Christmas morning was spent at home and around 11am we headed down to Denver. It was so fun to see Ellie amazed at all the gifts beneath the tree. She did pretty good opening them too. Thank you Salvation Army as our budget was tight and they had some great toys, etc for just 50cents. It was really fun setting up Christmas before bed. I now know how my Mom and Dad felt every year...EXHAUSTED. And I'm not sure why since I had a good half of them already wrapped days ahead.
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| Ellie loved her sunglasses. What a ham. I made michael a new bathroom bag out of some scrape fabric I had. Turned out pretty good. He didn't even realize it was handmade until I told him, then...a lot more oooos and ahhhhhs. It was great. :) |
After we packed things up we headed down to Denver and spent time with Michael's family. He got to talk to his brother who is serving his mission in Mexico so that was exciting for him. The next day we went bowling as a family and it was way fun to do it with Ellie. I brought my camera but had too much fun to think of snapping pictures. Oh well. Ellie is crazy strong and could carry her ball (6 lbs.) all the way to the ramp. She had fun hanging out with her cousins for a couple days.
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| Looking at birds fly above at the Gilbert Riparian Park. I love this picture! |
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| Ellie loves the park! |
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| Spending time out front in the sunshine to help make us feel better! It felt so good! |
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| Grant with his awesome sunglasses on and cute chocolate on his face! |
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| Romping around at the park across from the new LDS Gilbert Temple. The most impressive intersection ever! It's huge! |
Then we headed to Arizona to visit my family. It's wonderful to go to nice weather during the winter months. We continued the tradition of illness that seems to strike us every time we go down. Last year we all got colds. It was Ellie's first bad illness and was no fun. We spent the whole time taking care of our children. Well this year we said in jest, "Hey let's stay for almost two weeks so that we can for sure have some good days before we get sick". And yes the first few days were great. The days were filled with beautiful runs outdoors, playing at the park, and fun family gatherings, including our traditional appetizer night with our cousins and aunt. It was so much fun spending time with my sister. I love spending time with my sisters and acting like we are young and silly again. Michael didn't approve of all the late nights, but it was so fun! Thank you so much Courtdog!
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| What do you get with cool magnets and lincoln logs. THIS my friends :) It was a group project. |
And then the party started. Stomach flu went rampant. It turned into a true BARFARAMA! Each day it claimed another victim in our family. And thanks to our family gatherings, ALL of the family pretty much suffered. Courtney got it first, but didn't throw up tho she felt it. I nursed her during the nastiness.
It was sort of funny for me since I hadn't vomited since I was in 4th grade and honestly wondered if I would know how. I went with my sister to the grocery store and I started to not feel so great. She told me to go sit in the car and I jokingly took the produce bag that was in my hand with me. Well, things just kept feeling worse in the car and when we were just around the corner from Courtney's house, I lost my stomach. It was a really comical scene. I can't think of it without laughing and even tearing up a bit. I was in so much pain as we drove home and couldn't help but groan. Courtney wasn't sure if I was being serious or mocking her from when she was sick days before. Let's just say that when it really happened she was screaming, freaking out that it was happening, and partially so she didn't have to listen to it. She quickly pulled her van up to her house and jumped out to get a real trash bag, afraid mine would leak, and then notified Michael to come and help. Yuck. I was in tears now for two reasons cuz it really hurt, and at the same time her reaction was just sooo funny to me. A good memory now preserved on my blog for my posterity.
And so the party continued for all. It really dragged on and we didn't feel good for a whole week. Our last day we felt descent so Courtney took our family pictures which turned out great. We also got to spend a good afternoon with my brother's family. It was so much fun to hang with them in their fun backyard. More pictures to come of that soon on a different post.
Too bad we got the stomach flu or we could have had so much more fun! And I never got to visit my friends either. Oh that darn family tradition of getting sick! We might go down in May when school is over and illness is down so that we can NOT get sick and visit for once. We'll see.
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| Chasing a kite. |
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| Probably wishing she could fly up with the kite! |
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| Love this shot. Good job court! |
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| Really anything but the camera. Hello plane! |
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| Cousin Grant's first day at his new preschool. He is so cute. I love his silly faces. |
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| Ellie and her new puppy. Hugs! |
