12.31.2011: New Years Eve Celebration!

For New Years Eve, Glenn & Jan hosted a little celebration dinner at their house.  Vince and I spent the night there since it was a bit of a drive to get home...and never good to be driving on NYE!  Greg & his girlfriend Stella came over....and Eric & Karissa came over.  Thelma went over to babysit the girls for the night so E&K could come celebrate with us.  We all had such a good time....and amazing crab leg dinner....tons of wine & champagne...great times with family!  We stayed up till the ball dropped and rang in the new year in style! So much fun!! 

Jan was born on New Years day...so when we woke up in the morning we had a little birthday celebration brunch for her.  Another great meal and good times with the family!

12.29.2011: New Edition

Vince and I had seen an ad for the New Edition reunion tour earlier in the month and wanted to go soooo bad!!  So, we stayed in CA a few extra days and Mom & Dad watched Drake for the night.  It was their only advertised west coast tour date and come on....it was NEW EDITION!  And it was opening night!!!  So we went....it was at San Manuel Indian Casino in San Berdu.  We got their early to check out the casino, gamble a little, and have dinner at their nice steakhouse.  It turned out to be VERY good!  And it was a pretty nice casino too...I was impressed.  The concert itself was amazing.  It had all the new members, old members....and they sang EVERYTHING.  It was awesome!!!!  And they were in step like crazy too...nothing was missed. So fun!!!  Glad we went!

12.28.2011: Goodbyes & More Hellos

Brent, Alisa and the kids (and Yukon) headed back to AZ this morning.  It was nice that they got to spend so much time out in CA with us all...and enjoy lots of Christmas festivities!  It was sad to see them head back already, but know they wanted to get back into the routine at home too before the work week started again.

Kenny stayed in CA for another night before he had to head back and be ready for work on Friday.  Tonight he had Scottie Spark & Riley come over for dinner...and Mom made a huge Chinese buffett!  We had about 10 different items and it was all soooo good!  Later on Blake came over, and entertained us all with his sense of humor.  It was good too see the kids!  The boys all used tonight as their last opportunity to finish off the keg....and finish it off they did!!  Job well done!

12.27.2011: Cheesecake Factory Dinner

For dinner, we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory.  It was our only "family dinner" of the week where we were all together, so thought it would be fun to go out for a change!  And Kenny doesn't have these big fancy restaurants up in Flagstaff (heehee!).  No really, he doesn't!  Anyways, we had a fun time....from Vince arguing with a guy trying to steal a parking spot he was saving for Brent....(who ended up being our waiter...OPS!)....to drinks, tons of bread, food, and the 100 pieces of cheesecake we took home for dessert later!  Waaaaaaay too much!!!

12.27.2011: Christmas Continues....

After family pics we headed back to the house to open more presents!  Yes, more presents!  Kenny got to open all of his...and we opened ours from him!  Later in the afternoon, Gina, Bill, Chris & Nicole all came over to visit and take advantage of us all being in one place at the same time!  It was fun visiting with them, as always.  They didn't stay late, as they were making the rounds....but it was fun catching up with them.

12.27.2011: Durbin Family Pics

Kenny drove in super late Monday night.....and was able to join us all for ongoing Christmas celebrations! On Tues morning, we had a picture session scheduled at JCPenney to get new family pics done.  We hadn't really had real family pics done in FOREVER....and the last time we did them we surprised Mom & Dad for Christmas...so they weren't in them...and it was right after Andrew was born.  Since we have added a few family members since then, we decided it would be a good idea to get new pics done!  Sooooo, here they are!  We had a great time taking them...and actually had so much fun making fun of each other & trying to all fit in the group pic!  We even made the photographer try to sing a song for Avery to get her to smile....it was hilarious!