Vacation 2013: Day 14 -So much better than last New Years Eve

We were so happy to be at Bryan and Kara's house for New Years Eve.  Last year we spent New Years Eve pretty much stranded in a hotel while waiting for my sister Lindsey to come rescue us.  This year was much better. 

The girls spent the morning playing with their cousins (and their toys).  Lydia put on one of Chloe's  tutus and refused to take it off.  

She wore it even when we went to visit my Aunt Lori.  Lori is my dad's youngest sister.  She's only 7 years older than me. I always loved visiting "Lori's house" when I was growing up.  So since she only lives about 20 minutes away from Bryan and Kara I wanted to go see her..  She served us lunch and we had fun chatting.

Charlotte and Lydia and Derrick played with all my cousins' toys. My kids thought they were in toy heaven.  We hardly heard from them the whole time we were visiting.  Derrick and Veronica were starting to get a little cranky and I was starting to worry how I would pull the girls away from all the amazing toys.  But miracle of miracles, they suddenly came downstairs.  We took a picture of all the kids together and then it was time to go.  I was sad to leave so soon.  Next time we are in Mesa we'll have to plan more time with Lori.  

Derrick zonked out pretty much as soon as we were in the car.  We drove to a store and Brandon braved the New Years Eve crowds to run in and get some things we needed (diapers) and some things we didn't need (shrimp).  I entertained the girls by reflecting sunlight onto the ceiling of the car with the lens from my phone's camera.   It's a surprisingly effective way to entertain the kids for a few minutes.

I also texted Lindsey and told her, "Aren't you glad you don't have to celebrate New Year's with a 10 hour drive."

I have no memory of what we did when we got home.  Probably because I was asleep.

In the evening we all went to see the Christmas Lights at the Mesa Temple.  I told Brandon that "Lights" was the unofficial theme of this vacation.  He started singing "Lions" by the band Lights.  Silly boy.

There were nice displays depicting different parts of the Nativity Scene.  I really liked this one of a shepherd boy.

The kids had fun running around.  They seemed to like being able to look at Christmas lights without freezing.

I love how the Mesa Temple is square.  It's always fascinated me because it looks so much different than the others (besides the Hawaii temple.)

I also liked how the lights were in the trees.  Unlike the Salt Lake Temple, where each branch is wrapped with lights, the trees at this temple had lights that were more like ornaments.

Derrick wasn't listening to us when we told him to stay close.  So he lost his walking around privileges.  He took Chloe's place in the stroller. First chance he got he slid out and started running around again.

I love this picture of Lydia looking at the Nativity Scene.

We passed some lit up Wisemen.  I had a really profound thought about Wisemen seeking Jesus.  But I can't remember what it was.  Sorry.

When we finished up with the temple we went back to Bryan and Kara's and enjoyed their brand new back yard pagoda.

They also had a new fire pit and so we made s'mores.  

Can I say again how nice it was to not have to worry about snow?

We went back and forth between inside and outside for a little while.  Here are the girls and Owen all playing with the same toy.

Bryan and Kara got out the treats.  We added our shrimp platter.  Last year a shrimp platter helped brighten our New Years and we've vowed to have one every year.  Here are Bryan and Brandon modeling some masks.  You can actually almost tell they are twins in this picture.

Charlotte and Lydia loved that they could wear party hats.  They also loved the noise makers, but it took them a long time to figure out how to blow through them correctly to make noise.

We went back outside to do fireworks.  The girls held sparklers for the first time.  Actually this might have been the first time they ever saw sparklers.

They also threw snappers for the first time.  And Uncle Bryan showed off some smoke bombs.

Kara had bought lots of sparklers so we had more fun with those.  I love Charlotte's face in this picture.

And here is a movie of the kids playing with sparklers.

Kara's parents came over and we had fun talking to them.  We had "kids' New Year's" around 8:50 and put them all to bed.  Then us adults went into the basement and played a game that was like Apples to Apples only with pictures.

Brandon says that New Year's Eve is the hardest night to try to stay up until midnight.  Every other night we can stay up until midnight just fine, but on New Years we are always yawning our heads off at 10:00.  This year was no exception.  

Everyone wanted to watch a movie and someone picked out Inception.  I knew I wouldn't make it through that movie.  I love it, but I was way too tired.  So I celebrated Texas New Year at 11:00 Mesa Time and then went to bed.  

The whole day had been infinitely better than last year.