Ben's mom got on the New Year's Eve gatherings before my friends did. I always have this rule if someone asks me to do something with them first I will always do that first. Trish got to us first so we committed to her NYE gathering. We asked what we should bring and she said we are having lasagna so bring garlic bread. A few days later I heard from my friends. I told them that we've already committed to Ben's mom and that we will have to plan something for the next NYE.
That day both Ben and I went to work and when I came home I started getting a bag packed up for the evening. I went through our games and chose Phase 10 and Ticket to Ride since those games take a while to play. Ben got home shortly after and he gathered his stuff. We decided it was his turn to drive his car up. The weather wasn't all that great either. I had to get a cache on our way up somewhere so I could finish the 3, 2, 1...GO Challenge and grab our Goodbye 2019 souvenir.
We put everything in the car and headed out. We told Erika we would be back sometime the next day and to feed Calvin in the morning. I had no idea what she and Zach had planned for the evening. I looked at my phone to see which cache we could grab that was quick and easy along the way. There were a few in Dupont we could get so I checked them out. A couple of them involved trails, one was in a rock wall near a restaurant and one was near a hotel hanging in the tree. We picked the one near the hotel hanging in the tree called In a Green Thing (GC8GHJY).
I gave Ben directions and found ground zero. I got out and tried to find it as quickly as I could in the dark with a flashlight. Plus, it was raining and I didn't want to get absolutely soaked. I ran around each tree and looked to where it might be. I knew it wasn't going to be really high or on the ground. I had to find the correct branch but it never zeroed in on so it took a while. Ben finally got out of the car to help me find it. We eventually found it and I got into the car so I could sign it without all the rain dropping on me.
I got out, put it back quickly and we were now on our way for reals to Bonney Lake. We called his mom to tell her we were on our way.
We got to Bonney Lake and stopped at Safeway on the way through to get some garlic bread, snacks and drinks. We got to his mom's house just after 7ish. We brought in our stuff and handed her the bread to put in the oven since the lasagna was done and cooling. We dumped off our stuff in the downstairs bedroom and got ready for some lasagna, garlic bread and salad. We chatted about random things as we ate food and made fun of how much Amy eats at dinner time.
We cleaned up the table and got ready to play some games. Yes, we did make Amy play games with us for a while as 70's rock and roll music played in the background. We started out with Ticket to Ride and since we haven't played it in a while we had to brush up on the rules on how to play. My strategy was to finish as many routes as possible and try not make it look obvious. We played Uno for a little while until it was almost time to bring in the new year.
Trish and Ed got sparklers and booze to toast to at midnight. We turned on whatever news channel showed the fireworks at the Space Needle as we counted down. 5.....4.....3.....2....1.....HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We have now entered the year 2020 and like always we hoped it would be better than the previous years.
We toasted and drank a little bit of champagne. I gave Ben a NYE smooch and then we went outside to light sparklers. The darn lighter wouldn't light them. I struggled with it for a few minutes but eventually got some of them to light.
I went inside and we played a couple more games, 10,000 and Uno Attack, until almost 3:00! It was so time for bed. We all said goodnight and Ben and I headed downstairs to get ready for bed. I was exhausted. I passed out instantly. It was a very long day.
The next morning I slept in until 10:30-11. The bed was so uncomfortable I felt so old getting out of it. I was the first one up so I decided to make breakfast for everyone. I brought a bag of breakfast potatoes, used Trish's eggs to make scrambled eggs and cut up some sausage I brought at the store the night before. I cooked all of it, threw it all in a bowl and mixed it all together with some cheese. The perfect breakfast scramble. Everyone eventually got up and had some breakfast.
We watched the rest of the Citrus Bowl with Michigan/Alabama and Alabama ended up winning that one 35 to 16. I talked Ben into going out towards Sky Island, which was our closest easy unfound cache, to go grab a cache for the Hello 2020 souvenir. Offshoot (GC6M691) took us a couple of minutes to pinpoint but with our deduction skills we were able to find it and sign it.
We headed back to his mom's house for the Rose Bowl.
Oregon and Wisconsin faced off in what they call, "The Granddaddy of Them All" because of its stature of the oldest of all the bowl games. The game was pretty close the entire game. It was Wisconsin's game to win it but gave it to Oregon at the end of the game. Oregon won 28-27.
We played more rounds of 10,000 and Uno Attack while the Sugar Bowl played in the background. Georgia ended up beating Baylor 26-14. As it approached evening, Ben and I decided it was probably time to start getting ready to head home. We gathered all of our stuff out of the kitchen and our bags downstairs. We thanked Trish for hosting NYE and that we would have to plan another time we come up for the weekend. We all decided that it will probably be at the end of February for Ben's birthday.
We headed home and got there around 7ish. We unloaded the car, got cleaned up and relaxed before we went to bed to start a new work week.
Happy 2020! I sure hope this year is better than the last three. We will see.
Next Adventure: A Little Snow
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