Holiday Recap

Merry Christmas & Happy 2008. Here is our holiday recap. We went to Utah to see everyone we could. We left on Dec 22nd and went to a Loveridge Christmas Reunion. Of Mike's 18 cousins on the Loveridge side only 4 were missing. So G&G had a dinner party. It was great to see family who live all over the country. What we didn't know was that the flu was also spreading Christmas cheer at the party and slowly through the week, one by one, everyone was catching it. But we survived and have lived to tell another "sick" Christmas story. Here are some pictures from the past 2 weeks while we were in Lehi with Mike's family and Marion/Kamas with my family. Unfortunately I didn't take many of the extended family. We played cards, mostly canasta, til the wee hours of the morning several nights and a Ticket to Ride. It was fun having 8 Price/Wilson siblings present (missing 1) and 5 Loveridge siblings (missing 1).

Here is a picture of Maddy & Kamryn .

Nick, Maddy, Jack, Jake playing the piano before the Loveridge Reunion dinner.

Now we are at the Price's Christmas Eve party at my parents and Santa came. Maddy was the first to be called up to sit on his lap and still didn't want to see him. BUT she figured if she wanted that gift she'd have to sit kindof close to him.


Jack also remembered the old man in red & white!


Later after 60+guests had left, we snuggled in for some more card games. I didn't last too long, the stomach flu caught me and I went to bed sick Christmas Eve.




Maddy & Grampa




Uncle Chad, Jack, Maddy Christmas Morning getting ready to open presents. My parents surprised all the kids and spouses with a cruise to Mexico in October. Viva la Mexico!!



Maddy helped everyone open their presents Christmas morning.

So we left Marion and headed down to Lehi for Christmas breakfast (although I still didn't feel good and skipped meals for 2 days). Shortly after breakfast, we opened gifts. All of Mike's family was there except Dan who lives in Arizona and was working.

6 grandchildren and 5 kids+spouses = Grama was definitely Santa's helper this year

Maddy modeling her Christmas apron & Strawberry shortcake. Strawberry still smells just like I remember it!

Mike's parents were very generous with gifts, money and spoiling all their grandkids. It was a lot of fun. Mike was the photographer (sorry babe you aren't in a single picture:) and I opened the gifts but really didn't feel good so I left and slept the rest of Christmas day trying to get ride of the stomach flu. We woke up the next day and I felt tons better. So off we went to see the Dinosaurs at Thanksgiving Point. Jack was calling everything a "Di" all week. This giant carousel was also fun to see besides the dinosaurs.

The next day, I woke up with my eye swollen shut. So off we went to the Instacare and I had a sinus infection with a blocked tear duct, Jack had an ear infection and bronchitis. We rested the rest of the day and woke up on my birthday feeling somewhat better. At least the flu was gone!! So I thought!! We went to Salt Lake, had lunch with my parents, went to Price's Doors and Jack ran straight into the table giving him an immediate black eye. After a quick nap, we drove to the Gateway. We thought we were going to the Hansen Planetarium but ran into the Discovery Center and it was a blast. I highly recommend it to anyone. The kids loved the ball room. We spent at least an hour here playing with balls. Jack loves balls and was in heaven.

We convinced the kids to leave the ball room and played a giant xylophone.

Discovery Gateway had anything adults do but for kids. The kids played everywhere in the water, the construction zone, the gas station, the horse stables, the market and the kitchen. Here are some random photos of Maddy & Jack deep in thought. Nice black eye huh!

Here Maddy is innocently playing in the kitchen and waaalaa, out it comes and out it comes. Now we understand why she didn't want to eat lunch and told us her stomach hurt. She had the stomach flu. She later asked me why she was throwing up. She didn't understand that the flu could do that to someone.

Okay, so I survived turning 30. KINDOF. BUT it got better and better. By the time we left Discovery Center at Gateway I didn't know what to do because Maddy was so sick and it was snowing like crazy. We had planned to have a party at Fat Cats Pizza Factory. SO away we went to have a party despite Maddy constantly throwing up in the corner. She was so excited for the party and wanted to participate, she tried to eat pizza and cake which came quickly back up. She didn't even get to go see the kiddie playland, so much for having a birthday party for HER! Here I am opening a present from Mike. He surprised me with a gift certificate to my favorite Day Spa, a home night/day spa pedicure/manicure set and an ipod. NOW I just have to figure out how it works.

Jack is licking his fingers. He was tasting the frosting while everyone else was singing. Thanks Dad for the cake and Julie for bringing the icecream.

My family and Mike's family came to celebrate the big 3-0. I got showered with gifts in quantities of 30. 30 candy bars, 30 donut holes, 30 kaleidoscopes and 30 $1 bills. Except for guests - between bad weather and holiday crud that's tackled everyone in Utah, the celebration ended up being a little smaller than initially anticipated - but it was fun for those of us who weren't sick and weren't snowed in.The pizza was gone and most of the cake so off we went to my dad's house to spend the night. AND could the day get any worse, Jack is now sick as we drive home. Maddy was sick all night and Mike thought he was too. Tifani told me it was all right to cry. I was just glad the day was over. BIG THANKS to everyone for making my birthday as dooable as it was. But by the end of the night, I wanted to cry! Being 30 is definitely better the day after!

We ended up snowed in in Kamas til New Year's Day. We enjoyed spending time with Tif, Steve, Brody, Chad, Anna, Nick, Kacey, Jake, Alex and Emma. Sorry Emma for getting the flu New Years Eve.

We had a great holiday despite all the sickness and would do everything all over again. Thanks for all the birthday greetings, holiday cards and love.

Maddy & Emma playing in the snow