2013: Veterans Day Weekend

For Veterans Day Weekend, both Jonny and the kids had 4 days off from work and school. There was also a regional Stake Conference broadcast which was the same regardless of where you were in Arizona. So we jumped on the opportunity to skip town.

We stayed Friday and Saturday with Christian and Emily. Jonny, Emily, and Christi were able to attend the broadcast for auxilliary presidency members on Saturday. Then our family moved onto Grandma Melody's and Poppy's house on Saturday. We were able to sit with them for the Stake Broadcast. Josh and Darren slept through the whole thing. It was miraculous and the message was wonderful. President Monson has repeatedly spoken on the importance of 'gratitude'. It must be, therefore, extremely important.

We arrived around noon on Friday and enjoyed some downtime as families. Then that evening, the adults (Jonny,Christi,Christian,Emily,Dale,and Sara) went to Buffalo Wild Wings on a date. BWW has hand-held computer devices that allow each customer to answer trivia questions while sitting at the table. Dale, of course, blew us out of the water. Christi took a picture of Jonny's burger because it was so impressive in size that we weren't sure that even Jonny could fit it in his mouth.

BWW also offers a "challenge" for anyone to eat 12 'Blazin' Hot Wings in 6 minutes. The reward is your wings are free, a T-shirt, and a space of honor on their wall. We opted not to do the challenge, although we had no doubt of succeeding. Just out of curiousity, Jonny and Christi ordered a few blazin' wings and...wow! They were hot...so hot that the flavor was not the greatest. Dale and Sara arrived a little later. We offered the last wing to Dale (with a warning) which he ate prior to the waiter bringing his water. Christi had guzzled all of her water but offered Dale a few ice cubes to suck on until his water arrrived.

It was fun to get together. We were supposed to go bowling later, but those plans fell through as the bowling lanes were packed. So we separated ways thereafter.

On Saturday, the men including Jay (and also Christian's Dad, Jonny's brother Will and Will's girlfriend Merilee) went target shooting in the desert. The rest of us enjoyed some more down time together. After attending the Auxilliary Broadcast, Emily, Christian and Christi went out to dinner with their ward members. Jonny was able to sneak away and eat dinner with Will and Dave in Chandler.

On Sunday, after attending Stake Conference with Christi's parents, we enjoyed lunch at their home with Pam and Ken's family included. It was a nice relaxing weekend away.