Utah's Bad Luck

We set off for the drive.  And it was actually awesome.  Wembley slept for most of the drive, and Briz did awesome.  I had a system set up where I could move to the back and sit with the girls.  Briz and I worked on her learning flashcards, read together, listened to books on tape, and watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang together.   Nick and I split the driving and it seemed to go by quickly.  We only stopped three times and made it in good time, about 12 hours.

When we got there, we had a Christmas morning with the Cottle side.  We then had german pancakes and headed off to a nearby church where we played volleyball all afternoon and had pizza.  

Pops entertained the kids in the freezing nursery while all of the adults played.

We of course played a lot of games while we were there.  But I got sick Saturday night, and it lasted until the next Saturday.  It was awful, and like I always say, "Utah is bad luck."  I'm determined to not feel like crap the next time I go.  I WILL make it happen.

Wembley was my little sick buddy.  She loves screens so she watched TV with me for a while.

I tried everything: oils, antibiotics, vitamin C, tylenol, mucinex, netty pot, cough drops, water, sleep, steaming my face off, you name it.  Nothing made it go away faster!!!  It was so frustrating.  My upper lip was all red and blistered.  And for a few days I couldn't smell or hear anything.  

We had fun plans that got canceled: going up to the mountain, dinner with friends, etc.  We did see a few movies, and Nick taught Briz to snowboard on the hill by grandma and grandpas.

Briz also had a fun sleepover with her cousins.  Grandma Julie and Pops watched them for a full 24 hours.  They played in the snow and got spoiled with Happy Meals at McDonalds.

We saw where Uncle Landon works which was fun.  And I got Landon sick.  Luckily his didn't last quite as long.  We also saw Uncle Tanner and Aunt Sierra a few times.  We got to meet their cute, hyper pup Saylor, see where they live and play games all New Years Eve.  

We ate at Cafe Rio of course.  It was a bit disappointing because I didn't feel great so it didn't taste quite the same.  Briz was excited to wear her new frozen watch.

We also got to see the Nielsons.  We went to the BYU womens b-ball game and hung out at their house afterwards.  But like always, its never enough time.

Please excuse the 5,000 pictures of Wembley and Millie but I couldn't help it.  They were pretty funny with each other, poking at each other.  Wems was quite envious of Millie's playmat.  While Wembley is definitely more high maintenance than Millie, they are still pretty happy low key babies.  It makes it particularly great when we get together because that's just more time for adult social time.

Briz, as usual, was devastated to leave her Utah family.  She is so loved when she's around them, who would ever want to leave?  Luckily at this age, she loves school, so we finally got her excited about going home because she would get to go back to school.  I bought her these car markers for Christmas to keep herself occupied on the drive.  She was sobbing as we left and decided to deal with her feelings by drawing.  Until we meet again . . . Utah.