Our Christmas....Vacation??

We definitely have a lot to be grateful for.  We have an amazing family, a great job, a nice house, the gospel, and much much more.  The rough times we experience-as hard as they may get- definitely do not outweigh all of our many blessings.  However...this Christmas was definitely one of our rough times.

Last Christmas (2013), as some already know, Katie developed a bad cold and Colton got the worst case of the pukes I have ever experienced.  He puked several times a day for four days and had digestive issues as well.  Christmas morning, he literally lay on the floor the whole time we opened presents, with his hand outstretched trying to enjoy his new dinosaurs.  It was one of the most pathetic and sad things I've ever seen.  We were totally bummed he was robbed of Christmas and we felt a little robbed too so we vowed their was no way we were going to be sick the next Christmas (2014).  Well, as nature would prove, we have absolutely no say in what happens.

Our Christmas break started out really great!  We drove up to MN to spend a week with Jon's family and we had a huge list of super fun things we were going to do.  Saturday night (before Christmas) we got to go out with Jon's brother Mike & his wife Lisa to see Catching Fire and went for late night appetizers at Applebees afterwards.  It was super fun and gave great promise of what the week would hold.  Sunday, my father-in law, developed a bad cough.  Monday I got to go out shopping & to lunch with my sister-in-law Jenna and it was super fun!  Again, promises of what the whole week of vacation would hold!  Then, Katie started coughing.  Then Colton, then me, then Jon- we all got sick and it kept getting worse.  Then the fevers came.  The kids got super miserable with fevers up to 104.  With the bad coughing and fevers, they weren't sleeping much- and neither were we.  We weren't able to do much with everyone being sick, but we were still able to spend time eating great food and watching movies with family, and that was fun, we were just bummed about the damper of the sickness.  Christmas morning was actually one of the better mornings-(super grateful for that!)- and the kids did get to enjoy the fun for the most part.  We had a nice morning with the family and we all got some great gifts!  I love the Christmas spirit of giving!

Katie-Christmas morning- not feeling so hot

Out for a breath of fresh air

Snow can make this kid smile even when he's sick :)

That night, Jon, his mom, his brothers Mark & Mike, and his nephew Kyle all started puking.  We decided with everyone sick and now puking, it was time to call it and head home early so everyone could recover.  While Jon lay up in bed miserable and puking, I packed up all our things and we headed back.  It was one of the longest drives ever!  Jon was feeling nauseous and the kids were coughing super bad, and I didn't feel too great myself.  Finally we got home and have been home ever since trying to recover.  Thankfully, the kids and I never got the pukes!  However, Katie got really sick and we ended up taking her to the ER- she was diagnosed with Influenza A, bronchitis, and a secondary bacterial infection.  She got antibiotics for the bacterial infection and that seemed to help her recovery quite a bit.  A couple days later Colton started getting worse so we got him on some antibiotics and they helped him as well.  Then Jon got really bad and he went to an Urgent Care and also got prescribed antibiotics.  It's been two full weeks of this nasty flu and we are finally feeling like we're mostly over it.  Still a few lingering coughs but a lot better than a week ago!  So basically, we spent our entire vacation being sick and not enjoying much "vacation-ing".  It's been pretty frustrating but we've learned some things, we've got to spend a lot of time together, we know it could've been worse and we're incredibly grateful it wasn't!  Looking forward to HOPEFULLY some healthy holidays next year!

Sick Kids :(

 Opening a few presents after we came home...

Things we learned:
-Appreciate your health!
-Watching your kids be sick is way worse than being sick yourself
-The flu is not always puking- in fact, most the time it's not!
-The flu sucks big time- we will probably be getting flu shots from now on...
-Be grateful for family!  We really did grow closer with all the time spent together!

Things I hope to never do again:
- Have the flu
-Call 911 (When Katie got really sick, she couldn't catch her breath and started coughing up blood and blood was coming out of her nose- SCARY!)
-Be sick on Christmas... & New Years

Katie- the day of the night we took her to the ER

Katie- the day after starting antibiotics- still sick but she has her smile back!

We did have a lot of fun in the lead-up to Christmas!  Christmas in Nauvoo with the family, a couple different Christmas parties, Ward Christmas party, decorating, gingerbread house party, and lots more fun!

Time to decorate!  (Katie hates smiling for pictures)

Christmas in Nauvoo

Nauvoo

The kids loved the carriage ride!

Playing in the condo in Nauvoo

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 was spent in Rochester, MN at Grandma & Grandpa Day's house.  Jon & I had just returned from our Orlando vacation the day before and we stayed an extra day to let the kids spend Halloween with Grandma & Grandpa.  The weather was freezing but the kids were troopers and both of them really got into it this year!  Colton dressed up as a dragon, and LOVED his costume!  Katie was the most adorable little bumblebee I've ever seen.  They loved walking around to the neighbors and seeing their decorations and saying, "Trick or Treat!"  (Or if you're Katie, just "TREAT!")    The next day we woke up early to do some after-holiday shopping and scored big time on the treats!  Haha, it was perfect because we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat that night and we got all the candy 50% off!  I really love after-holiday sales.....I'm pretty sure all of my friends/family know this about me because I never shut up about them... Anyway, we made headed back to Davenport and got back just in time for the Trunk-or-Treat.  It was pretty fun, and fun to see people, but the kids were pretty worn out from travelling and didn't last long.  All in all, it was a super fun Halloween and so fun to see the kids enjoy the holiday!

Florida Vacation!

This October Jon and I finally got to go on vacation together!  We left the kids with Jon's parents in MN and flew to Orlando, FL to spend the week together!  It was long past due and so much fun!  We're already looking forward to the next time we can go somewhere together!

We quickly discovered that the travelling part is the worst part of travelling.  It seems like half of your vacation time is taken up by the travel!  However, it was nice to just spend time alone together and have some quiet time to read and relax.  

Day 1: Traveled to Florida from Minneapolis Airport.  Checked into hotel-- nice two-bedroom Marriot Jon earned for free from points while travelling for work!  Discovered that Orlando is chuck full of toll-roads- totally ridiculous and unavoidable.  Grocery shopped for the week.

Day 2: Spent the morning at Cocoa Beach.  Drove past Cape Canaveral- got super jealous seeing all the huge cruise ships docked for loading.  Ahhh....some day.  Cocoa Beach- beautiful view, long walk on the beach (loved it!), reading and relaxing on the beach, picnic in the sun,  swimming in the ocean.  Discovered waves crash a lot harder and the water is a lot saltier than I imagined!  Still, lots of fun to play in the waves!  Back to hotel and clean up for dinner at Macaroni Grill (yum!) & movie at the Theater!  Totally loved the never-ending date night!

My model shot...

My dorky jumping skills

I title this picture, "But the sun is just so bright!"

Day 3:  Got a late start- drove to Universal- stood in long lines- got stressed that we weren't even getting into the park until lunch time- bailed and went to Seaworld instead!  Seaworld was a lot more fun than we thought it would be.  We LOVED the dolphin show, it was amazing!  Wish we could have seen it multiple times.  The Shamu show was decent but not near as good as the dolphins.  There were a few fun roller coasters and it was cool to see all of the animals.  I think I waited in line for 2 hours to see the penguins because the ride kept breaking.  Finally, they decided to just let us walk in a few at a time to see them instead of riding the ride.  the penguins were cool and I'm glad I got to see them- just wished they would have let us walk in 2 hours earlier!  We found a good deal for all the food and drinks we could eat while we were there so we enjoyed taking advantage of that!  

Finished off the day at the World of Chocolate Museum.  Honestly, it was a little overpriced but it was cool to see, and I took full advantage of the taste testing at the end!  

Yes, this is a chocolate castle...every girl's dream :)

Jon by the American chocolate counterpart of Russian architecture!

Day 4:  Got an earlier start and went to Universal/Islands of Adventure and stayed!  Islands of Adventure was by far our favorite.  Lots of fun roller coasters and themes.  Our favorites were Jurassic Park, Harry Potter World, Spider Man, and the fun log-type water ride in Toon Town.  The automated dinosaurs in Jurassic park were pretty cool and realistic!  Harry Potter world was awesome- yes, we are total nerds but we loved it!  The castle was totally amazing and the ride inside the castle....INCREDIBLE!  I've seriously never experienced anything like it- it was the coolest 4-D experience ever!  It took us on this broomstick adventure with Harry, Ron, & Hermione and it actually felt& looked like we were flying with them!  It was unlike anything I've ever experienced- so cool!  We also got ourselves some butterbeer and rode the Hogwarts express- which was pretty fun, but we were a little disappointed with the other half of Harry Potter World in Universal- all we could see was a London Street made after Harry Potter likeness and a park area with the Knight Bus and a couple other Harry Potter sculpture type things.  As it turns out, we later discovered we had somehow missed most of it, and it was probably about as cool as the Islands of Adventure half.  We are very frustrated about that to this day...   We weren't incredibly impressed with Universal (probably cause we missed the coolest part) but that's likely because I think it's geared more towards kids.  I did get a picture with Curious George for my kids- they weren't too impressed either.  We finished off the day back at Islands of Adventures and loved it.  Big discovery??  Apparently, I'm not too good with roller coasters and Jon is a lot better with them than he remembers.  I was loaded up on dramamine and could still only handle the high G-Force rides once before I started feeling sick.  I felt about 80 years old as I sat at the bottom while Jon rode them 2nd and 3rd times.  Oh well, it was still fun :) 

Welcome...to Jurassic Park!

The T-Rex bent down trying to eat us, right when we went down the waterfall, so fun!

Harry Potter World!

Hogwarts Castle!

Me & George- friends since I've seen all episodes about 50 times :)

Day 5:  Second Beach Day!  We drove back to Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach and stopped at a souveneir shop for some shopping.  Got some fun clothes (which, of course, most of which would later shrink), and a cheap floaty body board to play with.  Lots more fun playing and relaxing.  Walk on the beach-- this time full of beached JELLY FISH!  YIKES!  There were seriously tons!  Made us kinda nervous about going back in the water :/  We staked out a spot on the beach and watched a rocket launch from nearby Kennedy Space Center.  It was pretty cool!  We were further away than we thought we would be but it was still cool and interesting to watch as it just got smaller and smaller and then disappeared...into space!  Space is so hard for me to realistically imagine, but it's out there people!  Went out to dinner that night at a nice Steak House.  Jon got the hugest steak I've ever seen.  

Nasty Jelly Fish!

The Giant Steak

Day 6:  Woke up early and headed to airport.  Shopped in airport shops for more souvenirs.  Spent the day travelling and winding up back in freezing cold MN!  The kids were happy to see us and loved their Seaworld stuffed shark and whale!  Grandparents said they were great- success!!