Thanksgiving

I just realized that it has been a long time since I have written so this entry will probably be a long one. It has been an eventful couple of weeks. We all had the chance to go to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We left on the Tuesday before and stayed until the next Monday. Dave has a lot of family in and around the Phoenix area. So, we headed off... We drove to Page, Arizona and spent the night there and hooked up with Dave's brothers and sisters to drive the rest of the way to Arizona. We all stayed close to each other either at a hotel or at family's. On Thanksgiving Day, we spent the day with Dave's mom side of the family at Grandma Stapley's church. The last time we had seen a lot of family was for Laurel's funeral so it was nice to have a fun occasion to get together at. I ate alot!!!!! Grandma is getting older and it seemed that she was struggling to keep her strength to associate with everyone but I am so glad we saw her. Who knows how long she might be around. On Friday, we decided to just hang out and spend time swimming, yes swimming in November, and eating at In n Out burger. Yummmm!!!!! Saturday morning was really eventful. The reason I don't have pictures posted on this page is because our car was broken into on Saturday morning and someone stole our digital camera. Braeden ran in to inform us that our diaper bag along with our camera was taken. We had a huge family reunion that day and needless to say, we were late. We had to replace the passenger side window and call the cops. I had to admit that I cried. We didn't have a lot of pictures on our memory card but enough of Thanksgiving Day that I wish I had. I was so sad until we arrived at the Gooch Family Circus Reunion 2008! Our family was in matching red T-Shirts that said the previous line and the other families were in other colors that matched. We had such an awesome time. I know Bill would have loved to be there with his brothers and families. We went to a beautiful park in Fountain Hills Arizona. Such a beautiful place. Even though we didn't have a camera, Dave's cousins were all nice enough to send us their pictures that they took. We played games, ate, did activities, launched rockets, had relay races and watched our little family win at football. It was awesome to see all that red runnin' around.
I was so sad to leave on Sunday. We spent some more time with Grandma and then Dave's brother gave us a parting gift. An entire cooler full of elk meat. Today we actually ate it for Sunday dinner. It was good!
We decided to stay in Las Vegas on Sunday night. Dave said that we should let the kids look at all the cool lights and buildings. So we drove down Las Vegas boulevard. It was not a great idea on our part. We proceeded to hit every red light where a truck with not so clothed women were on the side. Brinton was laughing in the back seat while Sara was telling us that those girls aren't modest. Braeden was semi-closing his eyes trying really hard not to look. Yeah right. We got down to the Treasure Island hotel and the pirate show was going on. We thought , alright, something that the kids will enjoy. Oh my gosh! No longer are there mean looking pirates blowing each other up, that would have been awesome. Again, there were scantily clad women who were singing and yelling to the druling men on the boat across the way. We are terrible parents! We finally arrived at our destination. The Stratasphere hotel and it was a little more family friendly. We decided that we better stick to Disneyland. Minnie Mouse might wear a little skirt but she has bloomers on underneath!
As we were coming home, we got to stop off in St. George and spend some time with our good friends Josh and Meg. We went to dinner and hung out at their home. I had such a great time. All I hope is that she gets through her trials and can move on. We love them!
If all these adventures weren't enough, on Dec. 4th, I had my 5th surgery on my shoulder. I hope it works as well as it has in the past. I woke up that morning with a major migraine from not eating the night before so the nurse at the hospital decided to give me Zophran for nausea and Demeral for the pain. Oh my gosh, it hit me like a truck. I threw up four times and passed out all within thirty seconds. I came through it all in one piece so far. Anyway, I will cut this entry so I don't bore anyone. I will have more info soon I am sure.