Dec 30th - Idaho Christmas Trip

Date: Dec 30th-31st

This day was a complete foggy blur!

I went to bed early the previous night because I was so sick.

I FROZE and my body ached all night.

In the morning I literally couldn't get out of bed I was so shaky and cold.

It takes a lot for a sickness to knock me down flat.

And this was the one that did it!

It was our last day at the cabin

which is bittersweet

and also a ton of work to clean everything and load up.

Luckily Ryan is super hubby and did everything for both of us.

I was half dead upstairs moaning and groaning.

Eventually I was able to get up and help out a bit.

Then we loaded up and headed back to Blackfoot.

This time Taylee and I rode in Papa Nolie's truck

so we could have some quiet and hopefully sleep a bit.

Ryan, Poppy, Anden and Laiklyn went in our car.

(I didn't realize for a few weeks after that in my fog I forgot to take our usual goodbye cabin pic on the back deck!)

We drove straight to the Idaho Falls airport to drop off Poppy for his flight back to AZ.

He's smarter than us and chose to fly home rather than drive home with us that day! lol

Well the Gravens flight from that morning was severely delayed so they actually

flew out the same time as Poppy now.

The kids were ecstatic to be able to see each other at the airport one last time!

We said our tearful goodbyes.

Literally poor Kyrrigan just sobs when she has to leave :(

Then it was 30 mins back to Dad's house.

As soon as we arrived we left the older kids with Papa Nolie

and then Ryan, Laiklyn and myself headed straight to Urgent Care.

Which was the finale of medical/health problems for this dang trip!

I was diagnosed with a grab bag of goodies..

beginning of ear infection, sinus infection, chest/cough infection, high fever,

inflamed tonsils/sore throat.

So we hobbled out of there and back to Dad's to get the older kids.

We loaded up our car for the final time

said big thank yous and good byes

and headed back into town to Walgreens to pick up my handful of prescriptions.

Then it was on to the good ole I-15 freeway southbound....

to find warmth and NO GERMS!

It was 7pm at this point.

We planned for a quiet peaceful 12 hour night drive home with sleeping children.

Boy were we wrong!!

Laiklyn screamed the majority of the way home.

Which meant the whole carload was awake.

I was miserably sick and drugged up...literally!

 And not in a good way! 

They didn't give me a measuring cup for my codeine cough syrup and my "estimate"

gulp must have been too much.

Or maybe I'm allergic to codeine?

Or it doesn't mix well with the z pack pills?

Or maybe God was just trying to put me out of my misery! lol  

But my world was spinning and nauseous.

I almost fell flat on my face when I hopped out of the car into the freezing cold snow

to run the kids into the rest stop bathrooms.

Oh and of course to add to the excitement

we were in the middle of a huge snow storm the ENTIRE STATE of Utah!!

Oh and do I even mention that apparently the snow plows don't run in the middle of the night!

Well let me clarify.  

They at least occasionally go northbound.

Just not southbound.

Which is where we were.

So we creeped along with scary slushy snowy unplowed roads with 

rude semis cutting us off and throwing more snow on us

in the dark middle of the night

for like 6 hours!!!!

I felt so bad for Ryan trying to navigate that mess

as I fell in and out of consciousness.

Then to make the trip even more memorable

the freeway was closed right after St George for construction

and we went on a fun 1 hour detour in the middle of nowhere.

Like the scary pitch black winding snowy roads to your death type nowhere!

The snow finally stopped once we left Utah's tight grip!

So from there on we could finally go the speed limit

and get the heck back home to Arizona!

We rolled into Anthem about 8am with the biggest road trip hangover ever.

I'm not sure how the heck we survived that!

Seriously I still think it was just a bad bad nightmare!! lol

I had told Ryan that our car would probably just give up and die once we got home.

We drove the crap out of it during this trip!

I glanced over at the trip odometer.

Wow.

Almost 3000 miles in 12 days!

The next day the check engine light turned on in the poor Escalade.

Seriously.

(I'm still in denial to take it in and get it checked!)

Well Ryan and I couldn't even speak about Idaho or our Christmas trip for the next week!

We were scarred.

But now that time has healed our wounds and illnesses

we can look back with positive loving thoughts about our ever so action packed

2015 Idaho Christmas Trip!

We might be considered fools but at least we make the most out of each day in our lives! lol

Dec 29th - Idaho Christmas Trip

Date: Dec 29th
Location: Island Park, ID

Another dreamy day at the cabin!
Well except now I inherited the Graven's disease!
We share all we have during the holidays!

Laiklyn just loves motorized toys!

Even at home if we're in the backyard and I can't find her

I know she ran around the side of the house and is sitting in the go kart or ranger! lol

All 4 kiddos sledding!

Then we pulled these rugrats over to Lakeside Lodge to explore more.

Kyrrigan and Laiklyn were smarter and got inside the UTVs instead.

At this point Kyrrigan coughed so hard that she threw up in the snow!

It's always something! lol

Ryan's pleased to get his pic taken!

So is Laiklyn!

Hmm wonder where she inherited that look from?! lol

Look Mom!  I found an icicle taller than Laiklyn!

Look Anden I found an icicle bigger than yours!

Look Ryan I found....

The view of the frozen lake

Laiklyn eating snacks anywhere she can

Once we got back to the cabin we loaded up and headed over to visit our cousins!

We absolutely love the Hones and were so excited to hang out.

Anden especially was giddy to finally play with boy cousins!!

The Gravens were heading back to Blackfoot for their flight in the morning.

So they immediately left with Grandma Norma.

But the rest of us stayed and played!

Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the million of us in that cabin!

Instead we chatted and laughed nonstop!

Uncle Kirk, Aunt Marla and all 5 of my Hone cousins and their spouses/kids were there!

I blinked and Anden and Taylee ran off with a bunch of kids.

They eventually went snowmobiling with the Dads.

After awhile Ryan came back in and urgently hollered for me to come over and check out Taylee.

Ohhhhh no.

She's my accident prone child.

So I know that's not a good thing to hear.

 I walked over to the door where they're standing and a frozen Taylee lifts up her head

where I realize she split her chin open!!!

Ugh poor kiddo!!

Luckily her chin was too frozen for her to really feel the pain

and I learned another trick is that frozen faces keep the blood from pouring!

She was super tough and didn't even cry while I hurried and bandaged it up.

The boys explained that they hit a dip and her head came forward and hit the handle bar.

She thought she had just knocked her jaw/teeth.

They stopped, took off her helmet and checked her teeth, etc.

They didn't even realize she busted her chin open until they saw blood later on the ride.

Well we're in the middle of nowhere and the closest ER is prob 1.5 hours away.

So our options were limited.

I had my cousin's hubby look at her since he's a Dentist and the closest Doctor we had.

He paused way too long then said well if you take her in they'll definitely give her a few stitches

because it's a deep cut through multiple layers.

Then I asked the real question...if it was your daughter would you take her in.

His reply reassured me, "Heck no I would just glue it and butterfly it myself."

Phew cuz that was my plan!!

By then her face was warming up and thus the pain was moving up too!

So we loaded up, said our goodbyes and headed back to our cabin.

At least we went out on a bang!

Sorry Taylee that you're the one that took it for the team....as usual!

I rummaged through my purse and luckily found a tube of super glue.

So Ryan and I performed a mini surgery on her.

Her tears and whimpers began.

I felt so bad for her.

It brought back awful memories of slicing open her foot to dig out a massive sliver

in that exact same chair and table

when she was 2 years old.

She finally was ready and realized nothing was going to sting.

So I glued it up and bandaged it

and said a little prayer that would be enough and it would heal properly!

Pre-Glue

Post-Glue

Once Taylee was patched up

it was back to eating anything in sight for Laiklyn!

Mmmm plain noodles and lunch meat! lol

Dec 28th - Idaho Christmas Trip

Date: Dec 28th
Location: Island Park, ID

Another blissful day at the cabin!

Tons of sledding, eating, laughing, playing and snow!

We went for a walk out on the lake.

This is the dock!!

Um I think they've had a ton of snow up here!

Anden sat down in the middle of the dock and I lost him! lol

Sledding and more sledding!

We even took Kyrrigan with us too!

She's not as crazy as my kids and usually prefers the nice warm cabin instead!

We even drug Aunt Lyndsay outside with us too!

Timeout for a group pic!

Poppy and Aaron stayed inside the Laiklyn and Aislynn.

We stopped to go exploring in the snowy fields

Ryan plopped down for a quick nap!

We were getting a bit of cabin fever

so we all loaded up into the 'ole Suburban and heading to the gas station for ice cream!

Yes we had ten people in there! lol

 Cousin snuggles in cozy jammies with Popsicles!

Does it get any better?

And then back to the hot tub!

The girls were mighty excited they got included this time!