Ringing in 2012

The past couple of years, we've gone to visit our cousins, Ryan and Destinee, for New Year's.  This year, we talked them into coming to see us.  Woo hoo!  It was so fun to spend the weekend with them.

On our way to meet them, we stopped at Pilot Mountain.  When we tried to go a couple of months ago to see the fall leaves, we got rained out.  Boo.

The weather was fabulous--sixty degrees!

But Caroline wanted to make sure she didn't catch a chill.

Brandon informed us that he has overcome his fear of heights.

So it was a much more pleasant trip for him.

Andrew has not.

He stayed away from the edges as much as possible.

The pinnacle.

Eight-tenths of a mile is a perfect hike for our family.

And there are lots of great spots to make my kids pose for pics.

And to talk B-train into taking pics of me and Drew.

 After catching a spectacular pre-sunset sky,

we set out for Tanglewood to meet our cousins.

Enjoyed all the fun light displays again this year.

And this time we had Avery in the car with us,

entertaining us with her jokes during the drive.

After that, we mostly just hung out here at home.

We ate lots of good food, played board games, Just Dance, and Singstar.  

The kids mostly entertained themselves, playing together with their new toys.

So so fun!

We did go out to the park for a while.

We broke out the Bocce set.

The kids were GOOD.

I had no idea.

Destinee, Chapel, Avery, Mason, Brittain, and Ryan

 On New Year's Eve,

we played Guesstures with the kids,

had a cookie party,

and sent them to bed.

Then the grown ups stayed up playing

Ticket to Ride, Settlers, and

watching Brian Regan on Netflix.

We turned on the TV in time to see the ball drop.

Cheers!

Happy New Year!