New Year's Eve

Today started out a little rough as a typical Monday morning. It was a normal school and work day for us. Brock went in to work at Ryan's office. The kids and I hung around the trailer and worked on our school work and got the laundry done.

Today's weather was really nice. At one point when I was walking down to the laundry room, the sun was on my back and I was in a t-shirt and I realized that the sun felt really warm and I felt happy. Last night was really cold and our propane tank ran out so our heater kept trying to warm us up, but it wasn't being successful. Brock ended up going out and swapping over to the other tank. For some reason, he had to go out and fiddle with it a little to get it to start flowing and eventually the trailer warmed up. I felt very blessed to have Brock that he was willing to go out and do that and let me stay under my warm comforter.

Brock came home from Ryan's office between 5 and 5:30 and said that we were invited over for BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs tonight. The kids were so happy. They'd been asking me all day if we were going to invite the Williams over to our trailer for a New Year's party, but I didn't think that would work so well. They knew that we plan to leave Valdosta tomorrow and they really wanted to see the Williams again.

Brock also informed us that he tried the southern delicacy of the fried pickle while out to lunch with Ryan at the Wooden Nickel Pub. He thought it was pretty good! The kids were fairly jealous that he got to try it without us, so I guess we'll have to keep our eyes open for another opportunity.

We had another fun night visiting with our new friends. The food was great and the kids laughed and squealed and ran around a lot.

Can you guess who is under all that curly black hair?

My all-boy child was obsessed with this gruesome
costume accessory.

All the kids enjoying some down time, giggling together over Despicable Me.

Eventually, Robyn turned on Despicable Me and it quickly sucked all the kids in and they were all sitting quietly watching. It is definitely funny how captivating it was to our kids who really haven't been watching much TV at all on this trip.

Time flew and before we knew it, it was time for us to head back to our trailer. It was sad to say goodbye to Ryan, Robyn, Nate and Owen. We are so glad that we had the opportunity to meet them and spend time with them over the last few days. They have been so hospitable and comfortable to be with.

It was after 11 pm when we walked in the door of our home sweet home. There was talk by the kids of wanting to watch the ball drop. Sky had no desire whatsoever. He was "sooo tired" he couldn't even brush his teeth and could I do it for him? I did. And he promptly was snoozing in his bunk. I told the rest of the kids that if they got all the way ready for bed, they could stay up. They did. Brock climbed in bed about 11:30, though I think he did make it past midnight. 

How weird to be on the East Coast for New Year's and actually be watching the ball drop LIVE. It is a surreal feeling to know that as I write this, it isn't even happy new year time yet back home.