Thanksgiving / Fall Break

 Woooo Hoooo!!

We have a big 9 day trip planned!

1st, we got out of work Friday afternoon and headed straight to Sahara's house with the dogs.  She will be taking care of them while Canyon and I are away.  We will spend 2 nights here and then catch our flight.

I gave Liam his felt play Christmas tree and we went to see Santa.  

We went to see Bentonville Square light up and Liam liked that.

Liam is still not a fan of the jolly guy though.

 

Then, we were off to Denver for our connection to Phoenix.

1st day in Phoenix and we went to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad 

Park.

We rode a train through the park.

There were so many model trains and towns all representing parts and towns of Arizona.

Canyon loved the carousel!  I don't think he has been on one in well over a decade.

That night we had s'mores at the fire pit.

The next day we went to the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium and Safari Park.  

That place is huge!

We got to see tons of animals up close and personal for the zoo park and rode a tram through the safari part.  Then we had lunch shark-tank side at the aquarium and then walked through there too.  It was a long day and I bet we walked 5 miles in there. It was also probably the best zoo I have been to.

The 3rd day we went to the Hall of Flame Museum.  Fire trucks from the very beginning of just a small tank of water man drawn on wheels to fire trucks of today and everything in between.

We got to dress up in fire gear.

There were 1000's of badges from all over but I found Little Rock.

Dressing up was so much fun we went back and did it again!  Canyon loved this!

That evening we met up with Aunt Carol, Lila, Tammi, Tony, Levi, and Len for dinner at State 48.

Canyon and Shorty before our walk.

Thanksgiving Day with John, Bobbie, and Jim,

Just the 7 of us triple vaxed people for dinner to be on the safe side.

After dinner we all played ladder golf.

That evening I helped mom get her Christmas stuff up.

That was fast!

Headed back home now.

Denver looks more dusty than Phoenix.

Which makes the sunsets extra pretty.

Back at Sahara's and Liam models his souvenir shirts.

We make a little late Thanksgiving dinner for the 4 of us and a tot.

Liam tries cherry pie.

Then, 9 days later, we are back to the house.  It all seemed to go by so fast!

I put away the Fall and I got my porch decorated for Christmas. (The outside lights I put up before we left as well as the inside decor so it would be ready to go as soon as we got home)

Ready to ring in the next holiday!!

Halloween Eve

Our town and the surrounding towns decided to do trick or treating on Saturday.

Liam's first trick or treat house.

Several houses in my neighborhood dressed up nicely.

After we did our rounds, we came back to restock the bowl and hand out candy at home.

We had a huge crowd and went through 3 bowls of candy by 8 and had to turn out the lights.

Good weather and probably it being a Saturday brought tons of kids to the neighborhood.

Pumpkin Carving

Canyon was getting all into it.  If you don't have your tongue hanging out of your face, your doing it wrong. 😂

Ear Procedure Time

Canyon has a tube in his ear still from the last time he got tubes as a kid.  It's been in there about 15 years so it was time to take it out.  He also has a lot of wax build-up so a good clean out was needed. 

He was not very cooperative as expected.  It took 2 hours to get him ready which should have taken 20 minutes.  They ended up giving him a liquid dozy drug so that he would cooperate after and hour and a half of shut downs and it worked.  But then he ended up taking everything off...O2 monitor, blood pressure cuff, 3 heart monitor lines, and id bracelet...to turn over to sleep.  He left that cap on.

So with nothing attached and on his belly is how they took him back.  They said he was perfectly cooperative in the back and the procedure went fine.  They did find a cyst in his ear canal (cholesteatoma) they didn't expect and took care of that as well.  He actually came out of anesthesia perfectly which is not the norm and got dressed and in the car without issues.  We got out of there in 4.5 hours instead of the 2 they assumed it would be. Typical for us.

So today (the day after), we are playing hookie got his Rx drops and went for haircuts 😁

Canyon turns 23!

For his actual birthday we went to the lake and had brunch.

Then we were supposed to pick up our Walmart order but they were delayed so we wasted time by doing a birthday shopping spree.

We finished up his birthday the next weekend at Sahara's house where he opened gifts and cards and had more cake.

Fall Haybales

Which can you guess is Canyon's favorite?