Thanksgiving in Arizona - part 2

We didn't seem to get any pictures of the actual Thanksgiving Day.  While most of the moms in the group made the food and set up the tables, the dads took the kids to see Frozen.  This ended up working great for everyone.  Since our group was so large we had Thanksgiving dinner at the church.  This gave the kids room to play when they got back from the movies and plenty of space for us to prep and eat.  The next day, Ryan and Mandy were leaving to go back home, so we met up at a park for while before they left.  There were lots of things to ride on, but they were too expensive for what they were.  They all got to pick one ride plus the train.  Grant chose to drive this car.

The train was fun, but the ride wasn't very long.

Claire, Elaina and Taylor on the train.

Andrew and Chris with Mateo behind.

Mateo did not end up making the train ride after all, as he kept trying to leap out.  We said goodbye to Ryan's family and headed back to the hotel for more swimming of course!

Taylor, Claire, Elaina and Mackenzie reluctantly got out of the pool for a picture.

The boys turn, even Mateo got in the pool with Pete.  They all enjoyed going back and forth from the pool to the spa.

On Friday night they turned on the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple.  They have quite the display there and it was crowded, but very beautiful.  Here are Carol and Kim with her daughter.

Elise, Chloe and Maddy.

Grant and I.

Susanna and Sydney.

The manger scene.

Baby Jesus.

A group of the cousins.

Jeanette, Susanna and I.

My  mom and her buddy Grant.

The temple reflected.

One last group shot.

My dad, Aunt Carol and mom.

We had a great trip and it was really nice to reconnect with my cousins and meet some of their kids that I had not met before.  We are all really excited to hear how my aunt's mission is going in Guatemala.  We all left with the pledge that we should get together more often even though we are spread out over a few states.  We decided to leave early on Saturday morning to beat the traffic back on Sunday.  We hit traffic in LA and decided to stop at Erik's house for about an hour.  There was a lot more traffic on highway 5 than we though there would be.  It took us about 14 hours to get home (it took about 12 hours going there).  We are all grateful for our family and the fun we have together.