Happy New Year!

We spent several days in South Jordan at Glen's parents home. Most of Glen's siblings and their families were in town to celebrate the New Year! We had a blast...

1. Ringing in the New year... 2009!!

Glen's parents reserved their community clubhouse for the day... endless swimming in the pool, big space for hanging out- It was great!! We ate dinner, played games, ate snacks, played the wii, played bingo, had a talent show, did relay races, and ate more snacks!!
Glen's mom went all out... she prepared so much food for everyone ... my favorite is this cauliflower, cheese, sauce thing that she makes! I'm sure there is s real name?? but anyway it is delicious and I could eat the entire head of cauliflower if left alone with it for too long- Yummy!! She had the tables and room all decorated with balloons, hats, horns etc.... all the paraphernalia needed for a real New Year Party!!

Gabe loved the horns and had one hanging out of his mouth most of the night!!

There were these little present poppers that when twisted open made a loud "pop" and inside they had ornaments and these funny hats to wear.... what a perfect little model huh? I think he could make us lots of money with that beautiful face :)

Here's Evan and Eli swimming with Jake and Drake

I don't have a photo but I have to share this...Glen's mom and Dad made each family a quilt- pieced demin and cute fabric, individual to each families likes... ours was a sports blanket, for all of our boys :) It was so thoughful and time consuming I'm sure! We love it and are looking forward to using it for lots of picnics at the park this summer!!

Gabe had his own little countdown... to 8 o'clock :) He did one last blow on his horn and went to bed... that's when the real fun started for mom and dad!!

midnight came too quickly... look at all those streamers, just waiting to be tossed!!

"3...2...1 Happy New year!" that is Evan jumping on bubble wrap along with lots of his cousins!! Between that and the horns and the streamers I think 2009 felt pretty WELCOME!!

Weston, Evan, Maddie, Harmony
Happy New Year!!

2. Swimming!

I'm pretty sure that we got in the pool everyday, and most days it was several times a day!! It was the perfect thing to get the kids out of the house and they all have so much fun swimming together!

3. Playing...

One afternoon we went to classic fun center. I didn't get enough pictures because the kids ran non stop!! There were all these giant blow up bounce structures with slides, ropes, climbing etc... At first Gabe was pretty hesitant but once Glen forced him (like only a dad can!) to "try it" he loved it! The kids also enjoyed climbing all around in "the jungle" - basically a giant McDonald play land! It was lots of fun... excuse my ranting but...Why?? oh, why can't little Logan get some fun places like that for kids to do in the winter time?? We need a children's museum, a dinosaur park, a classic fun center... a Target!!! I so miss living near the big city and mostly I miss having friends!! BUT- that is an entire different subject... so back to our playing...

the cousins had one big sleep over at grandma's house every night in the family room down the basement!! They played so much during the day that we hardly knew they were there, which made for lots of free time for us as adults to play settlers, read books, watch movies and catch up on everyone's lives!! It was so much fun! One evening we left all the kids with Emily Ruth (oldest cousin who is 14) and went out to dinner. We went shopping, ate lots of food and stayed up too late every night!! It is always sad when the party comes to an end and everyone has to go home!! 5 of Glen's siblings live out of state, so it is a real treat when we can all get together! (We missed Holly and John's families this year) Thanks to Paul and Shirlene for being so relaxed and welcoming about the rush of visitors! Thank you for feeding us and hanging out with us and especially thank you for being such great examples and teaching us all the importance of FAMILY. It is such a blessing that Glen and I both think of our siblings and each others siblings as our dearest friends!! can't wait to get together again!!