Turkey is for Giving

This Thanksgiving was unlike any other. Ever. For us. Because we held it at our house! It was awesome! We had asked my mom a while ago if she wanted to come down for the holiday, and much to our surprise and delight, she said she's love to. So then we extended the invitation to my little brother, little sister and her husband. And they all accepted. We had a house full!

Everyone came down on Wednesday, we ate all week, and it was lovely. My mom, Courtney, Kyle and I went Black Friday shopping. As we were standing in line waiting for the doors to open at midnight, I was thinking, "Why am I even here? What am I getting?" But I found some things. Birthday and Christmas presents. That made it productive enough. Still not sure if staying up until 3am was worth it, but it was. . . fun?

It was fun to get to have my family here and spend so much time with them. I sure love them! But I'm awful at taking pictures of them, so enjoy the few I have.

Our Country has a Capital...

. . . and we went to it. And it was lovely. And so fun. Yay!

We got to spend so much time with Vance and Casey and their girls. And can I just say, their girls are adorable. Absolutely. We spent the first couple of days at their home, and then stayed the rest of the time in the District. Those first couple of days didn't consist of much, besides chillin'. We loved getting to spend that much time just hanging out.

We went into the city on Thursday. That night, Lish's alma mater, the Seminole Nation, had a reception that a lot of the alum attend. We got to see lots of old friends and catch up with them a little bit.

Friday we visited Vance at the office, since it was just a few blocks away from out hotel. Then we met up with one of Lish's old friends from his Master's program at BYU who lives in DC with her husband. That afternoon we did our bit of site-seeing. We've both been into DC multiple times, so we didn't feel a strong desire/need to site-see, but we did want to go to the new Martin Luther King Memorial.

Lish's presentation was on Friday night, but Yale and I didn't go. Lish said it went well though. Another one of the presenters in his group, a current grad student, even cited him in her research, which was pretty cool. After he presented and Yale got his nap, we went out to dinner with a few of those FSU friends. It was great to spend even more time catching up.

On Saturday we met back up with Vance and Casey and spent the day with them. Lish took the training wheels off of their oldest daughter's (Isabelle) bike and started teaching her to ride a bike. It was pretty awesome, and of course she did splendidly!

It was such a wonderful trip! We'll always look back on that with fond memories. We're so glad the Taylor's could meet Yale. And we look forward to our next trip out there. Or theirs out here. Whichever comes first.

Yale Gets His Hair Did

Can this little guy get any cuter? We didn't think it was possible, but after the little haircut (just some from the sides and the back), he proved us wrong. . . yet again.

Don't you love that little smirk he was giving me? Always making us laugh, that one.

A Mom-velous Weekend

Why is it that I'm always writing about the last weekend as the new one is approaching? Anywho, last weekend my mom came down for a visit! She got in on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was so wonderful to have her down!

When she got here on Friday, we gave her another tour of the house, since the last one she got was a while ago. And by a while, I mean, none-of-our-stuff-was-moved-in-and-we-were-removing-wallpaper while. Then we relaxed and let her and Yale reminisce and make new memories. It's so cute to see Yale with my mom. You can tell how much he loves her. He hadn't seen her since Courtney's wedding, but as soon as she walked in the door, he looked at her and started crawling to her as fast as his little legs would take him. It was adorable. And you can tell how much my mom loves him. Seriously. She kept reminding us the whole weekend. And even after she left. That's a good thing.

So anyway, we hung out and relaxed a little. Then my mom and I headed out to my aunt's house for our girls night. We had some delish dinner and then went to see Thriller at Tuacahn (a Halloween dance concert). It's just like the one up in SLC, but the theater is much cooler, because it's outside. Of course, that means it was colder. But we snuggled up under blankets and had our hot cocoas. It was wonderful, as always.

Saturday was another low key day. We went onto campus so my mom could see Lish's office. We walked around campus and got the grand tour there. My mom hadn't been on Dixie's campus before, so that was nice. Plus, it was a beautiful day! When we got home, Lish and I got ready for a little "date" and my mom watched Yale. Lish and I went to the temple because we don't get to go as often. And my mom and Yale snuggled while he took a nap. We got home and picked up my mom and Yale and went out for dinner. That night my mom and I stayed up late talking, which was really nice, until I didn't get as long of a nap as I wanted the next day. Still worth it though.

On Sunday, Lish and I both spoke in church, so my mom watched Yale for us. He was really good for her too, which was great! Then my mom headed out after that meeting so she could get back home before it was too late. I love having family come visit us! And my mom is such easy company. Of course I didn't take any pictures, but she is coming down again for Thanksgiving, so I will definitely get some then!

Thanks for such a great weekend Mom! We love you!

Halloween

Our ward had a picnic and Trunk or Treat last Thursday. We got Yale all dressed up and asked one of our neighbors if she wouldn't mind taking him around. We thought it'd be more fun that way.

Then last night we went to a Halloween party where costumes were required. Lish didn't feel like dressing up too much, and I borrowed a costume from my aunt, so we didn't have a theme. Still fun though!

A Weekend with Some Goodfellows

Many people who read this blog may already know, but Scott, as in Scott and Karen, as in Lish's stepfather, got in an ATV-ing accident back in September. He broke his leg in 3 different places, broke some ribs and broke a couple vertebrae in his back. Yeah, ouch. Anyway, he was in the hospital for a while, then he was in inpatient therapy, and a month later, he got to go home.

Well, this past weekend, he and Karen and our niece, Hannah, got to come down to visit us. Karen and Scott were supposed to come down in September, but as you read, we know how that ended up. Anyway, they were finally able to come down! We didn't do too much because Scott is still recovering. Broken bones take time, you know. But we had such a great fun getting to spend time with them!

And by the way, Scott is doing much better. I know you were worried. But we worried enough, so you can stop.

And I'm awful. Of all the pictures I took, I didn't take a single one with Scott in it. Sorry, Scott.

Enjoy the pictures I did take! And thanks for the fun times Goodfellow fam!

This, That, and the Other Half

This: Guess what?! I have a new computer! So, please be expecting posts from me more often. I don't know how much more often, but more often. I love my new computer!

That: A few weekends ago, we had some visitors again. Our friends Nate and Melanie came down because Mel's brother was running in the St. George Marathon. It was so fun to host them and get to spend some time with them. We love ourselves some Nate and Mel! And we can't wait for them to come visit again!

The Other Half: I'm sure I mentioned before that I had signed up for another half marathon after running the one in July so that I could run a race with my dad. Maybe I signed up for it before I ran the first one, because that run was hard. Anywho, the race I signed up for I signed up with my dad, my stepsister, Ashley, and my stepbrother-in-law, Collin. The race was held in Moab, UT. And it took place a week ago. 

We drove to Moab on Friday and got to go into Arches National Park. We hiked up to Delicate Arch, and it was beautiful. On Saturday we went to Dead Horse Point and then went 4-wheeling. It was so fun! 

The race was on Sunday, so the four of us were up nice and early. It was cold when we first got up to the starting line. In fact, I didn't start feeling warm until we had already been running for half and hour. The race was awesome though! We all stuck together for a majority of the race. I started to pull ahead just a little around mile 11.5, my dad caught up to me about half a mile later and ran with me for a while. Then I picked up the pace a little for the last quarter mile or so. I finished in 1:58:47! Under two hours! My dad finished about 10 seconds after me, Ashley finished almost half a minute after that, and Collin finished almost half a minute after that. They all did incredible! It was so fun to get to run with them. It makes me want to run another one. Not tomorrow or anything, but some day.