HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

At the hotel getting ready to hit the pool (One of our boys loves, loves, loves to get his picture taken....the other one detests it. Betcha can't guess which is which lol...)






In the pool...



Leaving the boat and heading off to watch the fireworks





Finally....the fireworks.



There was supposed to be fireworks in different shapes....like smiley faces etc. The first few looked like normal fireworks....so we were using our imaginations here to 'see' shapes in the fireworks lol. Oh my.....what things we 'saw' lol The batteries to the camera died...so we didn't get too much of the show .... but a bit is better than nothing.



Happy New Year!!!

Wow.... it's hard to believe another year has gone by. Seems as if I was just getting used of it being 2008....and now it's gone. Time to get used of it being 2009.

We had a great New Year's Eve. We decided to get a hotel room at a hotel with a pool and a hot tub. When we lived in Ontario, we always spent 3 days at Niagara Falls during March Break. This is one thing the dc miss about Ontario, so we thought this would be a good time to do something similar. We did not tell the kids we were going. After they got up in the morning, we just told them, "Hurry up and get your breakfast. After that pack an overnight bag....put your bathing suit in and bring lots of warm clothes too...hat, mittens, scarves etc." They of course wanted to know where we were going, but Larry and I were tight-lipped.

We cleaned up from breakfast, packed our things and then van. I decided to check my emails one last time before heading out and there was one from a family we had recently met. They are from Michigan, USA, and have set out on a one-year sailing adventure (at least one year......they may decide to stay longer, depending on a few different things). They've sailed from Michigan to NL and are staying here for the winter. Next June, they are planning on heading to Greenland and hopefully through the Northwest Passage...if it is open. Wow! is all I can say.....what an amazing experience it will be for them. Anyway....I digress lol...but we received an email from them inviting us to come to their boat for awhile for some desserts and then we could all head over to watch the fireworks.

We had received some gift certificates for Christmas from Swiss Chalet, so we decided to go there for a late lunch first. After lunch, we headed off to the hotel. Larry and the three kids headed off to the pool and hot tub for the afternoon. (I stayed in the hotel room to rest....I'm still trying to get my health issues sorted out and I wanted to be as well rested as possible for the activities planned for later).

We eventually got Brittney out of the pool and dried off lol. She loves to swim and would stay there all day if she could. About 9:00 or so we headed off to the direction of the boat.

We found the boat and met up with them. We haven't been around too many boats....and I think that was kind of obvious lol. We boarded their boat and visited for awhile.....or should I say listened to Jake talk for awhile lol. We did manage to get a few words in around Jake's...but it was challenging at times. We enjoyed some great desserts together as well.

About 11:15, we all got bundled up and headed off to see the fireworks. It was a pretty walk....the snow all around as well as Christmas lights still up. Eventually the fireworks started....and we weren't disappointed in the display....it was a really good presentation.

After they were over, we headed back to the boat. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel. Jake.was.wired.....I know...that is hard to believe....but you'll just have to take my word for it *wink wink*.

Eventually, we got everyone settled down and to sleep. It was a short night though....we had to be up in good time. We wanted to take advantage of the free breakfast offered by the hotel and Brittney and Jake also wanted to have one more (or 300) swim. As checkout time was 11:00 a.m., we needed to keep moving.

They all seemed to enjoy the night away. It was a nice break. We are home now though. Tomorrow we'll take the tree down, put the house back into order and get ready to face January.

Wishing everyone all the best for 2009!!!