For the official Thanksgiving this past Thursday, we travelled to Carefree, Arizona to reunite with Ryan's two west coast uncles and their families. We knew the trip was off to a good start when his uncle Sean picked us up at the airport in a huge truck. Welcome to the west!
When we arrived at their house, we were greeted by the the cutest puppy (bear?) i've ever seen. At eight months old, Annie is such a bundle of joy with an unlimited supply of energy and kisses. You can rest assured that she'd make sure no fallen food scraps got left behind...
This Thanksgiving feast was certainly one to remember. Ryan and I are both so thankful to have been able to celebrate this holiday with family for the first time in five years. When we went around the table to say what we were thankful for, some happy tears were shed (thanks Lana!) It was such a wonderful welcome back to the US. :)
The turkey was perfect, the ham was hamtastic, and all the sides were incredibly delicious. I'm getting hungry again just looking at these pictures!
Sean, the master carver
One big happy family
My plate (round 1)
post-dinner food coma by the fire
cousins <3
The following day, after sleeping off our food comas, we drove to a nearby park for a sunny hike among the cactuses to try and burn off some of the Thanksgiving feast. While the pictures below look more like playing than hiking, I ensure you that we did hike a few steps.
a real cowboy!
Cactus fun!
While the girls played on the swings...
...the boys talked about manly things.
After the park, we went to a very unique shopping center: The Town Dump. This place had all kinds of crazy stuff inside for sale, and I'm not really sure who even buys it, but if you need a life-size grizzly bear statue this is the place to go.
She's got some big...er...shoes to fill.
In the evening, the original plan was to go to the Buffalo Chip Saloon around the corner, where they have legitimate professional bull-riding on Friday nights. You can literally ride your horse up to the bar here to get a beer. However, the town was shocked when on Thanksgiving morning the Buffalo Chip was burned down to the ground. Luckily no one was injured and the bulls were all okay, however there's currently an investigation to figure out what happened. I hope when we come back again soon that the Buffalo Chip will be back in business!
Instead of bull-riding, we went with Plan B and drove to Scottsdale to see the Christmas lights at the Fairmount Princess Resort. I quickly learned that in Arizona, they take their Christmas lighting very seriously! There's this little train you can go on which takes you past all the lighting displays, so of course we had to hop on for the ride...
This guy REALLY likes Christmas
After the train we took a ride on the carousel. Somehow the 6-year-old ended up with the big horse and I ended up with the small one...
Personally, my favorite part of the whole night was the petting farm - they had baby goats, an alpaca, sheep, and a piglet!! I couldn't help but take some selfies with farm animals...
On our last day together, we got up early and drove an hour and a half to Sedona to see the red rocks. It was a beautiful drive there, through desert and cactus fields, and finally to the land of red rock. The first major site in Sedona was Bell Rock, which is a famous energy vortex. Fun fact: In 1987 over 5,000 New Agers gathered here to be part of the worldwide "Harmonic Convergence," waiting for Bell Rock's top to open and reveal a rising spaceship.
There were no spaceships during our visit.
After driving past Bell Rock, we stopped at the Church on the Rock to walk around and enjoy the view.
That big house in the middle is owned by the inventor of Lasik eye surgery. Funny how an eye surgeon could create such an eye-sore!
After driving through Sedona a bit more, our next destination was Oak Creek, where there are some really nice hiking trails. Along the way, we stopped at a gas station for some snacks, and I felt a sudden burst of joy when I saw a huge gas station hot-dog station. USA! USA! USA!
southwestern-style "taco" dogs
Once we arrived in Oak Creek we did a short hike together and enjoyed the scenery. We quickly learned that when we would hold our little cousin's hands and lift her up in the air while walking, that she would ask for it again and again and again!!! We must have done the entire hike swinging her in the air, something which I paid for with muscle pain the next morning... :)
one...two...three...wheeeee! AGAIN!!!
After our hike in Oak Creek we drove to Jerome to have dinner at the Hungry Hamburger. Such a cute little town, with an amazing fudge shop. We then called it a night, and drove back to Carefree afterwards to relax and wind down before our early flight back to San Francisco the next morning.
Saying goodbye was hard after such an amazing and adventurous weekend with the west coast Hinchey's, but I'm sure we'll be back again soon. And next time we have bull-riding to look forward to! We have so many things to be thankful for this year, and getting to spend Thanksgiving weekend back home in the US with our family is certainly at the top of the list.
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