Thanks for "Thanks"giving!

What a wonderful time of year--a time for all of us to remember even more all the blessings we have been given! I am so thankful for a wonderful husband, fourteen dear children (the seven in-law children feel like our own), and twenty--soon to be twenty-one grandchildren. They are all such wonderful people who work so hard in their daily lives--but even more, they try to live the gospel as the Lord would have them live. I am also so greatful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--where or what would I be without it? I certainly would never want to know. I am also so blessed to have a dear father who is 85 years old--has never retired--he goes to the law office every day, and a mother who I hope I am living enough like her to be where she is someday. I love my seven brothers and sisters and their spouses, and George's brother and sister and their spouses. So you can see, I am surrounded by wonderful people. How great is that!

This year, we were given a whole week off from work, so George got a condo in Orlando. George, Jeff, Craig, and Cassie had to work Monday through Wednesday, but Amy, the boys, and I stayed down the whole week and did so many fun things. It was slightly cool for the pool even though it was warmed to 85 degrees, but with a breeze, it wasn't exactly swimming weather. That didn't stop us from doing so many other fun things.Disney Village is always great fun. They have a new Dinosaur Cafe which is like the Rain Forest Cafe. The kids loved the moving dinosaurs and searching for dinosaur bones. Jeff (with his 6" 5" body) could barely fit in the little train! It was hysterical!
We visited the Orlando Temple. What a beautiful sacred place it is.

We found wonderful parks to play in.
Amy and I took the boys by ourselves to Disney World. Whew! Keeping track of a two-year-old all day kept us both busy and made us very tired at the end of the day. But we made it home with him! This was the boys' first visit there, and they absolutely loved it! Garrett in front of his favorite ride of all: Peter Pan.

Amy made arrangements to meet one of her best friends she met while we lived in Gainesville-- Eva Poirer Snider--she is now married, lives in Orlando, and has three children. We had a great day with them. They have annual tickets to Disney World and go about once a week. How she does it with three kids I will never know. They all love it! Bye-bye, Disney World!

We celebrated Garrett's six-year-old birthday. It hardly seems possible George and I were in Dallas six years ago on Thanksgiving Day when Garrett was born. Although we ended up eating a Burger King hamburger because everything else was closed on Thanksgiving Eve by the time we got out of the hospital--it was so worth it to be there for the birth of a grandchild.We saw some fun Thanksgiving movies including: Bolt, Madagascar 2, Twilight, and Four Christmases. (The last two we saw when Craig and Cassie, Jeff, and George got there.) Of course, the girls had to hit the outlets and mall. Jeff took Amy at Midnight to The Childrens' Place and Craig took Cassie to get a new laptop at 3:00 a.m. at the Office Max. What good sports!

Thanksgiving Day in the condo was great! And we even got to call Taylor, our oldest grandchild, to wish him a happy 17th birthday. Happy Birthday, Taylor!

Even though we did a lot of this--it was just the greatest week!