New Year's Fun!

Welcome 2024!! We had a fun party celebrating the new year with lots of friends up at our neighbor's cabin last night and this morning. Owen decked out last night. 

Corey stayed home this year sick (one of us is always sick!) and he kept Katharine with him. He sent me a picture of her watching "Where the Red Fern Grows" cause that had puppies, so it kept her interest.

Up at the cabin, we parents always do a really smart thing and have our party in Utah at 10pm, the time the ball is dropped in New York. That way we can all get to bed at a reasonable hour. Atleast that's the plan (kids don't always follow that!) Lily, Sophi, Natalie and Daniel ringing in the new year.

The Polar Bear Challenge was a go and there were many brave souls who went out and faced the winter snow in their bare feet. Unlike last year, there wasn't a lot of fresh snow this year, and it was actually quite icy, so the kids returned to show blood on their legs and feet from getting cut up as they sunk into the ice covered snow. Joseph got a toenail ripped off.

He handled it well. And the other wore their bloody shins like a tough badge of honor. It's fun to see some of the changes in the traditions and visiting up here as a lot of the neighborhood kids have gotten older - Hyrum and Aidan

Lily and Aaron

All our little kids are growing up. Wesley lead a group of kids in a game of Wride Edition "What Do You Meme". Even though they probably didn't get every inside jokes, they know our family well enough to get most of them and enjoy the game and they were laughing. 

College kids Tess, Mel, Ethan and Joseph really appreciated and enjoyed a feast of food!

So last night was a total party with lots of food and fun and games. They always play Risk - had a few games going that lasted long into the night.

Today some people skied, we didn't as a family, but Joseph did, and I fit into his stuff, so I took his skis and pass and went out for a little bit. Joseph kept our friend Amy up until 4AM talking about his girl friend adventures and woes. Before he went to bed he thought of moving the van for me and I set an alarm to do it this morning, but bummer news - I was too late and had a ticket when I went down. I left it in the ski parking and went to move it before any skiers came, but I was 30 minutes too late... I had gotten a ticket. $125 bucks. At first I saw $250, which is the fee if you wait $30 days, but it's only $125 if you pay it early, so yay, I decided to do that (kicking myself for not moving it last night or setting my alarm for earlier, drat). The little kids had their big sleepover in the main room - waking up - bodies everywhere...

Lily and Sophi on the couch - 

Wes ready for breakfast - He likes my Seek Discomfort hoodie.

Ethan's girlfriend Bella playing Uno with Owen and Daniel (she's so nice)

The older kids played a game of Telestrations and it was really funny - 

It went from this illustration trying to communicate "Valentine's Day" ...

...to...

...a guess of Winnie the Pooh getting engaged?

And an illustration of that - 

Really funny, they were all laughing a lot and giving each other grief for their lack of artistic talent. 

More What do you Meme fun -

And sitting around enjoying the day off from school! It's been a nice Christmas break. The college kids have a few more days before winter semester starts, which I'm grateful for. It will be nice to have them around.  The high school kids will be back in class tomorrow. Abi says "nooooo..."

Wes has school work to do too - he starts the MTC on Jan 22, so he's got three weeks to finish his BYU classes, but the Stake President encouraged him to finish sooner, and Wes wants to do that too. So yeah, it's been a nice break, but time to get cracking and get back to reality - there is a lot to do! And finally, to start off a new year, we have some very exciting news! Someone's getting married! 

Actually, not just someone... there are two!

That's a pic of the happy couple as we were leaving the cabin today. Here is a pic last night of "the moment" ~

They've been talking about it for a bit (and actually already had a date and an appointment at the temple!), but it wasn't official until an impromptu proposal last night. Ethan said just seemed like the right moment, cause it was Jan 1st, and they met 6 months ago on July 1st. AND they met at a fireworks show, and last night as they were out walking around Brighton just past midnight, there were fireworks going off! So it was just a good moment having it be on the 1st and with fireworks again, so he proposed! We all think that they make quite a cute couple. 

Ethan told me what he did last night, shortly after he popped the question. He told the rest of his siblings tonight. I accidentally told a few of them last night, NOT cause I can't keep a secret but because I thought Ethan had already told them and then I mentioned something about it. It's ok though, I didn't let the cat out of the bag, cause they all thought I was lying to/teasing them. They didn't believe me and wouldn't believe such good news until they heard it from Ethan himself. So back at home tonight he admitted it was true. They all gave hugs ~

...and the girls started talking about how it happened and Belle showed them pictures...

Our teenage girls were especially excited about all that cause they are all boy crazy and like talking about falling in loooove. Plus they like that the boy to girl ratio of the kids will be even now! 7-7! Hooray for another sister! So an official welcome to Bella to the Wride family, we're happy to have you! What a great start to the new year. Wonderful things are coming in 2024!