Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was celebrated this year in San Diego at Liz's house. With the Done's, the Madsen's, and the Reed's all congregating we sorely missed the Nickle's.

Thanksgiving dinner was held onboard Devin's ship...and was FREE! What an experience! We were able to eat in the "Wardroom" which is where the Officer's of the ship eat. It was small but we all fit. The food was surprisingly amazing and we all enjoyed stuffing our faces and basking in the conversation and presence of family.

We shopped and walked around downtown San Diego. So much fun! We ate ice-cream in the rain. The boyz all went to the Zoo while the ladies did some fun shopping. Said shopping included the amazing South Sun bead store and Michaels. And one of the best parts of the weekend was just sitting on the couch lounging about (eating pie...naturally!) while Connor, Nathan, and Matthew all played brilliantly together. It was difficult to say goodbye in the end.

Halloween 2009 in honor of Jessica reporting for duty

Not the most original but definitely the easiest.

The hostess team

The beautiful Done girls.

Heather had to concentrate really hard to maintain this "look". The other two didn't even try.

And of course there were preparations to be made, and artwork to be done...

We all, young and old, had a great time.

These lovely and very nice people posing with Heather are from the local bikers club who mistakenly assumed that there would be beer served. Which means they didn't stay long.

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

Valerie at Bandelier

Poking her head out the window after climbing up. Large room in pueblo village.

almost didn't make it

In Arches off road drive to Tower Arch - really need a jeep.

We had a great spring bread. This is a picture of Valerie standing in Tower Arch. Valerie hiked for 1.7 miles to get to it. Ken took the 4-wheel road to it. We thought that Ken would certainly get there first since he was driving. That's before. What a road!

This is our most recent addition to the family. His name is Ivan, and he's (or she's, we have not way of knowing at the moment) a desert tortoise. He was originally found on the playground at school as a new hatchling. After spending three years on a friend's balcony it was decided that he is now big enough that he needs a bigger area, which is where we came into the picture. Right now he is less than 5 inches long, only eats dandelions, and likes to have his head rubbed. The cats have kept a close eye on Ivan's movements about the yard and have determined that he is okay.

Aren't they beautiful! This was after our temple sealing.

This is the way they normally look.

I sure love these girls! Of course I had no idea what was going on behind me at the time, and now I laugh every time I look at this picture.