New Year's weekend

My brother Ryan and his family came up for Christmas and invited us to come down for New Year's weekend. They took Andrew home with them on Monday and we drove down on Thursday. They were going to be hosting a murder mystery party on New Year's Eve which we haven't done for a while. Unfortunately my lovely sister in law Mandy hasn't sent me any pictures from the event, so I can't show you our costumes. Maybe she will now :)

We were excited to take the new van on a road trip and especially excited to use the new entertainment system! Supposedly the kids could watch a video while we still listened to the radio or a CD. This was one of the major reasons we got that model. Back in September the dealer explained how to use the system and all the buttons. He said, "please call if you have any questions. Believe it or not, this is the number one thing that people call about after they get their vans home." We of course laughed this off - really?? How hard could it be? Well, much to the chagrin of Andrew and Claire we didn't try to use it until this trip. Ummmm....round about Gilroy I would have paid a lot money to talk to someone about how to use the special @#$%&*#&#!* entertainment system. The issue was getting the headsets to work properly. There is a line in the manual (I know because I read most of it in the car) that says that the wireless headsets have labels on them (L and R) and that they must be put on the proper ears or the sensors won't work. Come to find out after much trial and error, the sensors also don't work in the front seat - only from the back seats. I finally figured it out and we had smooth sailing from then on. And we do really still like the entertainment system - at least until the next trip.

Once we got there, Claire got right down to playing with Mia. They had great fun playing with dolls and her play kitchen. Here Claire is showing Mia her special "load everything you own in the shopping cart" technique. Thursday night we were able to go to a Brazilian steakhouse where they bring various meats around to your table. We met Erik and Lisa there and had a great time chatting and eating too much. We all decided that the one in Provo is better though.

On Saturday we went to lunch at McDonald's and then to a park. All of the kids were thrilled after all of the rain both here and in Southern California. Danny took Landon, Isabel, Andrew and Claire up a hill near the playground. A few minutes after this picture they all headed back down the hill, but Landon decided to run down. Well he just got going too fast and tripped and fell on his stomach. It looked really bad, but he got right up and kept going. We all gasped at the site, but he said he wasn't hurt.

Erik and Taylor. They didn't spend Christmas with us because they went to Utah to go skiing with Lisa's family. I guess we'll forgive them this time. It was great to be able to spend time with them again. We hadn't seen Kenzie since August.

Claire was very excited that she got to swing on the "big kid" swings.

Kenzie was quite thrilled to see her cousin Grant. They are about 10 weeks apart, but Grant is bigger. Grant wasn't so sure what to think of her affection. I love the picture in the bottom right hand corner.

Here is a parting shot of 8 of the 10 grand kids. Left to right: Landon holding Grant, Mia, Taylor, Claire, Isabel, and Andrew holding Kenzie. It was such a fun weekend for everyone!

And here is one of my favorite sights -a sleeping baby. The ride home wasn't quiet the whole time though. Unfortunately Andrew got car sick. Luckily we are prepared and he had a bag in the back seat. Double unfortunately he dropped the bag on the floor. Triple unfortunately it didn't just land on the carpet, but right where the seat in front of him latches to the floor. When we got home this required removing the seat and quite a bit of time to clean up. But we still had fun and can't wait to see everyone again.