9th Annual New Year’s Pool Dip

THE FOOD

First of all, we have to talk about the food. It’s not a good Johnson party unless we have food. For our party tonight we had a soup bar. We had broccoli cheese, creamy chicken noodle, and chili. All of it was SO GOOD!

Then we had different chips & dips, shrimp, and best of all was the dessert. Cream puffs and individual cherry cheesecakes (see recipe at the end of this post)!
AH-MAZING!

JUMPING IN THE POOL

After we ate, it was time to get in the pool. Nate came out looking like this. Uh, what the heck?

Of course he had to shock everyone by wearing his speedo. There were alot of his friends from church that came over, b/c Ashley Johnson (who just lives across the street) opened her mission call tonight so they were all over at her house and came over to our house after she opened her call. She’s going to the Temple Square Mission! YEAH ASHLEY! Nick is usually the first one to go in the pool, but he had to work until 9:45 tonight and we missed having him there.

Here’s Dad, Jake Cross, Nick Monzingo, and Bradley Berrett all jumping in together. They made a huge splash that splashed everyone in the hot tub w/ cold pool water. The water wasn’t too bad this year, b/c it was about 70 degrees outside yesterday and today so that helped warm it up a little bit. In the past, we’ve had snow on the ground when we did the pool dip and we had to put a towel on the board b/c it iced over. So this year the weather was mild compared to that, but the pool tempature was still plenty cold at only 42 degrees.

The little kids like Autumn only had to walk across the shamu shelf. But that was still plenty cold for the little kids. Just look at the shock on Autumn’s face.

If Autumn went in, I had to go in and couldn’t let her show me up. I was trying to brace myself for the cold. I’ve learned the best thing to do is to go off the board, just skim the top of the water and dive towards the hot tub.

Here’s the group enjoying the warmth of the hot tub. I think our record one year for how many people we fit in the hot tub was 27. We weren’t anywhere close to that number this year, but we still had fun.

These are some of Nate’s CRAZY friends! They got back into the pool after being in the hot tub and stayed in the pool for 30 minutes straight! They are INSANE!

While they were freezing, Pam and Lexie stayed nice and warm and helped keep the puppies warm, too.

THE HAIR PIECE

One of the white elephant gifts was this lovely hairpiece. Everyone had to take a turn trying it on. You decide who looks the best in it. Mom?

Emily?

Tyler?

Autumn didn’t want to wear it. She just carried it around and pet it like it was a stuffed animal or something. Kind of weird.

Look! Donald Trump decided to come and visit our little pool party! What a fun surprise.

KARAOKE

After we did the white elephant gifts and got dried off and dressed in normal clothes we went inside and had to have some fun w/ the karaoke machine. Here’s Aunt Sandy & Lex rocking out to Earl Had To Die.

Then we slowed it down w/ some crooning by Aunt Sandy & Mom to Blue Moon.

Nate & his friend rocked it out to First Date. They were actually really really good. “What’s w/ showing off the speedo, Nate? You’re supposed to be playing air guitar!”

Uncle Robert & Caleb serenaded us w/ some Busted by Johnny Cash.

THE BABIES

Mom got this cute little outfit for Autumn at Kid To Kid yesterday and Autumn LOVES it! She wanted to wear it to school today and after she got out of her swimsuit she threw a fit if I tried to put on her jammies, b/c she wanted to wear this again. She LOVED the crackers and onion dip and basically just had that for dinner.

We told Brooke & Autumn to give each other a hug. They were SO CUTE and Autumn looked like a giant next to Brooke. What sweet little girls.

Autumn wasn’t too sweet when we tried to get a little cousin’s picture, though! Everyone was so cute and cooperated except for her.

THE GIFTS

Ariel got these awesome boxing gloves. Someone got a cool little keychain digital camera. I think I ended up w/ a kitkat bar and book cover.

The weirdest gift had to be this…a HUGE can of chopped sea clams. That’s one of the MANY white elephant gifts that just happened to be left here. Why would anyone want to leave such a treasure behind? We always inherit a bunch of crappy white elephant gifts every year. But that’s all part of the fun and sometimes we even save them and re-gift then next year. There’s been this stupid cookie jar that has gone back and forth between two families for 4 years now.

I thought this was the coolest gift of the year, though. It was this cool under the sea, mermaid type thing. It was only $7 at Target! Nate opened it, but Autumn ended up stealing it from him. I think I might go back and get all of Autumn’s birthday and Christmas gifts for next year now b/c everything is on sale and 75% off!

DON’T LEAVE YOUR CAMERA ALONE

I left my camera in on the counter while I went and cleaned up outside. Tonight when I was downloading pictures, I found these “surprise” pictures on my camera. Emily & Tyler smooching.

Aunt Sandy & Uncle Robert also getting a kiss. WHAT?! That’s a rare occurrence.

Yeah, that’s more like it…Aunt Sandy making a face after kissing him. They are so funny.

Digging for gold.

Digging for something else???

It was such a FUN 9th Annual New Year’s Pool Dip. We had to have it tonight at 6 pm b/c tonight was the only day Dad had off for the next 2-3 weeks. It was a little more crazy this year than normal b/c of all Nate’s friends that came over. I didn’t even know who a few of them are. But that’s part of the fun…the more the merrier and we just have a great time. Can’t wait for next year!

One other funny thing was that Dad made a big deal about putting “New Wave O” on the invitation for the party this year. We all wondered what he meant and why he said it over and over. Come to find out, he was trying to spell out nueve (9 in Spanish) b/c it’s our 9th year of doing this. However, he thought it was spelled nuevO, when it’s really nuevE! We got a good laugh out of that and just appreciate that he tries so hard to make it unique and fun every year.

MINI CHEESECAKES RECIPE

24 Vanilla Waffers
3 - 8oz. pkgs. cream cheese (softened) *I use the LOW fat stuff, but NOT fat free
1 cup sugar.
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs

Mix all ingred. except waffers. Line muffin tins. Place 1 waffer in botton and fill 2/3 full with filling. Bake 325 for 20-25 minutes. Top with any pie filling.