Michael

Also over Thanksgiving weekend, my nephew Michael was sealed to Rachel and Josh in the Mesa temple.

Michael, Josh, and Rachel

Michael

My mom with Michael

Another family picture

James 1

We celebrated my nephew James' 1 year birthday at Peter Piper Pizza during Thanksgiving weekend. Per tradition, (and for the record, this is a tradition I am staunchly opposed to) James was prodded into making waste to a giant slab of birthday cake.

"My work is done here"

Tanner, Kimball, and Sam in hot pursuit of prize tickets.

Becca besmirching the fact that 100 tickets only scores you one giant pixie stick. Or wait, that was me.

Kimball & Becca with their newly purchased vampire teeth. This Twilight thing has gotten way out of control.

Tessa tucked away under her dad's arm.

Thanksgiving 2008

It's been a long time since we had EVERYONE together for Thanksgiving, which meant one thing: Family Pictures

Our family of 8, 5 spouses, and all their kids. I think there's 27 in all.

My grandma and I

Lacey playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with Jen's kids

Grandma with Dave & Julie's newest: Owen.

Taxi Through Borneo

One of the highlights of my trip was the day we spent cruising around Borneo with our taxi driver Alex. He kept us laughing the entire trip, and was happy to pull over whenever we saw something cool to check out. My cab mates for the day were Dainon, our company wordsmith, and Jason, our videographer, so I'm sure there is some priceless video footage of our day floating around somewhere.

Alex

Mosque

Sunny outfit, glum face

Jason, Dainon, and me in front of a government building... which looks more like the Leaning Tower of Kota Kinabalu thanks to Alex's expert skills.

This poor Muslim girl appears to be taking a bit of abuse from the other bus stop patrons.

We visited an orangutan refuge located beyond this walkway

This was the best shot of the bunch. Much cuter than the other monkey I posted yesterday.

Another monkey

A breakdancing demonstration inside a mall

Dainon perusing some ladies wear

Rivers & Streets

The plan was to take a leisurely river cruise into the jungle to see Borneo's famous proboscis monkeys in the wild. That was the plan. They can only be found in Borneo. Anyway, it rained like mad the entire 2 1/2 hour bus ride to the river, and then continued to pour the rest of the evening.

Dock to the boats

Poncho'd up and ready to roll

Motoring through the Root Beer colored water

Stilted river homes

I saw a few monkeys in the distance, but mostly I just saw rain.
Hell of a ride though.

Third world street markets are one of my favorite things. The sights, smells, sounds, and tastes.

Pulau Manukan

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Pulau Manukan is a small island off the coast of Kota Kinabalu where we spent a day. It's where I had my first para-sailing experience. (feels like floating; not scary at all) Others jet skied and snorkeled.

The island off in the distance. Jason filmed most of our trip. I've yet to locate the footage.

Arriving on the island

This was our little reserved spot on the beach.

I really dug the table centerpieces

This shot is for cat-lover Kristin.

I went for a run in my flip flops along a cobblestone trail in the jungle. This lookout point wasn't the sweet destination I hoped it would be.

A couple scenes from lunch

Shangri-La

Our event was held at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort in Kota Kinabalu, on the Malaysian side of Borneo. It's a tropical island, very humid, and apparently in the rainy season, since it rained almost every day we were there. The grounds of our resort were beautiful.

The beach, not so much. Kind of a death trap, according to this sign.

The spa, where I received an amazing massage.

Relaxing on the balcony of my room

View from my balcony

Me with the girl who greets guests with music as they arrive