Thanksgiving Weekend!

I haven't posted in awhile and I have a lot to share from this weekend, so this post may be kind of long. We had a great Thanksgiving! So much was going on. We went to my parents house to eat and we had quite the feast! I made a salad and two desserts. I will post the dessert recipes in a bit. After we ate, we went to see my cousin who took us on a helicopter ride. Yes, you read that right. My birthday is tomorrow and Nick wanted to do something fun and different for me since it's the last one that I want to celebrate (more on that later), so he thought a helicopter ride would be a great idea. Well, I happen to have a cousin who is a pilot and he owns his own helicopter. I talked to him and he said that he would love to do that for us and that Thanksgiving day would be a good day for him cause his family was actually at his hanger having dinner that day. My parents live close to Falcon field, so after dinner, off we went! All I have to say about that ride is, WOW! It was AWESOME! He took us over Superstition Mountain and Weaver's Needle and then over Canyon Lake and Saguaro Lake. I've been in a helicopter before when I went to Hawaii many years ago, but never on one here in Arizona. This state is beautiful! It rained when we were up there and that was cool too. My boys had such a great time. Jacob said it was the best day of his life. It was the first time either of them had been up in the sky flying in something. They raved about it for the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure Nick and I are the best parents ever now for taking them with us! :) I'm thinking Nick's a pretty great husband to suggest such an awesome thing to do! Also many thanks to my awesome cousin for taking us! He has three airplanes and a helicopter. Sweet! I have some great pictures that I will post.

After the helicopter ride we went and visited Nick's family. There were a lot of people there that we haven't seen in awhile. Then it was back to my parents house to spend the night there. We were going to spend the next two days in Scottsdale and we didn't want to come all the way home. Nick and I left on Friday to do some shopping and we had a certificate that I won, for a free nights stay at a hotel, so we used it and left the kids with Sue-Ann and Greg. We hit some Black Friday sales and finished all of our shopping. We were able to relax in our hotel room with no kids around fighting and whining. It was nice, especially after spending the morning shopping. That night I took Nick to see Twilight. So that was my 2nd time seeing it and his first. He liked it and I thought it was better the 2nd time. Ladies, tell your husbands that he thought it was good and he's never read the books. It really is a good date night movie. After the movie we went and shared a piece of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory of course! We were able to get a solid nights sleep with no kids waking us up. It was so great! After eating the free breakfast that the hotel offered we went and picked up the kids and took them to lunch at Gecko's, our favorite, where the stupid waitress spilled a soda all over me! Yes, I was ticked and I sat there all sticky, but we got a free meal out of it. Nick and I were able to get recharged and I'm pretty sure that the kids had a blast with their cousins while we were away. It was nice though to come home yesterday, and now I've been busy trying to finish putting up the Christmas decorations.

My BIG 39 is tomorrow and NO. I'M. NOT. EXCITED! It seems like I've been celebrating all weekend, but that really wasn't planned. I usually really hate celebrating my birthday, but I have decided that this year I'm going to make a BIG deal about it because it is the LAST year that I will be in my 30's. Actually I will always remain 39 now because I so don't want to turn 40, which means I want to make 39 memorable. This is the last birthday that I want to celebrate, so next year will be my first anniversary to my 39th birthday. :) It really has been a fun one so far though. I had a girls night out a week ago where we went to dinner and saw Twilight and then there was the helicopter ride on Thursday followed by a night away with just Nick in Scottsdale and then lunch with him and the boys yesterday. I guess I got lucky having my birthday fall just after Thanksgiving weekend. Since Nick and the boys will be gone all day tomorrow, I'm going to do something for myself. I think I will go get a pedicure. Who wants to go? If anyone wants to come, I will most likely be at LoAnn's nail spa in Maricopa around 9:30-10:00am. You can text me or call me to make sure. After that I may just go to lunch with my mom and sisters. I know, I'm spoiled or whatever else you all want to call it. Did you not read the part where I said this will be the last birthday that I want to celebrate? ;) I plan on leaving my 30's with a bang! One thing is for sure, I don't feel 39 at all and I don't think I look it, which are both things in my favor. :)

Okay, here are some pictures of the weekend, including shots from the helicopter. My recipes with pictures will be posted on a separate post.

Here we are in the helicopter getting ready to lift off!

Just shortly after leaving Falcon Field.

Everything looks so small! Oh and we were flying up to 130 miles an hour!

Someone's house on the way to Superstition Mountain. You can see the rain hitting the window on the picture to the right.

Here we are closer to the mountain. You can see Superstition Mountain in the picture on the right.

Here's another view of Superstition Mountain. The picture on the right is the praying hands. Yes, we flew BETWEEN those! So cool!

The picture on the right is Weaver's Needle and you can see that it was raining on our way there.

Two closer pictures of Weaver's Needle. Yes we flew to the very top of that!

Up close shot of Weaver's Needle.

Next sight to see was Canyon Lake. Not one boat or person was out there that day.

More Canyon Lake

The final sight to see was Saguaro Lake. Not one soul on that lake either.

Back at the airport. This is a shot of one of his 3 planes. He calls this one the baby bear plane. It seats 8 people.

Here are the boys being monkeys at my parents house. If you look closely at the picture on the left, you will see Jacob's foot hanging down. Cole is climbing up the tree on the picture to the right.

Cole deciding to be silly and then they both decide to get down.

Here is Nick at the hotel we stayed at. We had a Suite with a separate front room and small kitchen. It was nice! I can't believe I won that in a raffle for $1! I never win anything! :)

The weekend was full but a lot of FUN! Now we need to get the tree up and the lights outside up. The Christmas shopping is done, now I just need the decorating to be done. Thanks to everyone for making this such a memorable weekend. Thanks to the Willis Family for watching the boys overnight. Maybe next time Jacob won't get so homesick. :)