The New Year (a tad late).

January has truly flown by, and I am just now realizing I haven’t even covered the New Year yet! Oh, how my blogging has taken a back seat this past year, but I have no regrets. It’s been a busy month, and blogging is the thing that had to give, I guess. Anyhow, we had a great time hanging out in Utah for the New Year!

It started the morning after Christmas bright and early. We had most everything ready to go (that was a lot of Christmas clean-up in one night!), and as soon as at least one of the kids woke up, we got the others and were outta there!

The kids were absolute angels on the drive. Our new collection of Mo Willems books, helped, along with our trusty dollar store cookie sheets. I can see this drive getting even better as the years go on.

Since we left pretty early, we made it there with time to play! The kids didn’t waste any time digging into the Rejholecs  toys, and loved showing off the few new things they brought from home.

And they “helped” undecorate the tree. That tinsel kept them happy for a good long time. Something to remember when I don’t mind cleaning up a huge mess. 

Ruby and Julia went to town with Ruby’s new tattoos. Even their belly buttons and backs!

I chopped my hair! Sometimes I miss it, but mostly I don’t. Starr never disappoints. It was just what I needed to start the new year. 

Grandma Robinson’s house always has new fun things to play with. She definitely knows the way to these kids’ hearts with dress-ups and art supplies!

KC’s Russian Shapka!

I actually made it to our annual high school friends crepe night! So great catching up with part of the gang.

Grandma, Grandpa, and KC took the kids on the Heber Creeper! I stayed behind with my sisters. Looked like a blast! Lucky kids.

The things these kids come up with…

Found Brady and Bennett playing quietly together. So cute.

Kangaroo Zoo, where we met up with the Taylors!

Hot tubbin’ at Nana’s, a much anticipated event.

Non-stop cousin fun!

The two ice cream makers, reunited.

Ethan, the expert child entertainer.

Britney, our sweet nanny’s/cousin’s baby boy!

Love when I get to see some cousins, which is hardly ever.

Alex’s introduction to Angry Birds was this hat Grandma gave him. And then he became obsessed.

Loved looking at old pictures of little KC. If you squint it looks like Alex/Bennett and Stella!

The New Years Eve party at the Turpins! So much great food, so much crazy fun, and so much family. Loved it.

My little drink bar, for fun.

Jonny out on a little firework show for the countdown (at like 8:00 pm). The kids were in awe.

A little silly string before we called it a night.

The New Year Baby filled the shoes! The biggest ones they have, of course. That they there’s more space to fill!

I had a little too much fun with Ruby’s mirror.

The next morning Melody hosted her annual Crepe breakfast. The kids decided to make party hats (all on their own) which morphed into costume making. They also made costumes for a lot of the adults. It was hilarious.

Snowman

Rudolph

Another Snowman

Another Rudolph

Santa

A baby

My contribution to the spread.

I guess Alex was getting his holidays mixed up.

Then we had to say goodbye. Never fun.

But at least is a beautiful drive.

 

Until it got really scary with slippery stop-and-go in the mountains for a couple hours.

But thank heavens they did this for about half of the drive, including the scary parts. (Thanks Dad for the Duck Dynasty DVDs I got to watch when all was quiet!) This road trip really was a great one for the kids. It makes me happy that I can say that.

And that was Utah in a nutshell. Wish I had time or energy to add more details, but  the memories are there. Miss all those people already. Now onto 2014!