New Years Eve

New Year's Eve was a beautiful day! We decided to go on a family bike ride to Swig. It's about 8 1/2 miles round trip. A little far for Tanner, so he still sat in the kid seat of Trav's bike. And I attempted the trek with Winnie in my basket. Oh boy! Good thing I put the harness and leash on her because after a couple miles she kept trying to jump out! To her demise! Silly puppy. But OH isn't she so cute in that basket?!?!

The clouds came in thick and the ride home was rather chilly!! I think we wished we had gotten hot chocolate instead of ice cold sodas!

I LOVE my neighborhood! It's finally fall! Such a pretty sight!

The Goodmans were good enough to host the NYE festivities again! Their neighborhood is where it's at! Grandma and Grandpa treated everyone to Venezias pizza and wings with Masa Sushi as an alternate! The sushi became a funny "consequence" later for those who hate fish, playing Ripple.

We missed having David and Abbey there, because they had a fancy friends party to go to and Jefferson and Katie stayed home with a sick Bently. But we welcomed the Martineaus! Two holidays with them this year! We hit the jackpot!

Playing games fueled by lots of chocolate. ;)

Dad lost a round and had to go yell in the backyard that he voted for Biden! We were rolling!!

We peeked outside at one point and the kids were literally skipping and singing and playing Ring Around the Rosey while the big kids played football in the street. There was music playing and grownups visiting. I felt like I had stepped into an idyllic movie. 

Around 9 or 10pm the neighbors did their fireworks, then Grandpa did HIS fireworks. Um, it was like watching the City of Mesa's 4th of July show. INCREDILBE. I don't even wanna know how many thousands of dollars were spent on those explosives. At one point, so many were going off and they were LOUD and obviously right above us. I started to feel a little like I was in the middle of a war zone. And memories of that one year with the rogue box that exploded in our faces was haunting me. With every thunderous pop, a tiny scream may have escaped my lips. Behind the tree felt safest. My mom just left completely and went inside. I don't think boys ever grow out of their love of fire!

After the fireworks came the REAL show! Waffls and buttermilk syrup, bacon and strawberries with cream! Casey outdid himself! It was delicious! He served the whole street!

I think Tanner lasted until 11pm. WAY too late! When he finally passed out, we just laid him on this bean bag in the living room. We had brought Winnie and put her in her crate in Shelley's bathroom.

When midnight struck you better believe we were DANCING!!! Several of Shelley's neighbors joined us and we even stopped a few cars again with our shenanigans. My favorite moment of the night was after we had finished dancing around one particular car. The song, Headsprung, had just come on and well, that's a good song. I may have gotten really into it. As we danced away, the neighbor girl, Lilly, came up to me and earnestly asked, "Stephanie! How do you DO that with your hips?!" And then she tried to imitate me to get pointers. I died laughing! I'm sorry, but what?! This 11 year old girl wants dance tips from me?! Hahaha. Just call me an influencer.

By the time we cleaned up and got everyone home, they were dropping like flies. I know Weston would have slept in a plank if we had let him. I'll be honest, thinking back to how great last NYE was, and then how incredibly crappy 2020 turned out, I'm a little apprehensive for this year. You just never know what the future holds, no matter how spectacularly you welcome it. I guess at least we'll always have happy memories to look back on!!