Thanksgiving in Mesa, AZ

for Thanksgiving we rented a condo in Mesa, AZ with my parents and my younger brother and sisters. We had a great time. We were really looking forward to swimming, an dit was 85 degrees, but the pool was not heated and it was like ice water. The first day James just jumped in, and then jumped right out and said "I'm all wet!" Spencer and Natalie braved the cold water, but no one else did. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done, and on the first night we took the boys to see Santa. James was so excited he kept saying "It's Santa, I love Santa!" He told Santa "I love your hat." Spencer wants a magnetic dartboard, and James wants a "present." We couldn't take pictures with Santa, but they are behind the Santa land.

On Thanksgiving we went on a little hike in the morning.  There we lots of huge cacti, and Spencer took about 50 pictures with his camera.  I guess Devon was too busy with the boys because this is the only one he took.

There was also a playground there, so we couldn't pass that up.

The reason we stayed in Mesa was that my Dad's family had a reunion the day after Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of fun, they had an auction and lots of games and each family did a little something.  One family did a really funny rendition of "Once there was a snowman."  After the reunion my parents left because they had a lot farther to travel, but we stayed around and saw the lights at the Mesa temple, they were pretty impressive.

I found on the internet that the Bass Pro shop in Mesa (kind of like a Cabela's) had a Christmas wonderland with free games and Santa, so we went on the way home.  We chose not to wait in line for an hour for the Santa, and just do the free games instead.  They had a great merry-go-round that the kids loved.

Spencer got hurt as he came off, but this picture just made me laugh.

They had some huge remote control Jeeps to drive around, a bow shooting game and some gun games and a race car game.  They also had lots of taxi-dermi animals and some huge fishtanks, so we were really glad we went.  I think Devon was mostly glad there was a Famous Dave's right there so we could go to lunch.
We had a great Thanksgiving.  The kids loved playing with their aunts and uncles and James has asked where each of them are, by name.  It so nice to be with family.