Christmas 1 & 2

Christmas was split into three parts this year. Texas, Utah, and Home. 

We bought tickets to fly to Texas this year but flights out of Pasco are expensive. We found a better deal of flights if we flew out of SLC so we packed up the truck and drove down again. We stayed with my parents for a day before catching a 5am flight to Houston, TX.  Our 3 1/2 hour flight turned into 6 when our flight was late leaving the gate and had to stay on the armac for an extra hour while they de-iced the plane. The boys were tired, grumpy, and restless by the time we finally got in the air. 

Ethan managed to nap for a few hours while I tried to keep Austin entertained. Key word: Tried. He finally fell asleep in my arms after about 2 1/2 hours of whining and whimpering. Once we got to Texas, we were informed that the Houston airport had just closed due to poor visibility and storms so we ended up circling the airport for another hour, waiting for the airport to open. Once it did, we picked up our luggage and got our rental car. Our plans had changed after we bought our flights so we ended up driving up to Dallas from Houston-about a 4 hour drive. 

We stayed with Dan's sister Jamie and her family once we got there. Dan and I had some business to take care of but we mostly spent the time relaxing with her family and letting the kids play.

The boys in their Christmas ties and the girls in their Christmas dresses.

I love these girls!

 We tried to get family Christmas picture. The boys cooperated for a few minutes.

We drove down to his parents house on Monday and got to spend time with his parents. We chose to open presents with his family on Christmas Eve, after a family dinner. The kids all sat at the little table together. Ethan and Austin loved it!

Austin hanging out with Madison and Shelby.

All of the little cousins.

 Joshua, Austin, Trista, Livia, Ethan, and Rebekah

Opening their G & G Pelfrey presents at the same time.

 Showing off their Flashlight Friends. 

 And other toys.

 Ethan got the Rescuebot Transformers he's been wanting from Aunt Jamie and Santa.

Bex and Ethan reading books together before bedtime. 

 Ethan and Livia sharing the recliner while playing on their parents tablets. 

In bad news, I started feeling sick on Christmas Eve with a slight fever and aches. I figured I must be coming down with something and took medicine. Christmas Day was even worse. I started coughing, had a high fever, and generally felt miserable all day. 

The brightest part of the day was getting to Skype with my brother Spencer on his mission in Luguna Beach, California. I spent about a half hour talking with him, despite a sore throat and cough. I can't believe his only has 7 months left! 

That night, i was having difficultly breathing and my cough was getting progressively worse so 26th Dan took me into his family doctor. Ten minutes later, I was diagnosed with Type A flu, it's a type of respiratory flu. The doctor immediately wrote prescriptions for me and our whole family since it's pretty contagious.  Dan's parents and Jamie and John and their families ended up going into the doctor that day too and got their prescriptions. 

Jim & Gloria gave each of the kids a 3-day 2-night stay in Galveston for Christmas and after we all got on medicine, we all drove down and hung out at the hotel.  We were originally thinking of going to the Schlitterbahn (gigantic indoor waterpark) but since we weren't feeling completely better Dan and I took the boys to the Moody Garden Aquarium while Jamie & John and Michael &Tara's families went to the pier for the amusement rides.

 Ethan was pretty excited to stand next to sharks and stingrays.

We met up for dinner and the next day we took some family pictures on the seawall. 

We spent another few days in Orange, recovering from being sick and spending time with family. On the Monday after Christmas, we packed all our stuff back up and headed back to the Houston airport. I've long since learned to keep extra sets of clothes readily available for the boys when we travel and this trip was no exception. Austin got horribly carsick on the way to the airport so we had to stop and clean him off, and change his clothes. Once we got to the airport, our flight out wasn't until 9pm so the boys were tired and cranky. We boarded the flight and just as we were pulling away from the gate, Austin threw up again. Poor little guy. He was miserable. They pulled  back into the gate and helped us clean it up and asked us if we wanted to get off the plane. I'm pretty sure I looked at them like they were crazy. We were going home. End of story. 

The flight was pretty uneventful after that. Austin passed out in my arms after about 30 minutes in the air and Ethan fell asleep against Dan. No more delays, no more storms. We got into Utah about 11:30pm and my Uncle Brian picked us up. My parents and siblings were at the cabin so we had a quiet day of recovering from our eventful Texas trip. 

Then it was Christmas present time again. 

 

We stayed at my parents through New Year's and drove home on Jan. 2nd. It was a long, long vacation but we still enjoyed the time spent with family during the holidays!