New Year's Eve

Soupapalooza 2011

That's what we deemed this year's New Year's Eve.  The Olson side of the family celebrated our Christmas on New Years.  We spent practically the whole day together (which was good and bad).

First, my mom and I stayed up late the night before and undecorated her tree to create a "New Year's Tree".  Personally, I think it was a bit of a trick to get me to help her do all that work of undecorating.  It was worth it in the end when the kids saw it the next morning.

In the morning, the whole lot of us headed to Julian, CA for a real authentic train ride at the Smith Ranch.  Normally, they said there is snow and it is freezing, but this day was beautiful, about 62 degrees, fresh air and gorgeous blue sky

Somehow, my brother Mark was lucky enough to be the only adult with 5 kids in his train cart :)

Look at that sky and our conductor

This was a real old American flag that only 45 stars on it!

A 300+ year old tree, which I thought was so cool

Part of our tour was going in the mine that was at their ranch.  Here the kids are listening as the conductor explained how they did mining long ago

The kids were able to ride in the mine cart as we headed into the mine

Cute little cousins and some random kid that will be in all the pictures (annoying)

The were able to climb up ropes 

and learn how to pump water out of a well 

They also were able to pan for some gold, but apparently I didn't get any pictures of that - I did however get pics of them eating their licorice that they bought from the store with the gold that they panned for

They walked across a rope... 

After this adventure we found a park and had a picnic, it was an awesome day 

Later that night, soupapalooza began - we each made a favorite soup and had a great dinner together.  Next, a white elephant gift exchange.  (all gifts were donated by my parents next door neighbor - which meant they were very random).  It was super fun, but we quickly learned that you CANNOT do white elephant with kids...they just don't get it - from the tears of "i didn't want this", when they opened a banana slicer, or they opened a cool marshmallow shooter and then someone took it...oh the drama :)

But Pooky was happy with a hello kitty lock and a squishy brown truck 

and then Melanie enjoyed her banana slicer and some sort of frosting spreaders???

Brina ended with a banana slicer and some chocolate milk straws (Yes, they work) 

We did the countdown east coast time 

Timmy, trying his best to "pop" a balloon from the tree - this boy is no light weight and it just wouldn't pop.  There were jokes in the balloons the kids were trying to get to. 

Looking forward to an awesome 2012!