On January 9th we had a big party to celebrate Elke turning 40! Bryce planned a really fun karaoke party called “Rockin’ Through the Decades!” They had yummy Mexican food from Canyon’s and lots of silly singin’ fun. Bryce got a bunch of video clips from all of her friends and family and we made a slide show/movie for her. It was a blast and it was a night I will never forget!
For New Years we decided to take a trip to visit my Dad and Joan down in Grants Pass, OR. Originally we had hoped that my brother Kevin and his daughter Holly could come, too, but it didn’t work out. He’s gonna try to come another time. So, we still went down and we had a great time together. The girls were absolute lounge lizards on their hide-a-bed in front of the TV - almost the entire time. We did make them get out for a walk every now and then. This wasn’t too hard to do, since they enjoy taking KC (Dad and Joan’s dog) for walks. We also went out to dinner and a movie one night, too. Mostly, though, it was nice to just relax.
Bringing in the New Year was fun! Joan got out a bag of all kinds of fun noise makers and masks, etc. We had fun playing with it all and being silly. At Midnight we went out on the back deck and made a bunch of noise. Then we all crashed – actually I think the girls watched TV for a while longer!!
Dad got out his jewelry making supplies at one point and we had a bunch of fun with that. He also gave Lauren some painting instruction. She is such a natural artist. It was so cool to see how well she listened to him and the paintings she ended up creating were beautiful!! While Lauren was painting with Poppy Clyde, Ashley spent some time with Joan learning about proper skin care. Joan used to work at the Clinique counter and had lots of great tips.
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Kurt and I had a chance to ask Joan lots of questions about Maui. She had tons of good tips for us since she used to live there. She also gave us some authentic Hawaiian slack key music to take along for the trip.
When it was time to go, we were all sad to say goodbye, but we knew it wouldn’t be long before we can see each other again.
