Tuesday, December 2, 2008

"Happy Thanksgiving!" Love, the Flu















It was a great trip home to see both of our families. Except we all were sick at some point or other...with the flu. We had a wonderful dinner at Matt and Becky's on Sunday before the holiday. It was loaded with food, drink and fun for the kids(of all ages!). They blew up the jumpy thing and had a blast. Emmett slept thru dinner, which gave us time to enjoy ours! He wound up getting sick in bed that night(he was definitely the carrier of the plague). He seemed ok the next morning, maybe a bit congested, but didn't really think too much of it at the time....
We visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Monday. The weather was nice and we decided to take advantage of it while we could. Debbie was able to take off work for the afternoon to join us. The zoo is perched up on a hilltop with amazing views, large hills to climb and tons of really great animals. You can even feed the giraffes! Emmett loved their big bluish tongues! Emmett and Deb wound up chasing a peacock and it's on video! Emmett and Grandma are yelling "I'm gonna getcha!". Pretty cute! There were hippos, monkeys, a crazy moose, mountain lions, otters, a bear "cleaning" himself and a play area called My Big Backyard that was a ton of fun. Becky and Max met up with us there and we got to walk the zoo with them til we all went home for naps.






We left the springs on Wednesday to make our way up to Loveland to my parent's house. On the way we stopped to visit a few friends and have lunch with Cousin Allison and Chuck, and Uncle Bob and Aunt Donna. Allison and Emmett "played" pool. It was a hoot! Emmett ran around the pool table with the cue ball and Allison helped him drop the ball in a pocket, then they would run around to the return to watch the ball drop out. It was a great lunch and we really enjoyed getting to spend a bit of time with them during the holidays.
We fought some traffic thru Denver and got up to my folk's house a bit later than planned, but enjoyed the food and fun with all the family we had in town. Cousin Trish and Cody and their boys, Colton and Brayden were already there from Salt Lake. Aunt Jude and Uncle Bill made it in from Missouri a bit later that night(after a few missed turns in the dark!). We played lots of cards and games, watched lots of football and some of us got to eat our hearts out. Those of us who weren't sick on Thanksgiving. Poor Luke! He loves mashed potatoes and gravy. Not to worry...he played cards like a champ and really pulled through. We got up early to shop Black Friday- 4am! By the time we got into town, Chrissy wasn't feeling so hot. None of us felt quite right. We shopped right thru it. Until Chrissy needed to get home. She was next on the Flu's list of holiday cheer. We dropped her off to rest at home and went back to shopping. We were headed home, when mom wasn't feeling so hot. We wound up going in to the ER to have her checked out. Turns out her gallbladder was acting up. While at the hospital, I took a turn for the worse, got sick and Trish had to drive me home(Dad was there to stay with mom at the time). I think I slept most of the rest of Friday and felt better by morning, just in time to make the 7 hour drive. It was a gorgeous morning though. It snowed a bit the night before and made for a beautiful sunrise. As we began our trek home, we ran into 2 elk on the side of the road. It made for a good start to our day. Trish, Cody and boys got stuck on their ride to visit some friends on the way home. There was horrible road conditions and hours of road closures. Then, Aunt Jude woke up Saturday and was sick for their drive back to Missouri. No one felt good til Sunday or so. Now my dad's sick in bed today! We must have really gotten hit hard with some bug! Oh well.....best way to not gain any holiday pounds, I guess!