HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Forever ago, when I was a senior in high school, the choir I was in went on a retreat to Glenwood Springs over Christmas break. When we were walking around outside, a TOTALLY drunk guy just kept yelling "HAPPY NEW YEAR" in slushy, slurry, drunk speech. Every time new years comes around, I want to yell it out like this, but usually don't.

ANYWAY, we spent "new year week" this year in Denver with my family. We drove over on Tuesday the 30th, getting there at 7:00ish PM. It was a pretty decent drive over, but the last 1.5 hours took FOREVER due to the skier traffic. That drive can be brutal, but the recent DS purchase was good for our boys. Surprisingly, they didn't play it ALL 8 hours, but it and the DVD player kept them occupied well enough.

Paul and I went shopping at Kohl's for some new birthday clothes on the 31st. I am happy to report that I was able to reach my goal of fitting into size 12 pants by Christmas!!!! YAY!!!! I had been wearing my baggy slacks and jeans for months now and hated getting dressed everyday. Before Thanksgiving I was tempted to buy some size 14 pants just to get through, but I'm glad I stuck it out til my annual birthday shopping spree (no wonder I never have good clothes for summer time; I only shop in the winter!). My overly generous mom had given me some money to spend and since Paul didn't get me a present on my birthday in preparation for this shopping trip, I ended up being able to restock my closet with pants that actually fit now! I wasn't able to find any cute shirts, but did find some cute jackets to wear. I now look forward to getting dressed in the morning!

Here's a funny/stupid story that happened while we were shopping though. I had already tried on a bunch of clothes that just weren't working out, so I put those back and found a second stack to try on. Paul came into the dressing room with me so I wouldn't have to keep walking out there to show him. As we were walking in, some random voice speaks up saying, "this is a ladies dressing room, please leave" but since it was a stupid request and nobody willing to actually come talk to us about it, I ignored it... twice. I guess this girl got so annoyed that Paul didn't leave, she got a Kohl's employee to come and kick him out. She said he couldn't be in there and when I asked her where we could go so we could both be in a dressing room, she said in a snotty voice, "we don't have coed dressing rooms, m'am." I was sooooooo mad. When I went to fill out a complaint card, the cashier that I told the story to pulled some idiotic fact out of her butt that "it's a law." "why isn't it posted anywhere?" "the law actually doesn't require that we post it." Whatever. At the next store we went to, we asked a lady there if there's a law in Colorado saying that a man can't be in a dressing room, and she said there wasn't. I'm still irritated at those STUPID Kohl's workers!

We spent the evening at my sister, Shelyce's house. It was just a few of us (my parents, Nicki, us, Shelyce's family and Alisha and her husband), so it was actually pretty quiet! We all ate plenty of goodies and then played cards. I love playing cards with my family. Andy and Canon spent the entire evening playing a plethora of video games with their cousins. Charlie spent some time doing this:

He loves watching the movie, "Cars." Even though it was later than usual, he was being really cute. Once he saw we were taking pictures, he came over to us to see the camera. I got a cute pic taken with him here:

We spent the night at Shelyce's so we could put the kids to bed. Charlie went down early, but we let the boys stay up til 12:00. They went down without any incident and then Paul and I played a bunch of Guitar Hero Aerosmith! We're actually fans of the band and had a good time unlocking more of the songs for Shelyce to play later! We finally made it to bed at about 1:00 and thankfully were able to sleep in until 9:45, thanks to Shelyce. She wakes up early anyway, so she got Charlie up and let us sleep more. She's an angel!

We got ready for the day and then all of us went to help my sister, Megan, move apartments. She was living in this small apartment in the top floor of a house, so it wasn't easy moving, but there were a LOT of helpers there to make the work light. After that, we went and bought me a road bike... have I mentioned how SPOILED I've been lately?! I'm really excited about my new bike! The triathlon I've committed to doing is in 15 weeks, so I gotta get crackin! We spent the rest of the night reading and watching the latest Indiana Jones movie. If you haven't seen this yet, DON'T. It is SOOOOOOOO STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!

The next morning, Paul and I did a workout together with him running and me riding my new wheels! Unfortunately, my parents live in the worst neighborhood possible for a beginner cyclist! I didn't ever get too far ahead of Paul because of all the hills. We did some running up the hill right after we got back to my parents and I could hardly walk the rest of the day. That night, we went to my brother, Spencer's house (yes, I have a lot of siblings!) to hang out with them and Megan and Chris. We had a YUMMY dinner and then played more games while Paul and Spencer watched the Utes win the Sugar Bowl. We're not Ute fans, but it was great to see them hand it to Alabama. We had a great time with them and wish we could see them more often. Every time we see Jen, she asks us when we're going to move to Denver. Sadly, I don't see it happening any time soon :(.

We ended leaving earlier than planned the next day (Saturday) because of an incoming storm. Thankfully, we didn't hit any serious weather and made it home in just over 7 hours with Charlie sleeping most of the way! It's always hard to leave a fun visit home with my family... especially when it's a short trip. I had such a great time seeing my siblings. I'm really bummed we didn't get to see Scott's wife, Robbie, and their girls (Scott and William were there to help with Megan's move). We also didn't get to spend time with my oldest sister, Camille, during this Christmas season, but that's because they actually live close enough to visit, but far enough that it never happens. In case you guys read this post, just know that we love you ALL so much!

Thanks for a fun week everyone! LOVE YOU!!!!!!