It was the week of Thanksgiving!  We had school on Monday and Tuesday.  Ben even had Joy School on Tuesday where he learned all about pilgrims and turkeys!  Bethany's first grade had an Indian Pow Wow all day Tuesday where they made drums and decorated their Indian vests, played Indian games and danced Indian dances.  How fun!

Tuesday after school, Savannah met us from BYU and we all got in the car and drove down to Las Vegas to spend the holiday with my family!  We stayed at my sister, Amy's house.  My sister, Maggie, and her family stayed at my mom and dad's and my sister, Diane, and her family stayed with the other side of her family.  My brother Dave even came down for Thanksgiving Day from St. George.  There were a lot of us, but then, we love being together!

The cousins did a show for us after dinner!

Cousins got talent!

All us Eltons (sans Pete)!

After the cousin show, Emma and Bethany read the lists of thing we had written that we were thankful for and we tried to guess who had written them.  Later that night we even played a rousing game of Matthew Mark Luke and John!  Dad taught us that game from when he was a kid back when we were kids.  That night we played it with all our kids! Grandpa is still the guy to beat!  We had a really fun day!

On Friday, we decided to go visit the Old Mormon Fort which was the first permanent structure in Las Vegas!  It was a beautiful day (every day was!) and it was neat to learn the history of the city. Benjamin especially was captivated by the story of the woman whose husband was shot in a gun fight.  "Tell me that story again, Mom!"

That night we went to see the lights on the cacti at Ethel M chocolate factory.  Pretty!

The next morning we said goodbye to much-loved cousins and family.  It was a great trip!

Saturday was Mariah's birthday!  She is now fourteen-years old!  Holy Cow!  Since we drove all day, Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik took care of all the festivities for us and we had a party that night back in Springville to celebrate our dear Mariah!  Grandma Elton made her a cake that we had Friday night, too!  We are so glad she came to be in our family.  She's been such a pleasure.  :)