New years in Payson

For the last who knows how many years we have spend New Years Eve and day up at my sisters in Payson.

We try and make a quilt for any graduating senior. This year we have 2 juniors and decided to get a year ahead!

Lots of games were played

A crew went and did some shooting:

(notice the manly pink bee-bee gun!)

More group pics

Some pedicures

more games

and our annual gingerbread house contest!

Most of us lasted until midnight, I went to bed shortly after while a crew stayed up and watched Ironman 3. In the morning we headed out to breakfast at the airport cafe and then to Tonto Natural bridge for a hike.

We divided letting the guys and big kids do a hike that involved more rock hopping and difficulty and Ruth, Karen, Henry and I headed down another path to eventually meet up.

We haven't ever been able to do this hike on New Years because of ice or snow. It was a beautiful day and perfect hiking weather. A very neat hike!

You can see little specks of our crew coming...

New Years, the zoo

Monday morning we decided to meet up at the Phoenix zoo. Unfortunately Henry spent the morning barfing, so N8 stayed back at my dad's house with him.

It was a beautiful day and many of the animals we out and about.

The monkeys were especially fun!

(A fun note, my nephew unknowingly photobombed this picture! He is the guy in the refection wearing the yellow backpack!)

Having that many cousins together was an anomaly, so pictures had to be taken!

Even getting 4 of 6 siblings together is a novelty, so here we are!

Do you think Emma likes to get her picture taken?

Another fun outing!

Followed by dinner at Chipolte and an exhausted Henry!

New Years trip, brothers!

N8's brother lives in Mesa (definantly his closest sibling!). We headed over to his families house on Sunday morning to go to church and spend the day with them.

Henry was still feverish, so he and I stayed and watch TV, played and read while the rest of the crew went to church.

After church the kids played, we ate dinner and opened a few more Christmas presents.

We also tried to take some pictures!

8 kids from 11 to almost 1 is a rough picture to get!

Surprisingly this was taking with a timer, no looking!

We played one of the new games they got us for Christmas "Left, Center, Right". A great group game and any age can play!

Are they the cutest brothers or what!!

Later in the week N8 and the kids went back over and played more games, it sure would be fun to live closer!

New Years trip, part1!

My family doesn't get together for Christmas. It's hard with children to pack up and travel with Christmas. So, we tend to get together for New Years (or the week after Christmas!).

I have decided my family does not believe in relaxing vacations. They (this includes N8) like to be busy active and always doing something. I love it, but at some point I think I need to try a relaxing vacation!

We started our trip leaving the afternoon after Christmas and hit horrible traffic through Redlands. We ended up following Darth Vader for quite some time. Henry thought it was awesome!!

We got to my dad's house about 9:30pm and my brother's family had only been there for a little while. Plans were soon made for a hike the next day to South Mountain Park in Phoenix to a place called Fat Man's Pass. True Phoenix desert, cactus, rocks, views- it was great!

And of course "fat man's pass"! It's a skinny pass between two large rocks (you can go around if you choose as well).

The next day we headed to a indoor wave pool (I have vowed to my sister to never forget my bathing suit again). We unknowingly kit the swimming with Santa day! The kids (and adults) had a blast!

After swimming we decided to head out and get some dinner. While driving to Fudruckers N8 and I decided Henry was having enough trouble breathing, we needed to get him into an urgent care. On top of that he was warm and lethargic.

Turns out he needed a breathing treatment and had an ear infection!
Antibiotics and a good night sleep helped but more was to come...