{travelogue}: the picture

So...we had an eventful return home from Thanksgiving.  It seems every year that we attempt to travel is filled with excitement:

• Thanksgiving 2004 it took us 8 hours to get from Provo to St. George going 35 mph on the freeway-every gas station we stopped at was out of both gas and windshield wiper fluid because they had been snowed in for the night.
• Fall Break 2003 we ran out of gas at the "Weston/Preston" exit.  I was carpooling with a group of girls and one guy-he offered to leave us all in the car while he walked to Malad and we said no, that we would come with him-luckily a nice family picked us up and drove us.
• Christmas 2003 my friend Kyle and I got snowed in at Nephi and luckily got the last room at the Econolodge-oh yes, the honeymoon suite complete with heart shaped tub and all!!
• March 2005 we spin off the road on the way home from being married/honeymoon.  This was not due to snow however and thankfully the shop in Beaver was able to fix up our blown tire and put us back on the road.
• June 2006 we end up parked on I-15 for 3-ish hours hanging out with a whole bunch of fellow travelers right before the Cove Fort Exit due to a fire.
• Christmas 2007 we have a windshield wiper break due to too much ice and a crazy snow storm and luckily coast off the road close enough to an exit that we survive.
• Christmas 2008 our windshield wiper fluid stopped spraying because it was frozen at Parowan so Jon ended up disconnecting and sucking out the frozen fluid while laying on the snow covered ground in shorts and a t-shirt with me throwing up the entire way with terrible morningsickness.  This was the year we vowed to fly home for Christmas next time.

And of course this year was no different.  We ended up leaving a full day early and driving the entire way to Idaho Falls in one night.  We were feeling really lucky and smart for beating the storm until we hit Malad.  It took us 4 hours to get from Malad to Idaho Falls on what we're pretty sure was a closed road.  It was bad.  I woke up sick when we got there and Paisley too.  She had been coughing at night which I thought was due to teething, but she continued to get worse the entire time that we were there and so did I.  We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving with all of our family (pictures will follow) and had originally planned to leave Sunday.  Well, of course another storm decided to roll in so we decided to leave Saturday night.  We woke up Saturday to find that we needed to leave NOW so we packed and we left.  I'm so glad we did.  By Tremonton Paisley was fussing and sad so we stopped and I discovered dried blood on her hands and in her ear.  With my medical training and the internet to help freak me out we decided to stop and get her checked out.  Our friends Steve and Kim were in Salt Lake and we had already talked about caravaning with them for safety so we decided to hit an Instacare in Salt Lake and then continue on with them since they couldn't leave until a little later anyway.  So we stopped.  Paisley's heartrate was up in the 200's (very bad) and she had a temperature of 104!  I had been giving her Tylenol because I knew she was feverish but I had no idea she was that bad!  Apparently she was dyhdrated-something I hadn't caught and the doctor didn't immediately catch either...I felt so bad for her.  They gave her some Tylenol and Ibprofen and gave us a popsicle and sent us out in the lobby to see if we could get her heartrate down.  No such luck.  So they did an urine/blood sample (she was NOT happy) and the Doctor came in and said that they may need to send us to Primary Children's to observe her overnight!  That freaked me out.  Then she came back and said they re-tested her blood draw and it looked better.  So she ate popsicle after popsicle and still we couldn't get her heartrate to come down.  Finally the decided to start an IV which is what you see in the picture.  They had to wrap her had so she wouldn't flick her wrist and mess up the flow.  In my stressed and sick state I told Jon to take a picture (you know, for memories) and he used my phone and posted it on Facebook, not realizing that he hadn't put a caption or explanation of any kind.  Paisley finished the IV and they left a hep-lock for me to push saline the remainder of the way home and when we got home in case we had to take her back in for another IV when we got here.  So we stopped at Walgreens to load up on some more meds and tissue and were headed out when the phones started ringing.  Our entire family somehow had seen this picture, and knowing we were travelling assumed we had been in an accident.  Any family that had not seen it, was called by those who had and all were calling us at the same time.  I think Jon's Dad was the funniest-he pointed out the Jon was not in the picture which was scary and also that it would have been nice if we could have at least added some sort of caption like: "we rolled the car 3 times, but we're ok"  Ooops.  So we apologize for the unnecessary panic and we appreciate all of your care and concern for us in our travels.  We are so blessed to have things like modern medicine-we were able to come home and control Paisley's fever and today she is all better!  Next year...we're flying!!

{adventures}: snow day

This weekend we had the awesome opportunity to go up to our friend's parent's cabin up on Cedar Mountain and it was so much fun!!  We had all of our kids running around and playing non-stop along with all of us parents.  We played Wa-hoo, I finally caught up on my scrapbooking, and we got to play in the snow!  Something we never get to do down in St. George!  We had such a good snow day...

 Jon's glasses are all wet from playing outside.

 The only candid picture of both of us...

 I love this baby and this man!

 We thought with the snow we would attempt some family pictures but it got dark a lot faster than we thought it would so we only got a few...

Do you like our Christmas jammies!?!  Mmmmm...it was so fun to go visit the cold and the snow-hopefully our trip home through the snow goes as well...

{update}: =update

So we had a VERY busy weekend.  This lovely couple came to stay with us and took over our entire downstairs...and maybe some of the upstairs too.  But that's kind of what happens when you're doing Bridals and Engagements all in one weekend!  This is Bob and Lyndi-Bob is practically Jon's little brother so it was really fun to have them stay!  They were loving our weather coming all the way down from Logan!

[Photo removed due to copyright issues]

Here is a sneek peek at some bridals...you'll have to stay tuned over at the Foto & Film blog to see more!

[Photo removed due to copyright issues]

While they were here we accomplished much.  My good friend Alecia helped a ton but letting us borrow her skills and house for a day for some pictures.  We also took the scenic drive out to Enterprise to hang out with some horses.  And yes, getting up at dawn to take pics really is worth it...Did I mention that we all got the stomach flu and spent Sunday throwing up together?  It was awful.  Paisley had it earlier in the week and Jon had it all day Thursday, so we thought we'd be ok.  Nope.  Ug.

In other news, Paisley is getting more teeth.  I can feel them starting to cut through so she's a sad, sad mess.  She refuses to be anywhere but on top of me somehow.  I must be holding her, or hugging her or she needs to be sitting on my lap in order to be ok...so I'm getting a little clausterphobic.  She has also learned the trick that if she lays her head on my shoulder and then nuzzles me that I melt and want to snuggle her...it's terrible!  Oh well, I missed the snuggling so I guess it's not all bad.  

{lds}: sunday school

"If you only turn to the Lord in trials, you will have many, for he will want you to turn to him somehow."                        -Our Sunday School Teacher

I laughed and laughed at that when he said it.

{illness}: fed up

I am sick.  AGAIN.  I am so sick of being sick.  It is never ending!!  I have been more sick in the last year and a half than I can ever remember being!!  I have never had allergies like this before!  And I know that my allergies are weakening my immune system so I've tried to treat them and it doesn't seem to help!  I started taking allergy meds again which has helped and I've tried to get more sleep, exercise more, eat better and I've even been taking a mulitvitamin and some pom juice (for good measure) and I still get sick!!  I've tried addressing my emotional issues...I've tried drinking more water...I've tried eating local honey...I've tried nasal strips...I'm frustrated.  I'm tired of continually having a runny nose.  It's beginning to wear on me.  To top it off I can't wear my wedding ring because my winter hands have already gotten so bad that you can see a bright red mark where it belongs.  Only half of my throat has been swelling with my allergies lately and my ears healed up again where my piercing used to be because I took out my earrings for more than a day!!  I also have a canker sore in the very back of my mouth that is making it hard to eat and I had a headache so bad last night I felt like I was going to throw up.  Am I dying?  Someone tell me the truth...  I've actually been putting in the effort to avoid this problem only to end up worse than I've been!!

{shenanigans}: life & death

Alicia, the blushing bride.

 Staci and Stephanie...the dear sweet twins.

 Alex, the sad, sweet widow.

 CoreyAnn, the peasant.

 April, the Snoot.

 Can you find all six of us?

This was WAY too much fun!  I have been dying to post them but had to wait until Silly Girls upload day!  The living pictures were taken at Brigham Young's actual winter home and the dead pics were taken at a real ghost town-Grafton!  It was so scary because we ended up shooting until 2-ish in the AM out at that spooky cemetary!!  And I am very proud to say that the transparent effects were all done in-camera (no photoshop for that!!)  We did do a little bit of coloring and such but all the scary stuff was real!!  So much fun!  I love Halloween!