*Disclaimer, this is a long, word-filled post with no pictures
We had such a fun and happy holiday vacation extravaganza, and were so happy to be able to see so much family!
Our trip started out down in Mesquite where we spent the week leading up to Christmas visiting with Brad's siblings and parents. Brad is the youngest of 9 kids, and most of them were home visiting for the holidays, so it made for a full house of fun! Brad had a lot of late nights playing games with his brothers, but they returned the favor by watching the kids to let us have some fun girl time too. Christy taught us how to make the cutest watches, and we went to the theater to see New Moon. Definitely Team Jacob. Definitely.
Johnny came down with a cold on Christmas day - which in hindsight was a mere foreshadowing of things to come - but was still his happy self opening presents and getting into mischief. He loved the endless supply of cousins to play with, and especially being able to play with his Dad all day.
Baby Isabela was all smiles for everyone and was such a good sport during all of our traveling. She took her first plane ride when we flew out of Las Vegas into Denver on the Sunday after Christmas for a visit with my mom's side of the family.
Since both of our kids are under 2 (don't judge me) we don't have to buy a ticket for them if they are "lap children". The last two times I flew alone with Johnny - 3 and 6 months pregnant with #2 respectively - so I was just grateful to a) not be pregnant and b) have Brad there to help. We arrived in Denver safe and sound, and spent the next week visiting my Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my parents who flew in on Wednesday. My favorite cousin Tina had twin girls back in July, and I am still kicking myself I didn't get a picture of our 3 baby girls together. But I do cut myself a little slack, because we were busy dealing with the gift that keeps on giving.
What is the gift that keeps on giving, you ask? Some type of yucky stomach bug that no one should have to deal with. Especially on vacation. Johnny got sick on Monday night, poor little guy. I can count on one hand the number of times he's thrown up (since BIRTH, it's been 2 times total) And then in one night, my little guy throws up 4 times. Brad fell victim to it on Wednesday, and then I finally succumbed Thursday night. At last count 5 others received our special gift and they are still thanking us for sharing. We were all on the mend, or at least starting to work our way there, when we flew home to Utah on Saturday.
Even though we got sick, we still had a great time in Colorado and were so happy we could visit. Brad and Johnny got to see my aunt and uncle's new place, Johnny and Bela were able to play with a million more cousins, and I got to see my parents and aunts and uncles and cousins that I always love visiting.
When we checked our luggage for our flight back to Utah, the agent at the counter asked us repeatedly to explain to her how many bags we were checking. She was clearly annoyed with us, and we were just grateful to finally get the situation straightened out. We head through security, waited because our plane was slightly delayed, and make it onto yet another extremely full flight. I cannot help but wonder if the girl next to me felt the need to order a vodka cranberry because it was the only way she could cope with sitting next to me and big boy Johnny on my lap.
Once we land in SLC and head to baggage claim, I convince Brad to sit with the kids while I go get our luggage, a much easier job, I assure you. I stand, wait, and watch as bag after bag comes off the ramp and starts rotating around. Red bags, black bags, zebra suitcases, duffle bags, wheelie bags, kid bags, and yet no sign of our luggage. I walk over to the odd-size baggage area where the car seats come in, no sign of our car seat. I blame the sassy lady at the check-in counter, even though Southwest tells me Denver has been having problems all day with their outbound luggage, as I'm filling out our missing luggage report. Finally, after giving all our info, getting a loaner car seat for Johnny (we gate-checked Bela's) from the airline, and meeting up with Brad's sister's, husband's twin brother who drove our car back up to Salt Lake from Mesquite for us, we finally begin the last leg of our journey home sans baggage.
Johnny at this point is starving, but he quickly falls asleep in the car and we stop at Taco Bell because we are also starving. Brad pulls into the drive-thru and orders a beefy cheesy burrito. "Oh sorry, we're out of refried beans, would you like something else?" Out of refried beans?! Excuse me, you may not realize this, but you are Taco Bell, what else do you serve? Seriously, I could have died laughing, I thought it was so hilarious. After we finally figure out a couple of items they can make for us, we head home, so happy our traveling days are over.
* Epilogue: our phone rang at 3:00am, it was the airline letting us know our luggage had made it to slc, and did we want to pick it up or have it delivered? Delivered, thanks.
Tonight at dinner Johnny started eating his pasta with a pancake turner. It seemed to work out well for him, so I'm thinking maybe I'll try it out sometime.
