Christmas Break

We made it to St. George Christmas afternoon, even with the threat of a storm. The roads weren't bad at all, and we were so excited to spend a week with the Esplin family! Grandma Karen is always so accommodating to all the grandkids. They spent an afternoon making gingerbread m

We stayed at Tara's house, and the girls all tried to sleep together in Kenya and Jayda's room. When that didn't work out, the Alofipo girls went into their parents room and Allie and Kyla shared the bed. So sweet. 

We went to the Children's Museum and had a blast one day. Here are Carter and Jeff changing a tire in the automotive section.

McKay, Allie, and Kyla found an Olaf to pose with upstairs in the children's museum. 

The weather was so amazingly nice. We spent the afternoon in the park playing. This was a particularly fun game. Jeff and Wayne in an epic game of tag vs all the kids. It took quite a bit of doing for them to be able to catch all the kids!

Sadly, I spent most of Christmas break in bed. I started feeling sick right after we got there, but loaded up on ibuprofen and kept going. But Sunday, after we went to baby Bruin's baby blessing, I started feeling awful. I had chills, the shakes, and a burning in my lungs. Throughout the rest of Sunday, I just keep feeling worse and worse. A call to Ryan confirmed that I probably had the flu and needed to be quarantined. 

My mom and dad gave up their room for me and that's where I stayed the next two days. I felt completely awful. It hurt to breathe, but mostly it hurt to sneeze or cough. And my head ached all the way down to my teeth. Everyone was so sweet--Sam listened to my lungs (several members of my family were freaking out, thinking I had pneumonia), Heather rubbed oils all over me, Jeff and my dad gave me a blessing...but mostly I just had to suffer through it. My mom made me breakfast in bed. 

We stayed for the Esplin party, and although I was feeling better, I was probably only about 50% better and could have used a few more days in bed! We went to the party, though, and I tried to stay away from everyone as much as possible, but by the end of the party, I was feeling awful again. Any time I would try to go without ibuprofen, I would feel okay for a while, think I was fine, and then it would hit me, and I would realize that I was still pretty sick. Boo. The grandkids tried to pose for a group pic. 

We had to cancel our New Year's plans because I just wasn't feeling up to hosting. Bummer for everyone. Luckily, and miraculously, no one else got sick.