Happy New Year!

Over the last few months, I'd been thinking about parties and how some families throw a party every year around the same time. I know Angie loves to throw Halloween parties and I know a lot of people love to throw parties at Christmas time. I was kind of bummed that Merril and I didn't have a specific party that we liked to throw every year. Then I realized that we've hosted a New Year's Eve party every year for the past 4 years. So I guess that's kind of our party!! And that made me excited. We told friends that they could bring kids, or find a sitter but everyone just brought them because it can be hard to find a sitter on New Year's Eve.

Here's some of the crew.

Here's the kid brigade.

Jack did pretty well until around 10:00 p.m. After that he became unreasonable and by 11:00 p.m., I found him asleep on the office chair like this. He was moved to my bed after that.

Maxine was a trooper and was happy as a lark until midnight. As a reward, she received a fancy glass with sparkling cider.

Merril and I toasted the New Year with sparkling cider as well. (I set the timer on my camera but didn't quite get back to Merril in time. Thus, the goofy look on my face and hunchback.)

Here's the brain trust.

We played pictionary, which was won by the men. Good job men!! We played another little game but mainly just ate food and told stories. Amy Hummel brought a full non-alcoholic bar and made mixed drinks for everyone! THANK YOU AMY!!

NEW YEAR'S DAY:

On New Year's Day, we have a tradition of driving out to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. We stopped by this hill for lunch. Jared Hummel, Merril's BFF, brought 2 of his kids and a sled.

We played with it all day and it was a ton of fun.

Merril's standing in front of his Uncle McKay's green International Scout. Apparently we're "storing" for McKay. Storing translates to driving it while saving enough money to purchase it because Merril really wants it. I keep saying "basement first" but I don't think it's sinking in.

After lunch, we went back to a big hill called Corral Hill, thus named for the old cow and horse corral at the bottom of the hill. Merril also brought his CR500, which was the equivalent of a squirrely snow blower.

But he made it to the top of the hill! And then got stuck for a minute. :)

Merril put chains on the Scout and was able to drive it up the big hill. Maxine climbed all the way up to cheer him on and congratulate him.
The rest of the day was spent messing around on the hill. The rest of the dunes were too snowy to get anywhere. So we tubed, rode the sled, got stuck, got un-stuck, and Jared blew the Wuss Whistle at us. (Jared had a bunch of little plastic whistles in his Jeep and anytime anyone got stuck or did something dumb, Jared would blow the Wuss Whistle. I kept waiting for it to get not funny any more, but I laughed every single time. You might have had to be there.) Anyhoo, here's Jared tubing with Katelyn. The look on her face is one of happiness. She was laughing all the way down.

Maxine and Jack played in the snow the entire time. We hiked up and down the hill with the tube all afternoon. It was fantastic! We usually just drive around on the snowy dunes but we had the best time just playing on the hill! We left tired but with big smiles on our faces. This year at the Coral Pinks marks the 9th annual year for Merril and me. We'd met in December of 1999 so it was one of our first dates and we've done it ever since. I can't believe I've been with him for 9 years. It's been fun, to say the least.

As far as the new year goes, my only resolution so far is to potty train Jack. This commences Monday. Yikes! I would also like to finish part of the basement. Happy New Year!!