Thanksgiving

 My parents came out for Thanksgiving this year which was fun.  I enjoyed playing some Christmas duets with my mom the night they flew in.

Max playing with Grandpa

We had a big Thanksgiving feast at Megan's new house in Lehi.

This weekend after the holiday, my friend Erika had a bootie-making party.  I made these cute booties for Max!  I sewed!  I sailed!

Fall happenings

Of course, in the fall I returned to work.  Clint broke the boycott and bought me flowers as a good luck at work gift :)  We also took our annual fall leaves drive and ate at the Tarahumara.

On Halloween Daddy and Max handed out candy.

Then we went to a party at a friend's apartment.  Unfortunately, Max wasn't having the greatest night.  Oh well--I guess he was a cranky dinosaur, not a party animal.

Under the Knife

Clint had a surgery in late July for a lipoma.  Max and I hung out in the hospital and waited.  

Unfortunately, Max got sick in July before we went to Arizona, and got so sick again when I went back to school in late August that he ended up in the hospital for three days.

Fortunately, after they got the IV in him he was feeling much better, but we had to stick around for several days to monitor his electrolyte levels.  Here he is passing the time (after starting to feel better).

In order to prevent Max from getting sick again, he had a surgery October 23rd.  All the doctors and nurses were very impressed with how he did.  He didn't cry at all when being handed off to the doctors, and he didn't cry at all when waking up!

Here he is a bit drowsy, waking up still.

And back to his smiling self!

The Great Salt Lake

Our last hoorah was to go to the Great Salt Lake lookout.  We wanted to go to Antelope Island, but there just wasn't time.  You can tell it was a bit stormy for our pictures...

Karen and Rupert's visit

Fortunately, Karen and Rupert were able to stop over in Salt Lake City on their move from California to Maryland.  Our first item of sight seeing was hiking Rocky Mouth Falls in Sandy.

After the hike we had a pit stop in Scheels.  I told Karen if we were going to go to the bathroom, Scheels was more of a Utah cultural experience than a gas station.  I think they agreed with me in the end. :)  Welcome to the West! Guns, ammo, taxidermy, and all. (Ironically they drove east to get here.  But California isn't really the West with a capital W anymore.) I only wish we had taken a picture of the hideous pink camo t-shirt.  I can't remember what dreadful saying was on it.

After the hike, we took a driving tour of Salt Lake City.  We drove out to a nice lookout point over the valley near Ensign Peak and the Capitol.  Then we walked around temple square and did a little tour of the conference center.

We ended the day with a fitting feast at Bombay House. :)

Anniversary

The traditional gift for the fourth anniversary is silk, so I determined that I would get Clint a silk pillowcase since he is obsessed with finding the cool side of the pillow.   A silk pillowcase should feel cool, right?  Well, it turns out that silk pillowcases are rather difficult to obtain, and the saleswoman at Bed Bath and Beyond convinced me that they aren't all that great anyway and would probably catch on his stubble.  So, I purchased a cooling pillow.  

As I was coming in from the store, Clint just happened to be walking up the stairs towards the door at the exact same moment.  I tried to dash off and turn the corner to hide my gift, but ended up tripping and executing a superman lunge onto the stairs.  My knee hurt so bad afterwards...

Anyway, I also got some flowers with my mom from Costco.  They reminded me of my wedding flowers--and I knew Clint wouldn't get flowers because I once commented that I don't like his florist's arrangements.  Instead of getting a new florist, he went on strike.

We also went out to dinner to Faustina which we discovered last year at the Dine O Round.

Stuffed beef tenderloin medallions

Fried goat cheese

The most amazing lasagna ever

Mom's visit

After Arizona, my mom and I drove back up to Salt Lake where she hung out with us at our house for a while.  Max had lots of fun hanging out with his grandma, but unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of pictures of it.

We also attended a Murdock family reunion of which I also neglected to take good pictures. I haven't seen my cousins Ryan and Mitchell and their families in a long time (and hadn't even met Mae yet!) but I didn't take any pics.  Dumb.  But I did get a picture of my mom and her two brothers.

Bearizona

We also went to Bearizona with Derek's family where we saw various animals while driving through the loop, and also enjoyed a petting zoo, a bird show, and other walk-by exhibits.

Bear cubs climbing a tree

Max meeting a goat

The goats were very friendly!

Making Max laugh

Arizona Trip

So, my mom flew to Salt Lake City and we drove down to Arizona together.  I always wish we had more time to stop along this drive--there are a fair number of interesting things along the way--gift shops, geological oddities, caves you can tour, etc.

Once we got to Arizona we had fun doing a few things such as going to the "club" to workout (well the adults did) and swim in the pool (the kids).

Notice James and Mathew swimming at our feet.

We also met Roxie for the first time.  She looks mellow here, but do not be deceived.

Mom also spent some time reading and playing with her grandkiddos.