An Idaho-n New Years!

The final day of Gruber Christmas came, which meant decision time for the Jason Gruber family. We had planned to join my family in their trip to Idaho for New Years (company leaving Sunday afternoon), but Charlie and I were so sick...I didn’t think it would be wise or possible. However, somehow Jason convinced me to brave the journey. I was feeling slightly better that day...but overall still pretty miserable. Jason knew I would regret it if we didn’t go, and he also knew that it was important to be with my family after spending the Christmas holiday with his. So we packed up, bought some medical masks, and joined my family in the suburban for the three hour drive up to Shelley, Idaho.

I was afraid we were making a huge mistake, but with it all behind us now...I’m so glad we went! I really started feeling better within the few days were there and we had such a fun time with the family. Poor Charlie was pretty sick, but it was nice having the help of loving family members.

My mom, Bryan, and Kimberly had driven up a day or two before, so they were there to feed us a delicious dinner upon our arrival. After a quiet Arbon dinner, the Rich house began filling up with cousins, aunts, and uncles. The Andersons brought their Wii and Kendra brought her X-Box, so we enjoyed hours of playing the different interactive dancing games. Such a fun idea.  (That also meant hours of Halo later on).

My lovely medical mask

I was sure to put Charlie down to bed early, and tried to follow suit. I may not have gone to bed “early” but it was a decent hour compared to the typical 2:00 AM bedtime that we experience when in Idaho. 

My sick little munchkin:

Ah, breaks my heart!

We played all kinds of games over our stay: Headbandz, Blockus, Scum, Nertz, Curses, just to name a few. 

New Years Party:

 
The New Years countdown was especially exciting this year because Uncle Percy had a legit Chinese lantern that they lit off at the stroke of midnight. Always a cool sight! The next morning, the Anderson’s had a gingerbread house that they dedicated to the cause of pyrotechnics. Percy lit a bomb inside of the gingerbread house and we all waited anxiously for the explosion. Well, we waited and waited...until finally there was a puff of white smoke and the gingerbread house was no longer to be found. Not quite what we expected, but still a fun memory.

 

Thank you, Jason, for making this happen!

And welcome 2013!!!