One, One, One-One

The new year plans had been avoided until the eve of eve. Who knows what to do on the most anti-climatic holiday of the year?! I've been alive long enough to enjoy or regret enough new years to not want to put any time or energy into another one. Ali voiced the opinion that we try something fun and new (and what would that be, I thought). 3VE - the downtown Salt Lake City new year's party... but with a twist - get a hotel room. FUN! (hopefully)

Julio, Sandra, Ali and I headed into the heart of Salt Lake for the first activity of the evening - Broadway Sing-a-long at the Conference Center. We walked through bitter cold winds and snow, with Julio mumbling complaints the entire excursion.

The warmth of the theater rejuvenated our party enthusiasm and we sang broadway tunes to our heart's content. Julio grumbled about the singing and the cold, but found the Bounce House on the schedule and lead us straight there with enthusiasm (and me warning him continuously that we wouldn't be allowed in because we're older than 12). My attitude would not deter him and we ended up at the Salt Palace, next to the Grand Ballroom, with the bounce arounds.

AWESOME!! We placed our shoes in the shoe corral, like kids, took off our doubled-up coats, gloves, hats, scarves, extra socks and ran to the first bouncey toy we saw.

We were gladiators knocking each other off of pedestals, climbing dangerous air ladders to jump down giant slides, racing through an obstacle course, and enjoying Sandra and Julio's boxing match in the air ring.

Exhausted and thirsty we moved to the next exhibit... in the ballroom. Literally the Ball-Room.

2011 beach balls filled the ballroom, equipted with a DJ and video screen. We kicked, punched, juggled, spiked everything around us. The balls were sized from the small to over 6 feet high. We lined up the 3 foot balls and Julio ran and roll surfed across as many as he could. I was pelted in the face a plethora of times by random children and my friends alike. I loved the ballroom!! (my by far!) We'd spent hours in the bounce arounds and ballroom, having yet to experience the majority of activities on the schedule.

By this time more people were arriving to the party. The snow fell with vengeance, but I loved every minute of it. Outside the Salt Palace stood 20 million pounds of snow for the ski/snowboard jumpers. Through the snow we could see jumps and flips of skiers and snowboarders. Noah, a reporter from channel 4 news, came over and asked to interview me. Of course I brought Julio and Ali with me for the shot and who ends up on the news?! Julio, of course, yelling "dude, this is the place to be!" (or something like that) :)

As people arrived we took our dinner break and walked a mile to the Gateway for pizza at the Pizza Kitchen - YUM! Our waiter, Brad from Sandy, kept us entertained through dinner. We thawed the best we could. Post dinner plans took us to the Planetarium for a free laser show, which was full (and had been for hours, apparently), so I walked on the moon and studied the Earth then took a free ride on Trax. Laughing Stock at Off-Broadway was the next free show on our list and Trax dropped us off right in front of the theatre... into a line of people. We snuggled close in line and froze anyway. Luckily, we got in! Improv is hilarious. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Improv is unexplainable, but I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.

We drank nasty hot chocolate to keep warm while we anxiously awaited the count down to 2011. The air invaded my warm clothing. It made its way through two coats, two pair of socks, boots, gloves, scarf, and hat. By the end of the bitter cold night, we cheered to fireworks and music and headed back to our hotel, happy not to have to drive home :) (sorry Julio, who had to risk the frozen roads home).

Laughter. Stomach wrenching laughter. Over nothing. That's what makes it awesome! This is going to be a GREAT YEAR!

WELCOME TO 2011 steph.