Bringing in the New Year

Happy New Year! We headed north to visit Doug and Erica (and kids, we can't forget those 5 boys!) to ring in the New Year. Here is the top ten list of fun things we did while there:

1. Flying on a small commuter plane. No matter how small, noisy, and slightly scary the flight may have been, it was worth avoiding the 6 hour plus drive. Thanks Ruth and Steve for getting the buddy passes!



2. Coming the night before and getting to see Darren's parents and Brent, Lindsey, and their two girls. Because of the bad weather, we missed seeing them before Christmas, so it was nice to still get to visit with them. We also got to take them their family game.



3. Sleep. I probably have sleep on too many lists. Maybe I should start tracking how much I talk about sleep... Anyway, between work and being sick, I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since November. We took it pretty easy at Doug and Erica's and slept in almost every day. AHHhhhh...


4. The big boys, and the two oldest boys, got to go hunting. I stayed home and hung out with the younger ones. Darren was super excited to use his new shotgun!


5. Playing tons of games. You know how I love games. We got a really fun one for Christmas (Thanks Trish and Trevor!) that the boys and I would play. It has a french name and since none of us could pronounce it we just called it 'Tiles'. SO fun. We also played Crowns and Ticket to Ride. I begged and begged to play Ticket to Ride again but the boys only wanted to play 'Tiles'...



6. Read for fun. Like I said, I've been busy this last month. I did bring a book (which I finished) but Erica also has great home decorating magazines that I devoured -- I got some great ideas.


7. Good food. Doug and Erica fed us well, but we got also got to go out for dinner New Year's Eve at the Wagon Wheel in Shell. I swear you would pay $75 - $100 a plate in a bigger city for the wonderful food they serve there, but lucky for us you can't ask people to pay that in Wyoming! The restaurant also sits with a perfect view of Shell Creek. Erica works there and had fun telling us how everything was made.


8. We visited Doug's parents and his sister, Debbie, who was in town. We took the tour of their new house, and wished it were light so we could see the Big Horns from their picture window.


9. Drove to Cody, Wyoming for my first visit to the town ever. A lot of the shops were closed, but we were able to walk around downtown a bit.


10. Spend time with good friends. The whole weekend was geared toward this, but the culmination was having just the adults for New Year's Eve dinner, (Doug, Erica, Debbie, Darren, and I), not rushing to eat and get home, and having a great time laughing and chatting together. I brought my camera but felt kind of silly taking a picture.
    

After we got home from the trip we took care of a few things that were still waiting for us to finish...

They are late this year, but at least we are getting them out! Keep smiling and remember to be happy.