Gobble-Gobble-Gobble

**Warning: long post with a picture overload. Obviously I had WAY too good of a time and I couldn't pass up the chance to blog it all!**

As most everyone knows, my family came to Memphis for Thanksgiving. I had SOOO much fun! My mom came a week and a couple of days early, so we had a great time just bonding with her. We did tons of shopping, crafting, cooking/baking, laughing, bonding, talking, etc. I was glad to get my alone time with her.

Jackson also LOVED having Grandma around... I'll tell you what, he didn't even know he had a mom that week because all he wanted was her! It was kind of sad for me, but so great for my mom! :)
My mom introduced me to a new love... beading!! We had so much fun with all these beads!! I was sad she took them back to Idaho with her, but at least it will give me something to look forward to doing again in Feb. when I go back for my birthday! :)Another thing we did while my mom was here was go to a Memphis Grizzlies game. They were playing the Jazz so we had to go root on the opposing team. It was weird going somewhere to cheer for the opponents, but we had a really good time. After the first quarter of the game we snuck down to the lower bowl and watch the rest of the game there. It was cool being up close and personal. You can't tell in the pictures how good the seats were, but they were pretty awesome.
The Jazz smoked the Grizzlies (without Boozer, Williams, or Korver playing) and we went down by the entrance of the locker room to slap hands with the players. CJ Miles gave Justin his sweaty towel and I was pretty excited about it! :)After the game we did something we have yet to do since we've been in Memphis... we took our first steps on Beale Street. On Wednesday Grandpa, Uncle Lane, and Aunt Whitney joined us for some fun. I loved this picture of Jackson with Grandpa. He was in seventh heaven having so many people to give him loves and attention! The first thing we did was bust out Lane's Wii and played Guitar Hero over and over and over and over. We love that game. My mom and dad even played, and Dad was really getting into it by the end. It was pretty amusing. Thanksgiving morning we did the Memphis Turkey Trot (4 miler). We all ran in it while Grandpa and Jackson cheered us on at the finish line.
Our Pre-Race photos:During the race... yes I was dying as you could tell and everyone else was just goofing off and having fun. I ran a whole mile without stopping though (the first time in my entire life) so I was pretty excited.
My mom and I did the Turkey Leg Relay (I just kept going when we got to her) and our baton to pass of was a real frozen Turkey Leg! It was pretty hilarious.
And we made it!! Everyone was a trooper and stuck with me even though I am an extremely slow runner.After the race we went home to wait for the feast. (Which although it was my first Thanksgiving at my own house, my mom did all the hard work!) Thanks mom!
Me and my mom made the cute fall place mats though.Here we are just enjoying Turkey Day and lounging around. We slept in front of the football games, had the cute kid to entertain everyone, and Justin got to carve the Turkey.After the feast we had to do the traditional bowling. I don't know why I enjoy it so much, I'm always the loser every year, but at least I've learned to be a good loser. :) Take a look at the score board and you will see we got two "turkeys" this year from Lane and Whitney!The day after Thanksgiving, Lane and I attempted to do a little bit of combat shopping (with not much luck) and then we all headed downtown to explore the city of Memphis. It was actually really fun for me because although we've been downtown a few times, we haven't yet had a chance to just explore. Here is a collage of some of the sights:We walked along the famous Beale Street and everyone was singing the song "Walkin in Memphis."We also ate at the famous Rendezvous Restaurant. That was some goooood Memphis BBQ.It started to get pretty chilly, so we had to bundle Jackson up in a few blankets, and he was such a trooper the whole day! He must have stayed warm because he pretty much stayed in the blankets. Whitney got some cute shots of him that I had to post:The Holiday Parade was also that evening so we stayed to watch that. (which wasn't quite as cool as I thought it would be, but it was still pretty enjoyable) There are some pretty intense high school bands here that know how to rock it pretty good. And Santa Clause was at the end so that made it better! :)Saturday came and my mom and dad had to head home :( Lane and Whit stuck around till Sunday morning so via request we went to another Grizz game. This time we cheered on the Grizz (even though they still lost). It was a pretty fun night. We bought our tickets from some scalpers off the street, got a free poster of the grizz girls and had them sign it, got approached by two homeless people, and saw some pretty interesting thing as we walked by a tattoo parlor (we'll just leave it at that).Of course we had to get a picture of the guys with the girls... funniest part was that it was their WIVES taking the picture for them! :) heehee

It was so fun to have my fam come and visit!! Thanks for the fun times everyone, and come back again! (WE missed Bub/Jamie and Todd/Amy and fam!)