Extended Family Time in February 2019

I ended up going in for a second round of antibiotics in February because I was still struggling to feel better. I finally started to get a little bit of energy back heading into the second week of February, but I still could only count on about feeling well for half of the day. 

Taryn had a new baby during the first week of February, and she asked me if I could take her new daughter's newborn pictures. I hesitated to say yes, but I figured I wouldn't be contagious, and I could do a half day. I made sure to have plenty of hand-sanitizer at the ready and avoided touching Abi too much. Gabe didn't have such inhibitions. 

Since we had three out of the four red-headed Chadwick granddaughters together, and since they were all wearing the same shade of pink, we had to take a picture of the three of them together. 

 Rachel wanted one of just her with her new cousin.

That day, I was supposed to be getting a furniture delivery. They gave me a 3 or 4 hour window, but wouldn't tell me the exact time of delivery until a half an hour before they showed up. They'd asked that we have all the pathways cleared. After taking photos of Abi (which is tiresome when you're 100% healthy), I had to make sure that each room was ready for delivery. Since one item was going downstairs, I moved the table out of the way, and headed outside to hurry and move everything else to the side in the path that the delivery guys would take. There was snow on the ground, and I wasn't wearing shoes because I didn't think it would take too long to just hurry and grab the things. Unfortunately, Michael had left a sled upside down in the snow, and it was stuck. My feet were burning from the cold (oxy moron, right?) so I quickly went inside to get some shoes or boots or something. I found Gabe in the bathroom and he'd somehow managed to get his runny BM all over the floor, walls, toilet. It looked like a bathroom in Walmart.

Meanwhile, Taryn was trying to pack up and head home to get her oldest from school. She was there when I got the phone call that the delivery guys would be arriving at the same time I needed to pick up Michael from school. Taryn came into the bathroom where I was cleaning up the awful mess while simultaneously having a huge breakdown. I told her about all my worries: the stuck sled, picking up Michael, and how I didn't have energy to be cleaning up this mess. I may have even thrown Brian under the bus for heading to work before helping me get the rooms ready for the furniture delivery.

While I was losing it, Taryn did something completely unexpected. She said, "Do you want me to clean up this mess or get the sled out of the snow?" I say unexpected because Taryn had just had a baby about a week and a half before this time, and I felt like I should have been the one taking care of her. I said the sled since I was already in the mess, and it was my kids nastiness. She ended up digging out the sled, picking up Michael from school, and picking up some kids Imodium for Gabe. She came back with this rose and a bag of my favorite candy.

She really saved me that day. The furniture was delivered, and then I crashed for the rest of the day. 

A few days later, Ben and his boys came into town for a ski trip. Lara came into town the same weekend for a family memorial. She was sick like me, so we didn't see as much of her. 

Brian and Michael went to Ogden with Ben's crew, and Lea, Danny, and Skyler to go skiing. It was Brian and Michael's first time skiing, so they both had a lesson or two before starting out. 

Apparently, it was exhausting:

The next day, after the ski trip, we went to a memorial luncheon for Brian's Great-Aunt Lorrie. I didn't talk much to anyone, and the only picture that I took was of the kids outside playing in the snow. Brian enjoyed seeing his cousins, aunts, and uncles.

We had to leave the gathering a little early because it was the night of the Regency Ball.

On Sunday, we headed to Nana & Papa's house for dinner and to hang out some more.

We're so blessed to have family so close, and it was nice seeing Ben and the boys. They were the first ones to try out our new sofa sleeper that came in the above mentioned furniture delivery. Here's hoping that the next time they visit, I won't have pneumonia!