As I'm writing this, it's sixteen degrees outside and snowing. The odd thing is, the snow is falling straight down. Wyoming snow is almost always horizontal (or close to it). Lori and I sported our winter wear and braved the chill to tackle this week's errands. Check that one off my list. Now I'm taking the opportunity during Lori's siesta (ah, sweet sleep) to post some highlights of our trip. Two days ago we were enjoying seventy degrees and sunshine in the beautiful southwest with our friends, Jon, Amie, and their daughter, Haylie...

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It's Thursday morning. The alarm goes off at no time other than 5am.

1) Ignore alarm, snooze for five minutes.
2) Roll out of bed, stumble toward bathroom.
3) Get myself and Lori ready for trip.
4) Get into car (its snowing).
5) Start out of driveway...turn around and run into house for forgotten item.
6) Run into house again for last minute stop.
7) Drive to Denver International Airport.

Sleepy ride to the airport (yawning again?)

Good lookin' Daddy and Pretty Girl ready for take off! Lori's first flight- she did great, sleeping most of the way!

8) Arrive in warm and pleasant Phoenix, Arizona.

We took it pretty easy the rest of the day on Thursday. We had bacon cheesburgers (no cheese on mine, but PLENTY of bacon). The traditional Thanksgiving tom was prepped and put in a brine for Friday.

A "stroll" to the park

Haylie found some ducks for us to feed!

Lori thought the ducks were great. She bounced on my knee while we fed them.

After our morning walk and some lunch, Amie and I put together a thanksgiving dinner with all the works. Planning to eat around 6:30 that evening, we thought we'd get a head start on the meal at 3:00. We never left the kitchen!

Loadin' into the minivan (we rented one for a drive on Saturday).

Sedona, Arizona is a beautiful place. The cliffs and canyons were amazing. I took some shots from the car, since the daylight was fading fast as we arrived.

Amie and Haylie- quick picture opportunity before we got on the road again!

Sleepy girl! After Sedona, we continued on to Cottonwood and visited Sam's grandparents, aunt Jennie and uncle Tim. Lori was a stretched a bit thin by then, but she managed to hit it off well with Great Grandpa Coons and Great Uncle Tim. We had to head back to Phoenix after a (too) short visit.

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Here's a picture of our house today at 12:40pm...

The neighbor's trees were so pretty

It's snowed a couple inches since then and it's going to keep snowing through tomorrow!

And a couple of cute closing pics:

Lori loves her Johnny Jump Up!

As of last Wednesday, Lori is harness-FREE! Yay!