Thanksgiving Day at Our House

It was finally our turn to take on Thanksgiving Dinner...it's been a while! Not that we don't enjoy entertaining, we do really. But, my sister Cathy is always so gracious to offer & can fit our big family in thier home. Or Grandma usually insists "While she's still here" as she always says. It just happened to be the year they were both doing something else & I then realized it was way past our turn! As much as we enjoy seeing the whole family, we understand it's always a little different each year when there are other families involved too. We can't expect to be with all of them all of the time. It's how it is. Though, don't get me wrong, we did certainly miss the others! So this year it was just a small gathering of 13 (compared to the average 20-30). It was a very nice day & we managed not to burn the turkey, or the house down. Thanksgiving always makes you stop & think what you are truly grateful for, which is something we really should do every day I know. We can not say enough how grateful we are for our family & friends, for having these amazing relationships in our lives. So...thank you family & friends, we love you!! :}

Every Thanksgiving we get our family picture for the annual Christmas card. It usually takes a few shots to get a good one, which there's always a goofy one of our family clown!

We are also very grateful to have our Dad here with us, back to the road of better health! He gave us a little scare last week; but, has been fortunate to have an awesome medical team at the VA Hospital behind him & taking great care of him!

We were glad to have cousin, Phillip, join us too!

Love my Pop!

What beautiful girls! :}

Brittani, my other beautiful niece..the proud mama, it suits her well!
We can't get enough of cute little Haiden!

He was enjoying the music & started to dance
Which got the girls dancing with him too!

We timed it well, done with dinner by halftime of the Cowboys game. It was a nice fall day, we went out to throw the football around. Though I believe this is when Bradon realized that maybe he ate too much! And Kaley was anxious to ride her new bike (and look...no training wheels! She finally was ready for them to come off this week...yea!!) Meanwhile Haiden was inside keeping everyone entertained with his latest tricks...like clapping

Anj just chillin'

They're always silly together. This was them teasing thier mom a little, all in good fun!

Nothing like the sound of laughter filling your home!

Aunt Sherrie playing puppets

Oh, they love Aunt Sherrie!

Doug finally getting to relax

It was so nice having time to kick back & enjoy each other's company!

This is exactly how the rest of us felt after that big dinner!

Time for pie!

Taking advantage of Bradon actually willing to lay on the couch with me (he is almost a teenager now after all!)

Dyl sure has a cute little face! :}

How lucky we are to have such a wonderful family & support group. For that we will be forever grateful!

The Utes Game...continued

Yea, still feelin' quite warm from that UTES FEVER we've been struck with!! Seriously, what a season it's been! As tempting as it was to consider selling our tickets for the final game (if you saw how much they were going for, you'd know why I say that....could have probably taken care of Christmas), we're glad we didn't & got to experience one of the most thrilling games we've ever witnessed! It made me think of Anna Siciliano actually. Anna is my speech therapist who helped me get through my vocal chord surgery/recovery this year. Great lady...I really miss seeing her actually, she was more like my Psychiatrist some times! :} Why did it make me think of her? Well, let's be honest, she'd probably be a little disappointed at the amount of yelling I was doing! This whole football season in general, including Bradon's games; but, especially this game! How could you not? The energy in the air was insane!! And with all ready having a terrible cold/cough going on, I probably should be taking a little extra care of my throat; but, again, we're talking about Utes Football here! Our team who has ended the regular season with a perfect 12-0, and who are arguably one of the hottest teams out there right now!! Yea, my voice is just going to have to rough it!! :} (it's all good really, now that it's over...until the bowl game that is...it can rest a bit! :}). We are anxious to see what Bowl Game they will be invited to. Honestly, we are hoping for the Fiesta Bowl so we can go to it again! (little easier to get to AZ from here than other places!...plus, then we could see our friends down there too! :}). We'll see, we got another 2 weeks before they announce them. For now, we'll just enjoy being part of the Ute Fan Mania!!

The fun started @ The Tailgate Party beforehand...the fans were PUMPED!!!

It's fun to share the Utes excitement with good friends, Tina & Dennis!

And Tony & John...who Doug 1st started getting season tickets with

It was awesome to see old school friend, Chris Summers, again!

Our other Utes Friends: Bonnie, Cyndi & Denise

You gotta luv Rob too!

Doug's work buddy, Bill & Sue Swenson

The sea of red fills the stadium!

We're here!

Bradon was the lucky one to get the other ticket! He deserves it, he's played hard himself this year! And sweet (yes, I said sweet) Dylan let me keep mine instead of going with the boys....aahhh, thanks Dyl!

Perfect Fall Day @ Rice Eccles Stadium!

Our team in action!

Louie Sakoda "AKA: King Louie"

My adorable niece, Anjila, in action

What a thrill for her to get to cheer on that crazy crowd!

Anj....you sure make us proud!! :}

The Crimson Line also bringing some energy to the stadium

And of course, Swoop .........GOOOOOOO........UUUUUUTAH!!

Our stadium friends,

The win is about to be official...but, there's still time on the clock. And look at the sidelines!

Again, still time on the clock....can't hold the fans back!!!!

Insane mayhem.......here we come!

Of course we jumped down too....you got to soak it all up & feel the thrill in the air!

Thousands piled down there!

That's right, we ARE "THE MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONS!!"

Fun to see players down on the field too...how exciting for them to be a part of such a great game!

This was so classic!! I'm printing this one for the bulletin board!

We found Mellis & Randy before we headed out

Oh what a season it was! It's a FANTABULOUS time to be a UTES FAN!!!!!