Thanksgiving Week

We had an action-packed, fun-filled week! We did a lot of driving (a total of 1800 miles to be exact), saw a lot of friends and family, and even had some left-over time for playing and goofing around.
When Ryan was finished with his class on Friday, we started the break off with a bang! That night we went out with the Fuquas and Emma to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant in Spokane called HuHot, followed by The Lion King show at the Opera House, all wrapped up with a movie, New Moon! What a night!!! Told you it was bang! Everything was AWESOME, so much fun!!! The next day, we obviously needed to catch up on sleep but then we headed over to the new Kroc Center and did some swimming. Carson loved the water park, he had a blast!
Sunday, we made our way down to Firth.
Monday, everyone was still working and finishing up school so we went to Rexburg and went out to dinner at Craigo's our good friends the Woods. It was so fun to see them and catch up! Carson and Gracie were still the good little buddies they were before the Woods moved. We miss them!!!
Tuesday, we got ready to head down to Utah but had a little mishap. One of our dogs, Gal, had some complications after having her spade and had to be put down. My family has gone through a lot of dogs but Gal had been around for a long time, probably the longest out of all the dogs. It was emotional for everyone. The hardest part was explaining it to Carson. I eventually told him that Grandpa made Gal all better and she went back to Heavenly Father. But once the drama settled down, I cut Ryan's hair and then we were on our way to Utah. At first, Ryan and I forgot why we were so ready to get out of Utah, we actually missed the beautiful mountains, being close to family, having awesome shopping and everything so close. But after about 15 minutes of driving on the freeway and having plugged sinuses from the smog, we remembered. But on a positive note, we did have a really great time! We got to catch up with an old friend from the band, Cassey Golie, and she cut my hair. We spent the night at Grandpa Jay's and Grandma Fernie's and had a good time catching up and chatting with them.
Wednesday, was an amazing day! The whole Stokes family (minus a few) went to the temple for an endowment session and baptisms for the dead. I had a cousin, Cammie, who was getting ready for her mission to Croatia and another cousin who had some temple work that needed to be done, so we made it a big family affair and we all went through together. It was so great to see everyone dressed in white, truly and once-in-a-lifetime experience. An added bonus was going out to eat at Cafe Rio afterwards, another reason why we miss Utah. Before we headed back to Firth, we visited Grandma Mutti and Aunt Suzy.
Thursday, Thanksgiving!Had a great dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Clawson during which we went around and said what we were grateful for. Then, because we weren't going to be together for Christmas, we exchanged gifts after Thanksgiving was officially over. Carson was so cute opening his presents! "I want another one, Grandma!" After unwrapping the paper, "Oh! It's a box! Thank you! Is there a Merry Christmas in there?!" The best present would have to be the Power Wheels tractor, closely followed by the gumball machine. Carson was in heaven! We hardly saw him off the tractor the rest of the trip!
Friday, Mom, Jocey Girl, and I braved the chaos and went to Black Friday. It actually wasn't that bad. At first it was though. We started off in the two worst stores, Best Buy and WalMart. It didn't take much convincing that it wasn't worth the hassle so we tried different stores and had better luck. After 6 hours of shopping, we were exhausted! But we had fun.
Saturday, I gave Jordan and Jocey haircuts and then I got to do my first photoshoot!!! We took family pictures and it was so much fun!! I loved it! My dad and Jocey came up to me afterwards and thanked me because they had never had such a fun time taking pictures before, usually we are fighting the whole time. So that made me feel good! (I'll post those pictures seperately though since this one is already really long) Then after pictures, Kapri invited Jessica and I to tag along with her and her old roommates while they went to dinner and ice cream. We got to catch up with some old Firth High buddies, Janae and Melody. Good times!
Sunday, had a great drive home. The boys were awesome!! We spent a few hours in Cd'A and then headed to Moscow. But then next morning, Ryan realized that we forgot his laptop at his parents house so I had to drive back and get it, thankfully, Jeff met me half way!

Reese had a big week too! He met quite a few milestones. We found his first tooth on the drive down to Utah (we have been waiting for those teeth for quite some time!), he took his first official step, he said his first word (besides mama and dada). Of course it would have to be "tractor!" Carson wasn't the only one excited about the Power Wheels! And last, but not least, he learned how to clap! It's so cute and he does it all the time now!