After our very quite Christmas things got very busy. My Mom and Bob came down from the mountain and my brother and sister came in town from Chicago by way of Arizona. We also had the pleasure of having my uncle Dennis and his amazing wife Zina come to visit as well, which was very cool because I hadn't seen my uncle in many many years and had never met his wife (mainly because they were living in Italy for the past 5+ years). So here we go.....
Monday the 29th we did sort of a modge-podge of everything. We ate bagels at my Mom's in the morning, hung out through the day and shopped in the afternoon, and eventually had our family party that night. My brother (in-law) gave me an entire scrapbooking kit, all individually picked out-not pre-packaged. So everything fits things that we have done and now I get to start scrapbooking now that I have everything I need for a while. Thanks again Jed. We had almost everyone together for once. My step-sister Lisa was the only one in absence since we had Dan and Dana on video messenger during the party. Don't you love computers.
The next day we lunched at Hires after meeting at my house, which is were the first of my Mom's family joined us; my Grandma, Uncle Dennis and Zina (don't you love her name). Then back at my house came the rest; Aunt Brenda, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Steve and Marylynn, not to mention we already had my Mom, Jesse, Wendy, Crystal, Jed, Persause, and Colton already there (and of course the usual 5 of us). With no warning I suddenly had a full blown party at my house (during nap time) which luckily was clean but we had no food for such an event. At least we had cold water. It was really quite fun. We played a board game and talked. I really wish people did more of this sort of thing. And to cap off the day we went back to my Mom's and played a card game while eating a bunch of random but delicious food from the local deli section.
The next day was New Years Eve and we headed out to Liberty Park and Tracy Aviary with Jesse, Wendy, my Mom, and Dennis and Zina. It was very cold but I loved it anyways because I have never been to the aviary before.
After the park we went to a cute little cafe across the street and then headed for the dog park because my brothers kids, Chelea and Cayenne are two beautiful and well tempered Australian Shepherds. The girls had more fun here then any were else that day. They played fetch, got toys back from the other dogs at the park that liked to steal, and were amazed by all the cool tricks that the dogs could do. Aspen was in her element, she never cared how big a dog was or what they were doing she would just run through them all telling them what to do. This was only a problem with one dog who took a licking to her and kept licking her face and even knocked her down once. He was very big.
It was interesting and annoying to watch how people take care of their dogs. Most of the owners were just letting their dogs run around without even really watching them; so we ended up with all these dogs trying to take our toys, get pets from the girls, and basically just getting in the way or our dogs play time. I understand why the dogs wanted to be by us. We had 7 people playing games and throwing balls but it still was hard to watch since their interference made Cayenne very timid. It was exactly like taking my kids to the park. Kids steal toys, beg(or demand depending on the child) to be pushed while I am pushing Aspen, and are constantly following me and my girls around while their parents sit on the side and do nothing. Interesting but annoying.
The kids were pretty beat by the end.
That night we had my Grandpa Roberts over for dinner and then I went to bed at 9:00 PM-yes on New Years Eve; I had to work at 4 AM the next day!
The beautiful Chalea and Cayanne
