Ringing the New Year In

Like many other years, we spent the New Year in Afton, Wyoming. It was Chelsea's first real road trip and she did fabulous---sleeping the whole way with only a wake, feed and diaper change once in Evanston. We were ahead of the storm so that was comforting, but we also drove at night so the creatures were out and about. We ran into two separate groups of deer (thanks to our answered prayer for safety and Mike's quick reflexes we didn't hit them.) We also saw one billion white rabbits hopping along the roads in the snow. I'm not kidding there were at least fifty separate little fluffy bunnies that we must of counted during the trip. We just kept saying "There's another one," over and over again. Made me sort of feel like Alice in Wonderland chasing the white rabbit! (Just as a side note on our trip home, in the daylight, we saw three bald eagles---they were BIG birds.)

Above are pictures of the kids next to a bear statue in "downtown" Afton. The snow was lightly falling. We had gone into town to eat at Rocky Mountain Seafood, one of our favorites in Star Valley. I had a yummy halibut parmesan this time. It was so cold, -10 degrees or more, that the power sliding doors on our van had frozen shut! Mike had the heater going and tried to get the doors to respond, finally it took a hair dryer to defrost them!! That was a first.

Here's a pic I took of the temp outside (-8 degrees) at about 2pm in the afternoon as we drove home. And it was even sunny out! To say it was cold outside really is an understatement. We spent most of our trip cozy indoors. (The kids got in their snow bibs and ventured out to go sledding or play in the snow only a couple of times.)

The kids love helping grandma in the kitchen---especially when she is making Spudnut donuts.We went bowling on New Year's Eve and ate pizza. Then we munched on caramel corn and had sparkling cider as we watched the ball drop in Times Square. During our stay we watched lots of college football bowl games and also rented the original "Tron" movie.

Stuffing grapes into their mouths at midnight. A Spanish tradition is to eat one grape for each of the twelve chimes of midnight. If you can get them all in, then your wish for the new year will come true. Maddie was so proud because she did it this year. Way to go, I think it helped to hear the chime of Grandma Judy's clock. Both Alyssa and Josh almost made it. Notice the clock hands are pointing on the 12. At this point Josanna and Chelsea had already gone to bed.Another year and another traditional picture of the children holding homemade signs. This time I have five kids in the photo---amazing. What a blessing. Hope your New Year of 2011 is also blessed.