NYE w/ Friends

We really didn't have any plans for New Years Eve.  I know someday I would like to celebrate it in Seattle near the Space Needle to watch the fireworks.  I am a sucker for fireworks.  A few weeks ago we all decided to have a NYE party at Lindsay and Justin's house.  We all talked about the time, the food and the games.  I brought garlic bread, a pie Erika bought and left in our freezer during Christmas, a large bottle of champagne and a few bottles of sparkling cider.

Lindsay made some lasagna because I thought we needed something more substantial for dinner than finger foods, chips and dips.  She actually agreed but we had no idea how many people were going to come to the party.  I told her I would bring garlic bread and she said maybe two pans of lasagna.  I'm pretty sure that would work with all the desserts and finger foods people would be bringing. 

I  had to stop at mom and dad's house for a quick second before we went to Lindsay's. We all arrived at her place around 7ish.  There were a lot of cars in the driveway.   Who all came?  The usual people were there, Issac wasn't there and Lance brought one of his friends, Becca and I brought Suzanne because I didn't want her to hang out at home by herself.  When we got there I had forgotten Lindsay's two nieces were also going to be there.  She also invited April, someone I haven't seen in years.  She went to high school with us and she also went to WSU.  Megan and Matt brought their two kids as well.  There were tons of people there.

We spent at least an hour or eating and visiting.  Then we played some games.  The first one we played was Red Flags.  You basically are making a date for the player whos turn it is.  You are trying to get them to pick your cards because you get points.  Those cards are positive like, your date loves to cuddle and owns tickets to your favorite team.  Then the person to your left adds the but card.  So your date loves to cuddle and owns tickets to your favorite team but they never shower.  That person has to choose one set that isn't that bad.  We went around the table twice.

The last game we played was Werewolves and Villagers which is similar to a game we played in high school called Mafia.  Each player got a card and basically if you weren't a werewolf you were trying to kill the werewolves.  If you didn't you lost and the werewolves win.  It was a simple game so we played many rounds of it.  I was a werewolf every single round and I never lost.

It was getting close to midnight and we all had to prepare our wishes, our marzipan pigs, our champagne, the lentils, the beans, the grapes and had perfected our routine.  We had less than 15 minutes.  I wrote down my wish on the tiniest piece of paper I could write on because we had to light it on fire, throw it in our champagne and drink it.  Then precede with the rest of the routine.  Of course I had to slip a smooch in there with Ben before the midnight minute was over.

Megan and Matt brought sparklers.  I was stoked!  We handed them out and lit them making sure Mason and the two girls were holding them safely.  Ben and I did dances with them.  I need to remember to buy some extra fireworks next July and keep them for NYE. 

Shortly after playing with sparklers we decided to gather our stuff, thank Lindsay and Justin for hosting and head on out.  I heard it was going to snow later that night.  We got our stuff in Ben's car and headed back home.  It snowed the entire way back.  When it's snowing at night it totally looks like Star Wars in hyper drive.  It's awesome and hypnotic at the same time.

We got home and we ended up passing out around 3 a.m.  Happy New Year everyone!

Next Adventure:  Weekend in Bonney Lake

Back Home for the Holidays

I woke up around 9 to the sound of Doug talking to Jen on the phone.  He sounded like a broken record.  He kept telling her the same answer over and over again and she kept calling him every 5 minutes after he told her he would talk to her when he got back to mom and dad's house later.  I was actually getting a little bit annoyed. 

I went downstairs to find out mom and dad went out for a walk near the marina.  I called to see where they were and asked me if I could start making breakfast.  I was kind of upset because I knew no one was going to help me make it and we had to be out of the place by 11.  I started with the sausage and got the hash browns going.  I asked Erika if she could help and she said no.  Grandma ended up helping me.  About twenty minutes later mom and dad got back from their walk.  I got mom to make the scrambled eggs because she makes the best ones.

We all sat down at the table and ate our breakfast together.  Immediately after we started cleaning and packing up our stuff.  I wrote our experience down in their guest book.  We washed all the dishes we used, put all the towels in the bathtubs, took the garbage out, boxed and bagged up our groceries we brought with us and finally made sure we had all of our clothes, computers, phone chargers, bags and keys.  I spent some time taking pictures of inside the house...because people were going to ask us.

We piled most of the stuff into the Escape and a few bags into dad's car.  He told us to meet him at BiMart in Hoquiam.  Basically the only time we go to BiMart is when we are in Grays Harbor county.  The last time we were here was back in March when we took a day trip to Westport.  Dad ended up getting more ammo because it's a great deal here.  We wandered around the store for a while.  I came up with some good next years Christmas presents.

We parted ways.  Dad, Doug and Erika went to Dave's Harbor guns on the way to Westport and mom, grandma and I went into Aberdeen in search of some food.  I really didn't want to spend a lot of money mostly because December was pretty bad to us financial wise.  We hosted Christmas, probably went through more water and power than we usually do.  I really wasn't looking forward to the bills.  For some reason McDonald's sounded good.  I know it's not very good for you but it's been a while since I've had it.  After lunch I wanted to go to the Goodwill across the parking lot to see what kind of stuff Grays Harbor has to offer.  I really didn't see anything that great but it was nice to look.

We got to Lacey and I dropped grandma off at her van and put my stuff in the house.  We told her we would meet her at our house so she could get her stuff.  On the way to the house we stopped by Grammie's house to drop off the cookie pillow.  We stayed a little too long because grandma was patiently waiting in the driveway so she could get her stuff and leave.  I helped grandma put her stuff in the van and then helped mom put her stuff in the house.  I told her I couldn't stay very long because I have dinner plans with Amber while she was home for the holidays.

I got home and motivated Ben to get ready to go.  We were going to meet up around 7 at Hopjack's.  I guess Lindsay and Justin were going to join us.  The Holiday Bowl was also going on around the time we got home.  The past two games the Cougars just played awful.  I had hoped they got the bad games out of their system but we ran out of time with Minnesota and lost the bowl game 17-12.  It was really hard to watch.

It was fun catching up with Amber again.  The last time I saw her we met her boyfriend Josh at Brandon and Victoria's wedding back in October.  I had no idea they were going to come.  I was so surprised when I saw them walk through the door.  Ben finally got to meet another one of my childhood friends.  We talked about our jobs, moving into our house and other random things that came up while we talked and ate.  We stayed for an hour and a half.  I had to get home, get cleaned up and head to bed.  I knew the next day would be pretty brutal at work plus I hated getting up at 5 a.m.  I told her it was great to see her again and that we would have to save up some money so we could come visit her in Colorado some day.

Next Adventure:  NYE w/ Friends

Ruby Beach II

Ever since mom, grandma and I went to Ruby beach a few years ago mom has wanted to go back as a family.  Every time Erika comes to visit it's usually winter time and there is really not a lot to do in the wintertime as far as outdoor adventures.  We don't know what the weather will be like or we never know who has what days off from work.  Honestly, it was really hard to plan stuff.  This is why mom just took the initiative and rented a beach house...mostly for something different than we always do during the holidays.

She found a place that sleeps 7-9 people and just hoped for the best.  I told her I would pay her $100 just to help out with the cost.  Originally, about 9 of us were suppose to go but Ben couldn't, Jen couldn't and her sister didn't end up coming up from Mississippi like she was going to.  That left just the five of us and grandma.

I got up the next morning around 9:30 and came downstairs.  I really wasn't sure what was happening or what we were going to do.  I knew mom wanted to go to Ruby Beach but that was almost 100 miles from where we were staying but she didn't care...she wanted to go.  Everyone got up and mom made breakfast.  We had scrambled eggs, toast, sausage and bananas with coffee and orange juice if you wanted any.

The cookie pillow is in the picture because it was left at my house the night before by Grammie and Tracy.  I didn't get the message in time that they wanted it back before Tracy left to go home so it came with us to the beach.  I thought it would be funny to photograph it on our adventures at the beach.

Shortly after we all got ready to head out.  Mom didn't want to take two cars so we all piled into my Escape.  Mom sat in the back.  I knew the weather was going to suck but I didn't know it was going to suck that bad.  I have never driven to the Olympic Peninsula from Ocean Shores so I was about to embark on some new roads.  It would be pretty hard to get lost so I just followed the signs because I didn't get the GPS ready that fast.

The road we took brought us to the small town of Humptulips.  Yes, every time I come through here I giggle.  You just can't help it.  Erika was complaining about having to use the bathroom and everyone wanted coffee.  Dad had mentioned that he used to work with a lady that lived here and she traveled all the way to Olympia for work.  That is at least an two hour plus long commute back and forth.  Ugh, that would kill me.  I found a place to pull over and everyone but me, grandma and mom got out.  Meanwhile, I plugged in the GPS just to see how far we had to go and I wanted to stop at Amanda Park for a cache.  I needed to get to 10,800 before the end of the year.  I figured since I was the driver I was going to stop and they had to deal with it.

When we did get to Amanda Park it was still dry.  We did pass several places with snow on the side of the road but not enough to cause an issue.  I parked and only mom and I got out.  She wanted to take pictures and I came for the cache.   I walked up to the stump overlooking the river and Quinault River - Rockin;' in Quinault [OPG] (GC6T2K7) was really easy to spot.  I signed the book, took a picture of the code word and got a picture of me, the cache and the river before putting it back for the next set of cachers.  I went back to the Escape and headed the rest of the way to Ruby Beach.

Halfway between Amanda Park and Ruby Beach it started raining.  I was really hoping it would hold up until we were done.  It didn't because the rain hates us.  Ugh, we were going to be soaked! 

We finally got to Ruby Beach and I saw the giant mud puddle but didn't realize it was that deep.  The Escape bottomed out hard.  I sure hope I didn't ruin the back end of it.  I was surprised to see that many people in the parking lot.  Rain or shine people travel about.  Some of us used the restroom before we headed down and.  We made sure we brought our stuff with us.  I wore my rain jacket, made sure to bring gloves and a hat.  I charged my selfie stick so I could get everyone in the pictures we took.  Mom had her camera and everyone else just made sure to dress warm. 

We wandered the beach for at least an hour or so.  This time there were a lot more logs on the shore than when we were here over a year ago.  It's amazing how much the beach changes from day to day with all of the erosion and weathering that goes on.  We enjoyed the sea stacks, the rocks and the logs.  Dad and Doug walked south a ways while mom, Erika, grandma and I just meandered around taking pictures and enjoying the very rainy and windy view. 

Once everyone got cold and wet we headed back up the hill to the Escape.  Along the way I decided to walk along the logs and I actually found a commercial fishing lure!  It was pretty rad!  I'm going to try and use it for something.  Everyone used the restroom again, took off our wet coats and piled in.  Mom also insisted that we stop at Kalaloch so we could see the tree.  I've been there so many times I was not excited to go back into the yucky rain but we had to, to make mom happy.

When we got there we were the only ones there...not surprising.  I wanted a snack and I was really happy I kept that Snickers bar in the console.  I ate that and then joined them on the beach with my soaking wet jacket.  We spent a good half our or so there and mom got her picture of us with the tree.

I am really glad I brought the selfie stick or we all wouldn't have been able to get in the pictures together.  Everyone started getting cold again and was pretty much done so we convinced mom to head back to the Escape.  We got in and followed Hwy 101 south back towards Humptulips.  Of course we stopped again to use the restroom.  We took the same roads back and along the way we all decided we needed to stop at the only grocery store in town before going back to the beach house.

When we got there we all spread out wandering around trying to figure out what we wanted for dinner.  The consensus was fajitas and tacos mostly because they were easy to make.  I wanted some chips and salsa and grabbed a few drinks to tie me over until I got home the next day.  I also bought a Seahawks pint glass because it was cool and it was only $4.50!  Most pint glasses were over $7 or $8!  It was very interesting loading the Escape.  Basically mom got in the back and we filled the voids with grocery bags.  Haha!

We got back to the beach house and I got cleaned up ASAP.  I was cold and wet and wanted to be clean and warm.  I put on some fresh clothes and helped mom make dinner for everyone.  I grabbed the laptop, ate some chips and salsa and enjoyed my tacos.  They continued to make some balloon animals and then dad got the Yahtzee and we played a few rounds of Yahtzee.  We got the TV to finally play a movie and dad was happy.  We ended up watching Young Frankenstein.  Then the wind and rain got worse.  I really thought that the power would go out but it didn't.  It was considered gale force winds out there which is 39-54 mph of sustaining winds.  It was loud the whole night and I went to bed around midnight-ish.  Overall the day was fun spending time with the family we don't get to see very often.  Hopefully next year it will be more organized and the weather will be much better.  Maybe we will got to Mount Rainier for some snow adventures?

Next Adventure:  Back Home for the Holidays