New Year's Day

New Year's day was our last day of vacation.  I was proud of us that we did more than just sit at home the whole week the kids were home.  Our kids are old enough now that we can go out and do things with them without it being a big undertaking.  The kids said they had a great vacation, so I consider that a win.

I am glad they are going back to school, but sad at the same time.  This vacation was a good one.  There was very little fighting, very little boredom, and a lot of good memories.

New Year's day morning started off with the news that we had a new baby in the family.  Mat and I became an aunt and uncle for the 9th time.  Little baby Addie Ting (Mat's sister Teen's baby) was born this morning at 8:30am.  We were so excited!  She is beautiful and mom and baby are healthy.  She was the second baby born on new year's at this hospital - so close. :)  Hopefully I will share some pictures of our new family addition soon.

Today is also my father in law's birthday.  Two New Year's babies in the family is pretty awesome.  Today Ben turns 70 years young.  We wish him the best birthday yet and are looking forward to celebrating with him the next time we are together.

We had breakfast at home, and de-Christmased the house.  Is that a word?  Probably not.  It was very sad to take all the stuff down, but I was glad to have my parents here to help me.  It went much quicker that way.  We had everything down by the time the Rose Bowl parade started at 11.

The kids enjoyed watching the Rose Bowl parade.  We ate lunch and then we left to go roller skating.  We had a great time.  My kids love roller skating.  Plus, we had tickets where they got in for $1 to skate.  Score.

After skating, we came home and had our traditional new year's meal - sauerkraut, polish sausage, and potatoes.  Yum.  We burned our Bayberry candle.  It was a good day.

Enjoy our pictures from our roller skating adventure.  Happy New Year to all of you!  Have a great start to 2013.

Cainan takes a whirl around the rink:

 Arlington doesn't need help skating any more.  She even has her own skates now:

 Finley loves skating, but she is a maniac:

 My dad helping Cainan go a little faster:

 Finley made a little friend:

 They remind me of two little old ladies with walkers:

 He was really concentrating hard:

 Papa trying to get her to skate a little smoother:

 Grammy took a turn on the roller skates.  She said she hasn't skated in 20 years:

 Yes she is running.  No it didn't end well: