Hawks Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was pretty momentous for the Hawks family.  My parents were getting ready to leave for their mission in Cleveland, OH so all of the kids came home for one last hurrah.  We do not all have the chance to be together that often so it was a riot as you can all imagine.  We got to my parents on Wednesday night and the time just flew by.  We were definitely not ready to leave when the great weekend was over.  Some of the weekends event included:  Games, family picture taking, laughing, looking at ads for hours, shopping, and of course lots food.  I love Thanksgiving especially when my mom is cooking.  My favorite foods that we ate were: Nan's dressing, Sweet potato casserole, homemade rolls, pretzel salad, some amazing salad Rebecca made and Raspberry cream pie from Babe's Bakery.  I don't like potatoes and gravy or turkey but there was plenty of other foods to fill me up.  

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was the early morning shopping that I did with my sister Trish and sis-in-law Paula. We got up about 5 am and headed out into the craziness.  First stop was Big 5 and then to the mall.  We went to JCPenny (which was super crazy) but found some amazing deals, then we went to Romies, Old Navy and Sears. After that we headed to Sports Authority, Great Harvest (needed a little cookie for breakfast) and our last stop was Fred Meyer.  I was really amazed at the amount of shopping that I got done in the wee hours of the morning and great deals I got on everything.  I may just have to start doing that every year.

For some reason I have no pictures of eating Thanksgiving dinner but there are a lot of family pictures.  Hope you enjoy!!!

Love my sisters!!  Nat and Britt

Paula, Zari and Sadie

Nat with 2 cute babies

Nieces and Nephews: Zareya, Marley, Dillon, Aspen, Corbin, Z, Sadie, and Jerzy

Shandi and Corbin

Azlyn

Aspen with Jerzy and Corbin

Is this the first time you've held a baby??

Rod and Corbin

Azzy, Zari, Britt, and Corbin

Love me some Jerzy

Wowza!! Nate is 30

 Nate turned the BIG 30 on October 4th!!  (yes this post is about 7 months in the making)  I wanted to do something special for his Birthday and although he really isn't a big fan of surprises I decided to do a surprise party anyways.  I did it a few days before his B-day to throw him off a little.  I asked a few of his friends to come up with a plan to get him to the party so they asked him to come help them hang some cabinets. We had the party at our good friends, the Duncan's, in their beautiful backyard.  Thanks for letting us use your backyard.  

Setting up the food table

Food = Better than whatever cake, rainbow chip cupcakes, and lots of candy.

Peeking over the fence.  A little too tall for the surprise.

I asked him if he was surprised?  He says he was until he pulled up and saw the balloons over the fence.

It wouldn't be a party without Nate's Nerdy Face

Here are a few of the folks that showed up to give some love to Nate!!

To the love of my life,  
       I hope that you had a great party and 30th Birthday.  You make my life fun and complete.  I love you!!

Love, Melissa
  

Summer 2012

It is almost October and I am finally blogging our summer events.  This post is long with a lot of picture but keep in mind that I am blogging 3 months worth of fun!!  We left Wyoming at the end of May and returned to our new home, town and jobs in August. We are now living in Basin, WY.  Nate is teaching Spanish, and is the assistant boys bball coach. I am teaching PE, and am the assistant girls bball coach.

Now for the summer.....We started it off right, Vegas style.  We went with my sisters family (Chattertons'), and Benji and Rebecca.  We took the boat, stayed in a condo and had a blast.  Here we are on Lake Mead.

Burying Carson in the sand

Melissa and Jessie

Captain Chris

Devin

Rebecca and I

Carson 

106 degrees when we left the lake

Lazy River at the Condo

Going out on the town

If you haven't ever been to the Melting Pot you need to experience it at least once in your lifetime.  It is a fondue place, it is fun and the food is amazing.  Its a 4 course meal and every course is fantastic.  

Cheese Fondue=LOVE

Different types of meat that you cook yourself right in front of you

Dessert: cheesecake, brownies, bananas, strawberries, coconut covered marshmallows, 

rice crispy treats then we dipped them in 2 different kinds of chocolate. I'm not a big 

chocolate fan but I definitely was of this. I want to go back just for the dessert!

 Inside of the Belagio

Fremont Street:  We had a blast on Fremont Street.  There was a lot 

going on: concerts, street performers, food, and zip linging.

We said "farewell" to Conner as he left 

for his mission in Manchester, England

Our next fun adventure took us to OKLAHOMA to visit Nate's family.  Below Nate is having a great time shooting a possum with a pellet gun.

Catching fireflies

From Oklahoma we went to Texas to visit my sister Britt and her family.  We stayed for 5 days and while we were there we celebrated Z and Zareya's third birthday.  We also got to see Britt and Rod's new baby Jerzy.  She is a little angel!!  We had so much fun playing with all the kids!!  They love Nate and I so much and we love them right back.  Thanks for the fun visit Ceasars!!

                                              Zari


                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                Z: wow he melts my heart
                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                             Azlyn 

                                                                             Marley

                                                   Azzy brusing Nate's goatee; so funny!

                                                                    Melissa and Zari

                                                                   Nate with Z and Zari

                                                                           Me and Z

                                                         Slumber party watching Tangled

                                                                     Nate with Jerzy

                                                                        Azzy and Zareya

Our last stop in the south was Missouri.  Nate, Leslie (Nate's Mom), and I went to Branson, Missouri for a few days.  We went to a restaurant called Lamberts: Home of the throwed rolls the first day we were there.  It was such a fun place and the food was southern goodness.  They definitely live up to their name because they do throw rolls all over the place.  Two boys came out and they say hot rolls and if you want a one, you just raise your hand and here it comes.  It is a must if you are ever in Missouri.

Leslie then took us to the Price is Right live show. Its just like the Price is Right without Drew Carey and the prizes aren't as big.  We had front row seats and we heard "Leslie Hartsock come on down you are the next contestant on the Price is Right."  She was on contestants row!!  Sadly she didn't bid the right price so she didn't get on stage.  It was super exciting though. Afterward we got to spin the big wheel and Nate took a picture with the cast. We loved our little trip with Leslie. Thanks again for taking us to Branson!

The next few pictures are of the half marathon that I did this summer.  My family didn't do a great job of taking too many pictures of my while I was running but they were there at the finish line cheering me on.  I loved training for the half and had a fabulous time running it with Kimmi.  It was tough but well worth it!!

I have found a new love in my life:TENNIS, thanks to my sister Trish.  She got me playing tennis and I played on a tennis team this summer.  I played with some super fun ladies!!  We got first place in the Idaho Falls league so we got to go to Boise for state.  We ended up getting third there and had so much fun doing it. I played doubles most of the year with my partner being Trish. I also played a few times with my good friend Kari.

The team chillin at Smash Burger

Me and Kari after one of our matches

Trish and I posing for a pic

My team at PF Changs

Trish, Caly, Melissa

I love this picture of my team

Some of my family went to my parents cabin in Island Park for a few days.  We went to West Yellowstone 

and Old Faithful one of the days. Here are a few pics from it.  

Londyn

Twins?  Nope just mother and daughter

Last time boating for the summer....ahh I miss it!

Getting Ready to Wakeboard

Typical Benji climbing on the Porta Potty to jump off

So that was our great summer.  If you stuck it out and made it until the end of this super long post I thank you!  We love teaching and we love having summers off even more.  Thanks to all our family for letting us stay with you over the summer.  Maybe next time I won' try to post 3 months worth of life into 1 post.