Wii! It's New Year's Eve!

"Wii" had a most excellent New Year's Eve. Seth had to work (ah, the beauty of being the new-guy at work) and so we headed down to the folks house as soon as he got off work. We decided to take our (ahem...Doug's) Wii down with us and what a hit! I don't know if we had more fun playing the games or making each other's "Mii's" (characters). It was a lot of fun to spend more time with the fam. I can't believe another year has come and gone.

Joanie and I were battling it out.

I enjoy the "likeness" in Mii's.

Ah, the newlywed battle! Byron vs. Ashley.

My Fair Lady - Kennedy Style

For Christmas Mom H gave us all tickets to see "My Fair Lady" at the Kennedy Center in DC. What a treat! Seth and I hadn't seen the play before and enjoyed it very much. The Kennedy Center is a very beautiful theatre. We had lots of fun, thanks Mom H!

A Maryland Outing

Today we ventured out to enjoy the great outdoors of Maryland. It was a lot of fun. We hiked to a waterfall, and visited some different sights along the Susquehanna River. Good times indeed!

Mom and Dad Halsey were victorious in their climb to the top of the waterfall!

Seth had to work so I took this picture with hopes of adding him in later :)

Joanie and Byron hanging out by some old home.

We're tree people!!

Dougie Elder!

Today was awesome! We spent the morning driving around northern Maryland giving Ashley the grand tour. I hoped Doug would be calling, but the majority of the morning we were out of cell service. By afternoon I had pretty much given up hope. I called Mom to see if she had talked to him, and find out how he was doing. While on the phone with her I had an incoming call from a number I didn't recognize. I quickly got off the phone with Mom and answered. "Hey Ger" YES! Doug was at the Atlanta airport waiting for his flight to take him to Prague and then on to Budapest. I was beyond excited that he called. We talked about the MTC, his excitement/nervousness with being in Hungary, and all the other good stuff brothers and sisters talk about. He bore his testimony of the gospel to me in Hungarian and laughed when I didn't catch the "amen" at the end, and instead waited patiently for what I thought was him pausing, trying to remember a word. I asked him about stories from the MTC and he told me about "Blue Snot" I laughed so hard. I will have to share that story on his blog when the pictures come. We talked for quite a while, but then we both remembered he still needed to call Karen and Kellie and he didn't have too much time before they boarded. (I'm sure the only reason I got first call was because I'm alphabetically first, or he was going youngest to oldest, I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with favoritism! ;) Just teasing. It was so good to hear his voice, and of course, after I hung up I wished I could talk to him again. I am so proud of him and the decision he had made. Everyone keeps saying how dark, dreary and cold Hungary is, but I can't imagine anything but sunshine with Doug around. Rock on little brother!

A Halsey Christmas!

Christmas morning! Seth and I expected to wake up to a pouncing Joanie. Not the case. We woke up and the house was dark and ... what? Quiet!? Coming from a family that is bugging our parents at 5:45, I rolled over and looked at the clock and was shocked to see it was nearly 7! Seth and I decided the easiest way to wake everyone up was to wake up Joan and let her do the rest! We snuck into her room and pounced on her. She rolled over and gave us a very irritated look until we reminded her it was Christmas morning. That's all it took, within ten minutes we were all lined up on the stairs, ready to go!

Santa must have found us because Seth and I sure hit the jackpot! The highlight for me was a new camera, a red Nikon coolpix! I think the highlight for Seth was a new watch. Thank you Santa!!!
After gathering up our goods we all cleaned up and headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's (or home for Seth and me) and had a Christmas feast! All of the cousins, aunts and uncles were there (minus three missionaries) and the day was fantastic! Good to be around all the fam. We were also able to talk to Ryan and Laura. Laura called from Northern California and Ryan called from Spain. It was good to hear their voices and that all is going well for them.

A Halsey Christmas Eve

This year was Christmas at the Halsey's. We were small in numbers with Laura and Ryan on missions, but we still had a great time. Byron and Ashley flew in from Illinois and we drove down to spend some time with Seth's folks. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. We played some games outside and prepared for Christmas inside. Mary was hard at work baking pies, pies and more pies! I have never made a pie before, so she let me assist a bit. We made apple, cherry, pecan, pumpkin and banana cream. Pies!
As things settled down it was time for the Christmas program. But first, a fire! Seth loves fire, he, Byron and Mark went to work to build us a nice fire in the fireplace. After several attempts, and close to 45 minutes we had quite the fire going. Obviously they are Eagle Scouts, getting a fire going so quickly!

This picture doesn't give the fire justice!

Joan assigned the parts and we act out the nativity. Seth and I passed the roles of Mary and Joseph on to the newest couple and we took the roles of the angel and a wiseman. All went well and afterwards we treated ourselves to watching A Christmas Story.

Shepherd #1 (Mary), Shepherd #2 (My Buddy), Wiseman #1 (Mark), Angel (Geri), Wiseman #2 (Seth), Shepherd/Innkeeper (Joanie), Mary (Ashley) and Joseph (Byron)

Cribs - Halsey Style

I am smarter than the computer!! Here's the long-awaited, much-anticipated Cribs! Or something like that. You might not enjoy it as much as I do, but I enjoy the trip down memory lane! We're nerds!

Sweet Sweaters

Seth and I were invited to a Christmas Craptacular, hosted by some people in our ward. We needed some cheesy sweaters, and hit up the local Goodwill. Seth actually likes his so much, he plans on wearing it regularly! I, however, will not be wearing mine out in public. If you can't tell from the picture if has some Ho's on it and some Santas. It was a good time.

Snow?

So, the wildest thing happened yesterday. It snowed. Okay, so being from Utah, that isn't THAT weird, and I know the pow-pow gods are tossing the white stuff your way in plenty. But...everyone kept telling me they hardly get any snow. Ha! It started this morning, and started adding up. Maybe 4-5 inches in total. I know, not much, but remember I was told no snow! I was so excited. Then, the wildest thing happened. They closed schools early!! Wild. It was only a few inches!! I couldn't believe it. But sure enough, almost all the schools in northern Maryland, closed. So, I wake up this morning and guess what...the school was postponed an hour! Seriously, the craziest thing. I love it!! I took this picture this morning. It's the road in front of our house. It's through the windshield. I kinda thought it was pretty!

The Big Move

Day 1. Monday. And so it began. Early. We had a last breakfast with my fam. Curse my sisters for crying, I was doing so good! The truck was packed tight, we were buckled in snug, the Corolla was attached to the back, and it was time to hit the road. Oh wait. Need gas. We left Kellie’s house in Sandy, UT Monday morning, and swung by the gas station for what we planned to be a “quick” fill-up. Hahaha.
Somehow, “swing wide” didn’t quite register, and we found ourselves jackknifed around the end of the gas pump. The trailer the Corolla was attached too apparently does not maneurver quite like a boat trailer, or any other trailer for that matter! There is NO wiggle room at all!! Upon evaluating the dilemna we were in, we decided the best (or only) plan of action was to remove the corolla from the tow dolly, unhook the dolly, pull it around to the side of the gas station, reattach it to the truck, and reattach the Corolla. Well, 45 mins. later, we were definitely on our way! We were armed with treats, ipod, books and games. We quickly discovered the the best way to make time pass was for me to read. Thankfully, unlike my puking brother and hurling nephew I am not stricken with motion sickness. I read for the next several hours as Wyoming kept going and going and going. We made it to Cheyenne, just after dark and were grateful to stay with Seth’s Aunt Gloria. A feast was eaten and we passed out for the night.
See Ya Later - SLC

Giddyup Wyoming!

Day 2. Tuesday. We woke bright and early, ate breakfast in the dark (no light switches were to be found, the house is uh...under construction, you could say) and headed out again. Just after sunrise, near the Nebraska border, we saw the biggest Jesus I’ve ever seen. Were it not for the fact it was on the other side of the freeway, I would have insisted on a picture with it. Continuing on. Many people told us, once you get past Wyoming, it’s not so bad. Ha! Clearly those people were driving in the Spring, Summer or Fall. Not the winter. There was a whole lot of brown to be seen.. Every shade you could imagine! Seth drove. I read aloud. We stopped strictly for gas. If you didn’t jump out and use the restroom then, you had to wait through another tank of gas. Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois (half) done. It was a long day, 14 or 15 hours of Seth driving and me reading. But somewhere around 10 pm we made it to Byron and Ashley’s house in Illinois.

Cornhuskers, Nebraska!
Can someone please explain the Giant Jesus?

In the prime reading position!
In the prime driving position!
If you build it, we will come, Iowa!
Illinois, we liked you.

Day 3. Wednesday. Does it count if we didn’t travel today? We hung out in Peoria, Byron took the day off and we just bummed around. It was a perfect day! We ate some of the best pizza I’ve ever had and prepared for another long day of driving.

Day 4. Thursday. Maryland, here we come! We were bound and determined to make it to Maryland. We made it through, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and...oh wait. Stuck in Ohio. We were 10 miles from the West Virginia border, traffic was slow, construction zone, one lane. The guy in front of us slammed on his brakes, Seth slammed on his...
now, let me take this moment to tell you a little about our truck. It looked like it had been built circa 1985, the tires in the back wouldn’t hold air, we had to put air in at every gas station, the guy that rented us the truck didn’t think it was important to have working lights on the trailer (we did get a different trailer), the truck would sway or bounce from side to side if it hit any slight dip or bump in the road. (I hated that!). Let’s also make clear, earlier in the trip, Seth had mentioned the brakes seemed very soft, I wouldn’t know, as I did all in my power to not drive. So...where were we?
Seth slamming on the brakes, right. Seth had been driving very cautiously and had given himself more than enough room to stop. Well, that would have been the case if the brakes were catching. They weren’t. As we continued to approach the back of this very large delivery truck (thankfully not a semi or a small vehicle) it became apparent to both of us that we were going to make contact. And splat. We did. The funny thing is, neither of us expected any damage. The truck was barely moving when it hit the other guy. However, the truck in front was equipped with a hydraulic lift gate in the back, lucky for him it took the brunt of the low speed impact. Unlucky for us, as the gate hit right above our bumper, in the mid-radiator range. Hence the splat, that was radiator juice all over the windshield. All we could really see was hood out the windshield. Seth was miraculously able to pull off to the shoulder, seeing as there was only one lane of traffic, the honks were inevitable. The guy got out, and he was fine, we were fine, like I said, we barely rolled into him! Dad had encouraged us to purchase the insurance Uhaul offers. Thank goodness! Before I could even hang up with the Uhaul folks, two saintly, slightly mountain man-ish men pulled up and went to work taking care of us. They towed our truck and car away and took us with them. (The kind Ohio trooper had already given Seth his ticket- curses!). We weren’t even upset, the only thing that bummed us out was the thought of having to repack our entire truck by ourselves - this is where the insurance part is great - we didn’t have to pack! The Uhaul helpers put us up in a hotel for the night, and when we showed up the next morning they had a new replacement truck ready to go. We helped with the unpacking/repacking/packing process, figuring it would go quicker. Within an hour or two we were back on the road. I guess that would be the next day.

Indiana, sweet.
Round on the ends, and Hi in the middle, it's Ohio!
This can't be good.
Sad little truck.

Day 5. Friday. Last day, please? We finally made it out of Ohio. Riding in our new truck it was definitely clear to us how crappy our old truck was. This was like the Rolls Royce of Uhauls...okay, so maybe just the Toyota vs. something poopy. We enjoyed the 30 minutes we spent in West Virginia, I think Seth was tired of hearing me cough and complain about my “black lung” as we drove past the mining towns. Ah, I’m funny. We drove through Pennsylvania, it’s pretty! We both kept commenting how much prettier this drive would have been a few weeks ago, when the leaves were still ON the trees!! Finally, just about sundown we crossed into Maryland. I think we both wanted to hug and cry. We pulled up to Grandma and Grandpas just after dark, and we were so excited!

(Photo Note: Sorry West Virginia, I know only visited you briefly, but your Welcome sign was a little difficult to get to. We were tired.)

Fact. Pennsylvania, home of Scranton, Chocolate and E-Beth!

What! Does that actually say Maryland??

So, in total. 2187 miles, a few hundred gallons of gas (please don’t add the cost), 36.5 hours of driving, 36.5 hours of reading aloud, 986 pages read, 2 trucks, 5 days (7 if you include the time we had it in SLC). All of this resulted in Seth never wanting to drive again, me losing my voice and a unanimous promise to hire movers next time we move! Not to mention we are now Marylandians? Marylandites? Ah, who knows, we're still Utes!

We made it to Grandma and Grandpa's!