Bringing in the New Year

My brother Josh and his family came from Arizona to visit for a few days before New Years. Elizabeth had so much fun playing with Chloe while all the boys ran around wild. On Monday we went to Morro Bay with them. First stop: The Shell Shop

Levi, listening to the ocean. I usually spend the whole time reminding everyone not to touch anything, but I made an exception for this. Plus it made a cute picture.

Kristen and her boys came too. 

I love having them live a little closer so we can see them more often. They're still 10 hours away, but that's better than the other side of the country. 

Then we drove over to the The Elfin Forest to hike and look for geocaches. We love this little grove of trees, but a cranky old lady came and chastised us for climbing such old trees. What better way is there to enjoy trees than to climb them? It's not like we were carving our initial in them. Oh well. 

What a group! 

We're so excited for my two pregnant sisters: Megan is having a boy in April, and Kristen is having a girl in May/June! Plus Dave's sister Christine is due in August. Yay babies!

The next day everyone came to our house for a New Year's Eve party. 

They played Minecraft.

Dave made yummy punch!

Pretty picture of Kristen!

Serving up Martinelli's to toast at midnight/9:00.

We counted down with the East Coast and watched the ball drop.

Happy New Year!

My nephew Jonathan and his girlfriend Alex stopped by. They hosted a party at her house that night too. By the way, he got his mission call to Argentina! He leaves in April.

Then Josh and Megan left to put their kids to bed. Everyone played games until the real midnight.

Some people didn't quite make it...

Then we counted down and watched the ball drop again. It was a fun night!