Thanksgiving Day

Delightful Thanksgiving Day.

Darlene and Tamara brought Mary Alice on Wednesday evening and then went to Alison's for the evening.

Sherrie was busy all week preparing for the meal, including getting up at 5:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day to put the turkey in the oven.
We had a huge rainstorm on Wednesday and again on Thursday and set a weather record for consecutive days of rainfall. Course it still wasn't very much , but by Vegas standards, it was a lot. Unfortunately we have a leak in Sherrie's studio back behind the heavy file cabinets.
As soon as the guests (Darlene and Tamara, Alison and her husband, Bill, and their little girl, Ellie, and Bill's parents and brother) arrived, then it was time to eat.
Thanksgiving dinner began around noon and featured the traditional "fixin's": mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, rolls, marshmallow salad, turkey, and, or course, pies...lots and lots of pies.

Friday afternoon Rebecca called and announced that the film that she just completed at BYU has been selected for the Sundance Film Festival next January. CONGRATULATIONS! Sherrie did the costumes so she is doubly excited.

"Wicked" trip to Jennie's

I drove to Cedar City on November 7th to spend a little time and to attend the funeral on the 8th of a young man who used to live in our ward. His family had moved to Cedar a couple of years ago and the young man (now 14) had run away from home and was found dead a few days later...unknown cause at present although he had taken some pain pills from his mom's purse.

After the funeral I drove the back roads to Pine Valley to check things out. Not much different although there was some snow on the ground.

On the 14th, Sherrie's Red Mountain Choir had a concert...probably the last one she will be involved with as the Skouson's are "retiring" from the RMC. They may be putting together another choir on this side of town...time will tell, I suppose.

Last Tuesday, as soon as we finished at the Humanitarian Center, we headed to California to spend some time with Jennie and her family.

The first day, we went to the kid's school to give a little presentation to Tyler's class about family history (click here for his "link" to John Alden. We also told him the "chickens and cow" account about William Jones Thomas' experiences in St. Louis.) The kids seemed to be most impressed with the fact that I said that Tyler is a real "prince" since he was descended from royalty on a couple of the lines...course I didn't say that there are a whole lot of people in that category!) After school we watched Cora's rehearsal of a couple of numbers from "Wicked" (for a performance that they will be doing at their school.)

Thursday after school was Tyler's "fencing" class and Friday after school was the kid's "circus" class.

Sunday evening we went to see the play "Wicked" at the Pantages Theater.

Eric has been working virtually nonstop finishing his work on the "Thumbelina" movie that should be out soon. We did get to work in a game of Canasta, however.

The pictures toward the end are Tyler's "animation" efforts. He wanted me to not erase them.

Drove home early Monday morning, foggy as we left at 5:30 a.m., but cleared up by the time we arrived at the I-15. Home at 9:30 a.m..

Gorgeous weather while we were there.

Check out all the pictures at our family website.

Halloween Week in Las Vegas

Sunday was "Primary Program" day at the Paseo Verde Ward so we spent the day in Green Valley. We brought the girls home with us to spend the night.

We hit the "jacuzzi" Monday morning and then in the afternoon headed back to Josh's as their ward was having their "Trunk or Treat" Monday night. Fun night. The girls' costumes were really cute.

I didn't take pictures of any other kids' costumes except for a picture of a "nerd" costume!

I've included a few "Travis Bickle" pictures of Mr. Will...he said it is for his "Halloween Party". He is in Utah this weekend.



Wednesday evening was my Rotary Club's "Feed the Homeless" service project at Christ Church Episcopal on Maryland Parkway. We (the Humanitarian Room) provided hygiene kits. Every three months we "feed" about 100 to 120 people lasagna, salad, and vegetables (sound familiar? Same menu as our ward's project in Henderson...my recommendation...after our first effort was a complicated chicken dinner, etc.).


We took 143 hygiene kits to distribute and they were all gone by the time Henry Hoogland and I left for the Humanitarian Room for an evening group. One of the sisters brought her three week old baby with her Young Women's group so I took a picture of our youngest volunteer to date.

On Friday, Zully and the girls came over early and Josh joined us in the afternoon..full costume and all. They carved pumpkins and then we headed to our ward's "Trunk or Treat".



Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn (thanks, Sophia!) Sophia is always up way early..."Is it morning yet?" "Is it morning yet?"..."Look, it's starting to get light."

After Josh's family left, we just relaxed until late afternoon when we went for a ride to "Luv-it Custard" for the "Western Special".


Check out all the pictures at our family website.

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