New Year New Adventures

 New Year's always seems like it should be the biggest party of the year and I always end up thinking it's kind of lame, especially since having kids. So this year I had little to no expectations, and we had thought about driving up to the rose parade and camping overnight but nixed that idea. But then we last minute decided to go to a friends' nearby and celebrate the New York new year!

Two things, aside from fun friends of course, made the night: Root Beer taste testing (maybe only my family can appreciate how much I appreciated that!)

and Scattergories (again, maybe only my family will understand how much I appreciated that!).

Now that we all know how big of a nerd I am, I have to say New Years was so much fun!!

 Faygo Root Beer was by far the best, if you were dying to know.

And here's our yearly New Year picture, taken by the talented Cody.

I kissed Ben first at midnight (9pm est thankyouverymuch!), then my other little buddy, who was sitting next to me:) 

Fun night.

 We went on a bike ride over the break. I pushed the littlest one 90% of the way (luckily I didn't have a bike)!

We got up at 5 am the next day and drove to Pasadena to watch the Rose Parade.

(We posed in front of the city building just as the blimp was passing over; perfect timing)

 We had no idea what to expect, so we went with low expectations on what would play out, but it ended up far exceeding those expectations. I think we'll do it again next year!

We got great seats near the grand stands, thanks to some sweet people who camped out overnight and ended up not needing as much space. We were right behind them on the street.

 It was chilly in the morning but once the sun came out we all shed all our layers cause it got toasty! 

Ben's favorite, naturally: 

Macey wanted me to take a picture of every single float and it was tricky to even see what I was aiming at.

They are terrible pictures, but the floats were amazing!

It was either sit facing the sun or freeze the whole time in the shade. I choose sunglasses for sure!

I didn't get a picture of the bachelor in the bachelor float. Darn.

Our friends held up posters for them where they were at and he threw them a rose...next time! 

 This was random: five jets flew by in the middle of the parade and left this message: America is Great, Trump is Disgusting.

Another happy surprise was that because we went so early and were near the front of the parade traffic wasn't bad at all coming home, and we made it in time to have a nap and watch a football game or two:) 

I feel so rejuvenated after that school break.

Graduating was the most relieving thing I ever did. I never realized that I would kind of be doing school all over again. and again. and again.

I tried to keep my New Year's Resolutions easy this year

and one of them was to wake up before Cody at least three times per school week. I usually get up at 7:10 but he prefers I get up at 7:00. ha!

I'm really not a morning person and it's ironic that I have two morning people kids

because I'm really, not a morning person.

It's good though, I love morning people! And I definitely think it's way better to wake up early.

I'm just a lot more alert at night...

I was loving Mackayla's outfit this day:)

One of these years I'm going to be super cool and wake up before the kids and exercise or something. 

Not this year, keepin it real.

and hopefully keeping things simple.

One thing I love this time around is Ben and I set goals to do together.

One is read the Book of Mormon this year.

I finally discovered the BEST running trail EVER I can run to from home. It's like I'm not even in an overcrowded city!!