

so we had time to hear about their wonderful trip,

then the kids got ready for church.

A few years back, Roger gave away 

his pilot days memorabilia to the kids,

so they could enjoy it while he's still here.

Max takes his flying job very seriously.

Storm Trooper Luke

I was ready for church and quietly reading my iPad 

about an hour before we were to leave for church.

Londyn walked by, jumped up on the bed and snuggled into me, then Max spotted us . . .

. . . and soon it was a party on the bed.

Roger took a pic.

Next it was, "Who can make the funniest face" on my iPad.

Stacy is Primary President and next week is the Primary Program.

Max and Luke are practicing their part, 

"Although we look exactly alike, we are very different . . ."

After church, we char-grilled some marinated chicken breasts and had mashed potatoes, tossed salad with Copycat Olive Garden dressing, cheesy broccoli, watermelon and glazed lemon poke cake.

That evening, we had a talent show and watched the twins 

play a football game with Jake 

and Maddy and Londyn 

do some amazing gymnastics and tumbling.

I said, "Look like tough football players."

I guess Tom was feeling nostalgic 

about his football days with BYU and Finland.

Veteran's Day morning, 

we met Emily and some of her kids 

for breakfast at The Iowa Cafe.

Then we headed to the Commemorative Air Force Aviation Museum in Mesa.

The kids were so excited to go there with Grandpa-

almost as excited as he was!

What a great museum it was!

The kids had lots of questions,

and Grandpa got to tell them some of his flying stories

in the Air Force and explain many things about flying.

The museum had lots of memorabilia from WWII.

On the flight line, they went inside a B-17 that flew in WWII,

then took 28 years to fully restore to being flight-worthy.

I chatted with one of the crew veterans 

who goes on tour with a couple of the airplanes

June-October to air shows all over the country.

We made friends with some of the volunteer veterans

(they were so cute and impassioned about airplanes),

and they gave us an inside the airplane tour of a restored B-25.

The B-25

The kids got to pick whether they wanted a present 

brought back from Hawaii, 

or something at Target, 

which is where we headed after the museum.

Lukey held out for a Lego set he had in mind,

but Max wanted an F-16 model from the museum.

He was so excited!

We pulled up on Youtube, an air show with the Thunderbirds.

Grandpa helped him learn the maneuvers with his model,

and he did them over and over.

That afternoon we drove to Gilbert 

to see the newly-constructed temple.

It's open house begins next February.

Quick iPhone shot from the road - you can't really park around it yet.

Ryan, Emily and kids came over that night 

for homemade ice cream - yum!

Grandma and Grandpa got pics with the Stratford grandkids . . .

. . . and the Young grandkids.

Next morning, we drove to get some 

frige on the porch salsa verde 

(homemade salsas are in a refrigerator hidden behind a pillar 

on the maker's front porch of his home, 

and it is the honor system - 

you take what you want and leave the money in a mail slot),

and then the twins got home from kindergarten. 

 Stacy took us to lunch at Flancers, 

my favorite restaurant in Mesa.

The boys love to color and are fully-entertained 

with the provided crayons, pic and goldfishes 

(brilliant restaurant owner!).

About eight hours later, we were back home in St. George,

with memories of another great trip to Mesa!