Back to real life

Well, we got back from Utah yesterday, and it's good, and a little bit (or a lot) sad to be home. It's nice to be back to routines and our own beds, but we have been looking forward to this trip for so long and we had such a wonderful time. I was able to hook up with some college friends that I hadn't seen in at least 8 years, which was SO much fun, and we were also able to stay with every member of my family that lives in Utah, which was 6 different places, so we had a blast. My brother Kyle and his wife just moved into their new home, which they largely built themselves, so it was great to see that. While we were staying with them we went up the canyon and had a picnic on Saturday and it was SOOO much fun and totally reminded me of my mom occasionally bringing dinner up the canyon when I was growing up. There was also a huge dirt mound in Kyle's neighbor's back yard since their neighbors are building a house, and TJ LOVED to play on it. He doesn't get much chance to be all-boy here, with dirt and everything, so it was fun to watch, even though he got FILTHY! For the first 20 minutes or so, he didn't even have his shoes on while he was out there (I didn't know what he was doing), so his socks were FILLED with dirt, but that's what baths are for right? That night there was an actual ring around the tub when he and Collin (Kyle's son) got out of the bath.
We spent most of our time in Parowan and had a blast there. As you may have seen in the pictures below, we had Thanksgiving in the garage, so it took a fair amount of preparation. My parents got some used carpet from Pioneer flooring to cover the floor, and then we hung quilts my mom had made on the walls and covered the ceiling with plastic to keep the warm air in, and then had a big heater to make it nice and toasty in there. It was SOOO nice to have that extra room to eat all our meals in and just have more space if you wanted some quiet time. My darling sister Chalise had crafts for the grandkids to do, and they did them out there as well. I wish I had an extra $30,000 laying around so I could just build my parents a big room on top of their garage. The weather in Utah was BEAUTIFUL while we were there - we hardly put on our jackets, so that helped a lot with the garage/dining room staying warmer. I have always said that Utah had better weather than Chicago.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went up the mountains for our annual Christmas tree hunt. I now admire my parents so much more for taking us when we were little kids. We had 12 kids there and some of them did okay (the older ones) but after about 20 minutes I was back in the Explorer with TJ and Addie. While we were waiting for everyone Addie (who is three years old) really had to use the restroom, so that was an adventure with all of her different layers on. Needless to say, she couldn't put her snow-suit back on. :-) Guys have it so much easier when it comes to using the restroom while visiting Mother Nature.

While we were in Utah Matthew, TJ and Cooper all got sick - a 24 hour stomach flu. TJ got it first and my brother-in-law said that TJ got the prize for longest distance or something like that. We were sitting in the living room when I felt him starting to throw up, so I was running to the kitchen sink and it was pretty messy the whole way there. I think that was on Wednesday morning. That night I felt like I was going to throw up when I went to bed, but luckily it passed right on by me without stopping to visit. That would have really stunk to be sick on Thanksgiving day. Matthew got sick Saturday night while we were staying at Chalise's house, so he spent the majority of the night in her bathroom - SO not fun! Cooper always seemed fine during the day, but 3 nights in a row he threw up, each time a little more than the last. The last night he threw up was Monday night while we were staying at Paige's. Matt and I had stayed up talking to Paige and Jason until about 1:00am, and then not too long after we went down to bed Cooper was fussing a lot so I brought him in to bed with us and then he decided to share his dinner with me - all down my arm. (sorry that's gross, but it was even grosser being there). I flipped him over and he proceeded to puke all over our bed, so we ended up sleeping on the floor on some sleeping bags. So needless to say, the sicknesses gave us a little more excitement than we were planning on. :-)

5 of the 7 kids were home for Thanksgiving, so it was a little crazy, but so much fun. All of us siblings who were there and our spouses went to the movies the Saturday after Thanksgiving and left the kiddo's home. I think that's the first time I have gone to the movies with more than 1 or 2 siblings, and it was so much fun. We went to see Twilight and 9 out of the 10 of us had read the book. After talking to some others who had seen it before me, I went in with pretty low expectations, so it was okay. Some liked it more than others, but it was so fun to go to the movies all together. We'll definitely have to do that again some time. :-)

Well, I could sit here all night and write about my great trip but I better start working on my Christmas cards. Christmas is 3 weeks from today - CRAZY!!! Hope all who are reading this blog are enjoying their Christmas season so far.