Thanksgiving Eve

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Eve and I can hardly wait. I have been under the weather, so I have missed all of the preparation and anticipation of Thanksgiving so I am having to shove all of my excitement into one day.

Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays all year long! Just in case anyone has not caught on - family - is my thing. Everything I do revolves around my family, and I think Thanksgiving is one of the best family holidays out there. A holiday that revolves around a family dinner...what could be better? I love cooking together, watching the football together, eating together, playing games and just being together. Then after you have eaten your weight in carbohydrates, you get to start Christmas shopping and decorating. It is like a national holiday just for you to get your Christmas lights up. I love the long weekend to do the fun family parts of getting ready for Christmas. All in all - what more could you ask from a holiday?

Enjoy your weekend and your family!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hot tubs, Bond, In-n-Out, and Old Town - What a fun weekend

Mark flew into Sacramento on Friday and we spent the weekend in Auburn. The weather was very obliging and we found several relaxing activities to create a great little get a way.

In the past two years, I think I have spent more time in the Sacramento temple than the Oakland temple. I really love that temple, it has a great spirit. Mark and I did a session on Friday night after I picked him up from the airport.
A very nice man offered to take our picture in front of the fountain, unfortunately he did not keep the camera phone steady so it did not work out so great. I played around on photo shop and created this really bad attempt at art.

Saturday morning we puttered around getting birthday presents for my Dad and tooling around old town Auburn. Do you like my new friend?

Mark made a new friend too.
We have an in-n-out in town and Mark had never been, so it was an obvious stop for lunch. I still don't seem to be able to eat and in-n-out without spilling on my clothes. Why is that? I promise I have had plenty of practice.

The football teams all co-operated and played outstanding games. Yeah Beavers! Go Cougs!!!

Mark was a good sport and went on the traditional hike to the pine tree. Do you see the trunk behind us? This tree apparently marks the boarder of Mom and Dad's property. Mark also got to take in such sights as the well house, the ditch, and the famous Fawnhill sunsets. The hot tub is now up and running for the winter (why pay to heat a pool of water to 104 when it is 100+ outside?) and it was the perfect way to end the evenings.

Since we started off with the temple, we decided to go to the new bond movie on Saturday night. It was pretty intense! Dad has been a bond fan for years and years - so for his birthday we all went together.

Another great weekend at Fawnhill!

I love you

I love you. I think it is the most important thing you can say to your family and friends. Every time I see my family and every time I talk to my family I say I love you. I say it and I mean it. I have no doubt that my family and friends know that I love them. The first thing that I teach my new nieces and nephews is that Aunt Cyndi loves them. Family is the most important part of my life and loving them is my joy.

We received bad news this past week. My cousin Heather passed away suddenly at 35. While I had not spent time with Heather since we were both very young, I still loved her. My family gathered in Oregon to support Uncle Marvin and my cousin Cory. We were there to tell them that we love them. During this past week, I have felt the love of my family very strongly. I have remembered all of the times that we pulled together and comforted each other in difficult times. I have no doubt of that love.

My testimony of the Savior and the atonement assures me that we will be with Heather and all of my family again. I know that our eternal family will have forever to love one another, and I am grateful for the love that we have now that makes this life wonderful.

I love you. I say it every chance that I get. And I mean it.

A baby shower for my friend Hillary

We can't wait to meet Baby Will! My neighbor and friend Hillary is having a baby boy in a few weeks, so we gathered at my house for a little shower to welcome the little guy. Didn't Mary do a great job with the decorations? I would not have been able to muster up more than a balloon or two.We had a diaper off - two people face each other and change the Teddy Bear's diaper. The winner, Kim was killer fast, but I am not so sure about how she treated that bear.

We did all the best parts of a baby shower - yummy food, cute presents, and girl talk. You can hardly tell that Hillary is pregnant, but she assures us that something is kicking her.

Here is the gang. Thanks to everyone who came - and Jennie, Jen, Addi, and Mary for helping to plan the bash. It was a fun Saturday morning (despite the absolute downpour! that everyone had to run through).