Ghosts of New Years past...

I've never been a huge New Year's celebration type person. Many years I'm lucky to even stay awake to see the ball drop. On my way back from Cali to Utah this past weekend, I spent the night in Vegas at Kim and Michael's. We got to talking about some fun memories from one of my favorite New Year adventures. So I decided to make a quick post here.

For New Year 2006 I decided to round up a group of friends to head south to Zion National Park. We booked a couple of hotel rooms (one for boys, one for girls) right outside the entrance. The boys definitely got the better end of the deal as there were only 3 of them and 7 of us. We used up every possible inch of space in the girls room and getting ready for church on Sunday (btw, church in LaVerkin is a whole separate story to be told at some point!) was a bit challenging. Here we all are (minus Michelle the picture taker)piled onto the beds in the girls room.

We headed into the big city (ie St. George) for dinner. On our way back we decided to stop at a bowling alley in Hurricane and whoop it up. We bowled and played pool and air hockey. If I remember correctly, we were the only patrons and there was also some random mangy dog roaming around inside (yes, inside) the bowling alley.


We also spent some time hiking around and exploring the park.

All in all we had a great time, but there was one more adventure awaiting me on the ride home. This was our happy group as we were starting our journey.

We stopped at a gas station in Nephi and as I was browsing the shelves, I happened upon a section of items quite literally marked as "Mexican Goods." There were some hats and some blankets and I don't remember what else. I made the mistake of handling some of these items and shortly after getting back in the car started to have some sort of allergic reaction. My eyes were itching like crazy so of course I rubbed them, with the hands that touched the goods, and made things even worse.

I was becoming increasingly miserable and began to take little capfuls of water from my bottle and throw them directly in my eyes to see if I could get some relief. And what true friend would pass up the opportunity to snap a picture of someone in such distress?

Needless to say, this picture has been and is a favorite among our friends and everyone they show it too. My reaction was so bad that we had to stop at a Walmart in Payson to get me some Benadryl. By this time my eyes were almost closed shut and I had to be led by the hand into the store. We got the Benadryl and I attempted to complete a debit transaction which was complicated by the fact that I punched in the wrong pin number because I couldn't really see the touchpad. Heidi had to put my pin in for me and then led me to the bathroom to help me wash my hands and my eyes.

**MORAL OF THE STORY--NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER TOUCH MEXICAN GOODS**

The other funny thing that came out of this trip was a few months down the road. On one of the hikes, it was our good friend Michael Adams and three of us girls setting out to explore. Of course we had to take many pictures along the way. And somehow it occurred to Michael to put together a little April Fools joke that he then emailed out:

Just a bit too real looking, no? The ironic thing is that he didn't end up marrying any of us, but did end up marrying another one of our friends that came on the trip but not on the hike. Sad thing is, I am now the only one still unmarried...anyone looking for a sister wife out there? :) Good times from New Years past...and here's to many more memories to come in 2010 and beyond!