The Gang's All Here. Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving at the Reese's house in Tucson.  It began with the arrival of Gordon and Alison with our Grandson, John. Soon they were out enjoying the Tucson sun.

This first hike was very short because Felicia needed to be picked up from Tennis. 

Johnny got to where his elf suit back at the house. The yellow blur is the construction hat he was playing with. 

We decided we'd all go for a longer hike. This time Grandpa got the backpack and Grandma took the dogs. 

Johnny seemed to like the walk but we learned that Johnny needs something to protect his skin from the Tucson sun.

We tried to find a hat he liked. We learned he liked them all as long as they weren't on his head. The rosy cheeks are from the sunburn he got on our walk.

Next Haley and Eric arrived. They both went for a run on Wednesday (I was impressed). Haley wanted to go hiking early Thanksgiving morning (even more impressive). While Eric slept and Gordon, Alison, and Felicia toiled in the kitchen. Haley and I went to Pima Canyon.

 Below is the view of the city from the trail.

 A cactus grove

 This cactus was unusually split in the center.

 We reached the bottom of the canyon.

 Here is the first dam.

 A clear picture of the dam.

 Creatures were playing in the water.

 Haley is sitting on the dam.

After the hike, we found Thanksgiving forming on the table.

The men are waiting to eat.

The next day was our planned trip to Tombstone.  We started at Boot Hill. These are the grave sites for the Clantons and McLaurys, killed by the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday, Oct 26, 1881 near the OK Corral.

We ate in the building that was called the 'Crystal Palace Saloon' in 1881. Now it is the Longhorn Restaurant. It was very busy at the restaurants but we ultimately were fed in time to make it to the gunfight.

We wondered how John would react to gunfire. It didn't take long to find out. Shock followed by dismay followed by crying. Alison quickly snatched John away from the battle site.

Haley got a photo with the 'good guys'.

Alison, Gordon, and John had to leave Saturday.  I put up the Christmas Star Wars team.

Eric and Haley went to the airport on Sunday, sat at the wrong gate, missed their plane, ended up flying first class on the next flight.

It was great having everyone here. The house seems so empty now. Haley is coming up on a big milestone for her... college graduation. She has been actively looking for work but, oddly, they all are disappointed to find out she isn't graduating for another 3 weeks and they ask her to contact them then. 

Eric is at a big crossroads. He needs an internship to graduate and is down to his last 3 weeks to find it. We are praying for Haley and Eric to have success.

Phoenix

We attended the Phoenix Temple dedication today. It was broadcast to our Stake Center in Tucson. Felicia and I got the time messed up and arrived 1.5 hrs early and wondered where everyone was. We thought the meeting was at 9AM but it wasn't until 10AM. When we returned 1 hr later, the parking lot was nearly full and we had to sit in the mettle chairs in the cultural hall.

We are still waiting an official announcement of the Tucson Temple site.

Dallas

I spent 3 days in Dallas this past week, two meeting with ON Semiconductor and one in the first building I ever worked in, the North Building on the TI campus. It brought back a lot of memories.  I am working with a young LDS engineer in his 30's. The two of us sought out the Dallas Temple.

We are praying for Eric and Haley to find internships or jobs. They are working at it, especially Haley. She has had several interviews. She would like to find something around Salt Lake. Eric wants to stay in the Idaho Falls area.

We had the election on Tue.  Our congressional district meanders from Oro Valley to the Navajo Nation at the Gap. This is because a group of Democrats were able to get control of the redistricting process by calling themselves 'independent' and Jan Brewer didn't recognize it until too late. Once again, Oro Valley is represented by a Democrat congresswoman, Anne Kirkpatrick. She doesn't really care about us and spends most of her time working with the Navajos.  The McSally/Barber vote count is still going on. Right now McSall is leading 50.1 to 49.9.

Halloween 2014

This Halloween week started with getting the long-awaited new coat of paint on the house. It doesn't look a lot different but it is a little darker brown. The color has the inspiring name of 'Bleeker Beige'.

The picture below was the best I could find as a 'before' shot.

While driving to work on Wednesday, I heard the sound of  a rock hitting my windshield. I couldn't see any damage but when I went out to get in the truck at the end of the work day, a 12 inch long crack was in the windshield. That was repaired on Friday during the day.

That night was Halloween. Apparently one of the TV stations told everyone to go to Seven Falls Drive in Copper Creek. We had cars parked all over.

Felicia dressed up like Mini Mouse.

Snoopy is featured prominently in our decorations.

We had lots of candy but were completely out by 7:30 pm. We walked over to the Andrews to see what was happening. There was a lot of people. Larry's latest thing was adding unliving portraits that would transform.

This weekend was Stake Conference. Pres. Polley challenged us to do 3 things on Saturday night based on his prayers for what was important for our Stake.
1) Raise your family in prayer and faith in Christ.
2) Avoid temptations of immorality
3) Put money aside for difficult times ahead.

He challenged us to more stuff regarding genealogy and temple work on Sunday.