New Year's Eve

The Long Ride Home
We hit the road just after 5:30am on 12/31.  The goal was to be home in time for Tay to hang with his little GF and then celebrate New Years Eve.  The first indication of a rough ride was in Utah county.  It was super dark and I couldn't tell what was ice and what wasn't, so it was scary.  Then, it got UGLY!  Ironically, it just wasn't getting lighter when the sun should have been coming up.  Through Payson and Santaquin cars were stuck in the median, having slid off.  You couldn't see the pavement.  We were averaging between 10 and 30 MPH.  Obviously, I didn't get a picture when the road was the worst.  We stopped in Nephi for a bio break and I was debating (and praying) whether to forge ahead or wait it out.  But I felt we should keep going, keeping it slow.  It actually cleared up a little after Nephi.  We had at least one clear lane (which we hadn't before.)  We went slow, but we went forward.

The clouds lined the mountains, so we decided to stick to the freeway and go through Las Vegas instead of Panguitch and Kanab.  By Parawon, we had smooth sailing.  We stopped in St. George for an early lunch.  It was a pretty day, but under 30 degrees, which for St. George is nearly unheard of.

Then we headed to Vegas.

We got to use the new bridge across Hoover Dam.  It was cool, but you couldn't even tell you were at the dam.  We made decent time there, but none the less, it was a LONG trip!  All in all it took us over 12 hours.  We were definitely glad to be home.

New Year's Eve at the Dixons

It has become a tradition that Timm cooks a big dinner on New Year's Eve.  Last year it was Chinese food.  This year, he greeted us with Prime Rib, AuGratin Potatoes and scallops with pasta.  It was delicious.

Not sure how Tanner got out of all the pictures (although I am sure it was by his design.)  Here are Trevor and Timm enjoying the tasty goodness.  

Tanner and Trevor lit off the newly legal fireworks that they had received in their stockings.  Arizona had previously banned all fireworks except snaps, glow worms and champagne poppers.  So this was a real treat.

Trevor headed to Gurrs after dinner and rung in the new year with them.  Tay missed dinner as he had already left to go hang out.  After hanging with Alex for a while, he came home and then headed to Gregoires for some video games.  Tanner hung with us.  I am sure it was lame, but he survived.  Just after midnight Tay, Michael and Brian came over to our house to play video games.  Apparently they were up until 5am, but given that they all slept until noon, they got their due sleep.

So we start 2011 with high hopes, great faith and a tremendous family.

We wish you and yours a wonderful new year.