Utah and New Mexico

I know I'm not going to be able to record even an hundredth of what we did with our Christmas break, but I'm going to try to at least document some of it.
We flew out to Utah for my graduation, which I have already mentioned. What I didn't mention was that afterward we went to Firehouse Pizza for lunch. There was a nasty storm going on, so we tried to make it kind of quick so we could get on the road before too long. It was great food and of course we got a F'Zookie for dessert. What's a F'Zookie? It is a deliciously huge cookie that is cooked in a cast iron skillet and then topped with ice cream as well as hot fudge and caramel. In the perfect F'Zookie the center of the cookie is only partially cooked and so it is warm and gooey, which is ok because they use an egg substitute in the batter. ;) We ordered two huge family size F'Zookies and shared them with all 15 people at our table. :) Correction, 13 people; the two babies didn't have any. :) Anyways, after stuffing our faces with delicious food we hurried and packed up before braving the storm to try to make it through Sardine Canyon. They were suggesting that everyone have chains on their cars, but we were borrowing Mike's mom's car, so we didn't have chains. We were following my parents out of the canyon so we just prayed and went really really slow. The storm was pretty bad, but we made it out alive and didn't even spin out once. :)
Over the next couple days we hung out with Mike's family, which of course was great! They love spoiling their grandchildren and of course Esther loved being spoiled! Then Mike had to come back for a few days to finish up his finals for school. I stuck around my Grandma and Grandpa Cole's place, which also happens to be where my Papa has been kind of living for a while. It was fun being there again, and especially fun seeing my Grandma and Grandpa with Esther. When I was a kid I used to think that my grandpa was a bit gruff, but now I'm realizing he's really a big teddy bear with all heart!
After Mike got back we were able to spend some more time with Mike's family before we headed down to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the week of Christmas. It's kind of complicated, but my Papa has a job in Utah, but my mom is currently in New Mexico trying to get our old house fixed up and ready to sell. They commute back and forth to see each other on weekends. So if anyone knows of someone who would be interested in a 6 bedroom/4 bath house on the west side of Albuquerque, please let me know! Anyways, so we went down to Albuquerque to help my mom fix up the house and to spend Christmas with them. We brought my brother, Donald, and his pregnant wife, Faith, with us in the SUV and my sister, Lesley, and her husband, Joe, followed in their own car (since they would be staying longer than we were able to). Mike and I had so much fun ripping out the overgrown vegetable garden and pruning back the rose bushes that had gone wild. Seriously, they had grown so tall they were almost completely blocking out the light from the window they were in front of. It was a tough fight with the roses, but I think we won, although we did leave with a few battle wounds. We also helped with painting some rooms and re-finishing some of the kitchen drawers and cabinets. I'm sure we were more work for mom than benefit in her projects, but it was fun being back in the old house again. My brother, Adam, and his wife, Amanda, and their boys, Porter and Gabe, were able to come on Christmas Eve. It was really fun having them there too.
On Christmas Eve our family always acts out the nativity. Porter, who is 2 yrs old, was assigned the role of one of the shepherds. When the line was read "and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keep watch over their flock by night" Porter picked up the two toy lambs we have and started smashing them together over and over again. It was so funny! Even our narrator (Papa) let out some laughter! Then for the rest of the scene Porter was running around everywhere. Esther and Mike were also shepherds, and I must say Mike did great keeping his other shepherds slightly focused on the situation. :)
It was so fun being back in that house again. My parents had it custom built when we moved there 16 years ago. Wow, suddenly I feel old. Anyway, it was especially fun being with family and seeing some friends I hadn't seen in years. There just wasn't enough time to do everything! We drove back to Utah the day after Christmas and spent a few days with Mike's family before we came back to Wisconsin. Unfortunately shortly into our drive back Esther got sick. She got sick all over herself and her car seat. With below freezing temperatures outside it was a pain to clean up and the smell for the rest of the drive was not pleasant either. But she didn't get sick again, so that's good. Over the next few days she seemed to be on a roller coaster of well and sick. She kept throwing up every now and then, but then she'd be happy and ready to play immediately, so we couldn't figure it out. On Monday night she got a bad fever, but we were able to get it down with Tylenol and Motrin. Tuesday she was so so, but Wednesday morning when we were supposed to leave she was doing pretty bad. We called a nurse hotline and got some advice, called the airlines to see if we could change our flight (nope, nothing available) and then decided to go ahead and fly anyways. With a lot of prayers and some great medicine we made it back to Milwaukee despite almost missing our first flight due to a bad storm (but didn't because it was delayed) and then almost missing our second flight because of the first flight's delay (but didn't because they held the plane for us and the 8 other people headed to Milwaukee from SLC). Thanks to those who were praying for us that day! On Thursday morning I took Esther to the doctor and found out that she had an ear infection in both ears! I was shocked especially since she did so well on the flights. Apparently the congestion she had at the beginning of December never really cleared up (despite antibiotics) and eventually caused an ear infection in both ears. Her equilibrium was so thrown off that she would get sick every now and then and it also explained the fever. So now she's on a different antibiotic and hopefully she'll be doing better soon. The fever is totally gone, but she is definitely not her normal self. I miss my sweet happy angel.
The ear infections also caused another setback: no walking yet. When we left on our trip she was so close to walking. While we were in Albuquerque she took an accidental step on her own, proving she could do it if she wanted to. But then she got the ear infections and now she refuses to stand. We're back at square one in a lot of areas: walking, sleeping, eating consistently, etc. I just hope she gets better soon, poor thing.
Anyways, sorry this post kinda turned into Esther's health chronicles...
We had so much fun while we were in Utah and New Mexico. We were so glad we got to see so many family members and friends, but we wish we could have seen more of you! Thank you for all the cards, gifts and especially the memories!
As Bob Hope sang "Thanks for the Memories!"