Way Too Much To Put Into One Post

This post isn't an interesting one for friends--it's just to preserve some of my memories from our wonderful 9-day Christmas vacation in Utah.

1) We started our trip with a HUGE Bowen family lunch at Fashion Place mall. We had Dwight, Jordan, Jess's family, Jenn's family, and our family taking up tons of room in California Pizza Kitchen. It was great to be together. After that, we went to Heber City, Utah, where I got to watch my talented sister-in-law, Trisha, strut her stuff as Miss Hannigan in a Midway production of Annie. Trisha was fabulous, and the rest of the show was really good, too. She was unreal though--I am proud to be related to her:). Plus, I got to hang out with my mother-in-law, Kayla, which is always awesome.

2) The next day, we went to the Bean Museum with Kayla and Jessica's family, and we celebrated my brother-in-law Matt's birthday at Brick Oven. After kids had naps and we enjoyed watching BYU win their bowl game, Doug and I put our childrens' lives in Tanner (my almost 15-year-old brother)'s hands, and we went to the David Archiletta/Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert. Doug, the saint parking the car, wasn't let into the show (because the doors closed at 7 and people without tickets were given precedence at that point), so he watched it in an auditorium with my parents, who were also turned away at the door. WAY too many people wanted to see the concert! It was awesome, and I was thankful to be there.

3) The next morning, we got to meet our darling, chunky niece Sayla for the first time. She has light blue eyes, red hair!?, and thighs that just keep rippling. Oh, how I love her.

4) We played games like madmen and women. We played Balderdash (I won), Taboo (I won), whist (I lost so pitifully, it was pathetic), Rat (I won), racquetball (I won and lost plenty), Boggle (I maybe won one round), and Scattergories (I tied for first place because the group didn't think "Never Never Land" was something in the sky. We ALL know it's on the second star to the right, correct? Bother. So many games, so much fun--the only unfun part of my entire trip was being shut out in Whist, but I am slowly getting over it.

5) On Wednesday night, 12 Sheides gathered together in the temple to serve our ancestors. It was SO awesome! People kept saying how fun it was--I don't think of "fun" and "temple" in the same sentence--but it was incredible.

6) We had a huge Stevenson Christmas party and a huge Sheide party. My favorite parts: the people and the fondu. Oh, how I love cheese fondu. I also loved seeing Isaac accept the necessity of sitting on Santa's lap so he could open his presents.

7) We got to see Baby Summerlyn, Peanut's youngest, blessed. She may have been the oldest child I ever saw to receive a baby blessing, but she still fit into her blessing dress--that little princess is so tiny!

8) Sickness almost always finds us on vacation. We were healthy at Thanksgiving, much to our surprise, but we got hit this time. Cabell had croup when we got to Utah, and we think he spread the adult strain of it to Tanner, who shared it with Doug. Sayla, Summer, Lucy, and Isaac got colds, and we ended up cutting our trip a day and a half short when we couldn't get any sleep because of coughing...and Lucy's brand new trick of climbing out of her pack and play and looking for us! What a stinker!
I am healthy, but my kids have been inhaler-loaded, prednisolone drinking, coughing fiends, and my husband still hasn't gotten better. Kayla sent me an email recommending rubbing Vics Vapor Rub on my kids' feet and then covering their feet with socks. We'll see if it comes to that. Last night was pretty miserable with our poor Lucy, and we were grateful when, after Doug gave her a blessing at 2:30 am, she was finally able to sleep without coughing. We are grateful for that miracle.

The 9-day vacation was so packed that I didn't realize I hadn't visited my friend Lindsay and her new baby, Jane, until I was heading home to Pocatello. And I have been DREAMING of cuddling with Baby Jane. My family is so special, and boisturous, and loving, and delightful. I loved our trip with all my heart. Pictures aren't in order, naturally.