A trip to Arizona wouldn’t be complete without a stop to see G.G.  The kids love being there and we got to chat for a bit.  My grandmother has a delightful cocktail tree in her backyard so the kids got to pick oranges and lemons.  The lemons were wonderful.  And the oranges smelled amazing.  The kids ran into a fun surprise when they bit into their unassuming oranges and found the inside to be a lemon.  It looked like an orange and it smelled like an orange.  What a sneaky, trixy little lemon!  Or was it just an orange gone rogue?

Gracie and Rain…I think there is lots of good times ahead for these two!

Three and a half million lights and a slight chill in the air is a great way to welcome December.  The Phoenix Zoo had just that so we headed out to enjoy an evening with family and fun.

 Hudson and Grant got to go head to head in a hill race.

We got together with Joe and Negin in Arizona for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Clearly, Annie would have been able to hold her own in the days of yore.  Annie’s voracious eating was definitely aided by the delicious stuffing (figs, candied pecans, apricots-what yummy ingredients) and the fabulous turkey!

 The kids were kept busy during the feast preparations by remembering everything they were thankful for.

The pair of us look pretty intimidating, don’t you think?!  Okay so maybe the Bjorn isn’t fooling anyone.  Although it’s kind of fun shaking the other coaches hand at the end of each game as he stares at me and then at Gracie in her fuzzy boots and then back to me.  Who knows what he’s thinking, but some of the looks have been priceless.

With the soccer season closing out, I can say that the season has been so much fun.  What a fantastic group of boys I got to coach!  The parents were so kind and understanding as well.  I daresay I may never coach again.  I was very much in a honeymoon phase the whole time.  I was just blessed with a phenomenal group of kids both in skills and personality.