2.20.2012

Snowstorms, Southwest and the Flu

We're just getting over the 24 hour flu that hit each of us individually one day at a time over the last 5 days. David was the last one to get it and is barely recovering today. So after this weekend I'd like to officially plunge my face in the snow like Hannah. That's what the kids do first thing when they see snow. In fact I have various pictures of all the cousins face first in the snow. I'm pretty sure that's David's first priority too. Apparently when your little mittens are useless for picking up snow to eat. On the way out of a restaurant one day I was filing the kids into the parkinglot and into the car and Hannah saw some snow by our tire. Yes, the gray kind. She got right down on her hands and knees and had a decent helping before I could get her up. Gross.

I just uploaded a bunch of random pictures to blogger. I have no idea who took this but I'm glad I documented the men for once setting up lunch with a billion paper plates ready to go for when the kids come in from the snow.


Every night at my parents we throw all the cousins in my parents' huge shower. Then we lay them all out on the floor to get dressed. We had almost finished when Papa came in and they all jumped up to hug him.


Playing in the snow.

My Mom and I knocked over our super tall skinny snow girl to make Ashton a fort in the front yard. You can see Hannah lined up behind him ready to fire with nothing in her mitten.


On Sunday morning the day David was supposed to fly out from Georgia the snow started falling hard and fast. Seriously some of the biggest flakes I've ever seen. There is Hannah watching from upstairs my Dad plow in Daisy so he could pull out of the driveway.


All the kids from outside in watching my mom plow for the 2nd time an hour later so we could get out of the driveway for church.

It was a great vacation and now that we're home I feel like the holiday season is officially over. Because this trip kept getting postponed due to David's work I felt like we hadn't had all of our holiday fun. Thank goodness for Southwest and fully transferable and cheap (in Jan & Feb) tickets! We love Midway it's always such a treat to go up there.

This was our first time flying SW with the kids. I have to say it was everything it cracked up to be. VERY family friendly and the layovers weren't a big deal at all. And on our 4 flights only one was completely full which mean we all had extra space galore!

The pilot had Ashton come up and hang out in between flights and even let him pull back on the stick when Ashton asked how you take off.

Hannah's new Cinderella squinkies for the plane were a huge hit. I'm such a fan of these ridiculous little things. The kids love them and they are so easy to pack up. I can see how they get lost easily but we have kids (and a dad) who are super obsessed with toy organization so they almost always go where they're supposed to before Mallie can use one as a piece of gum.

Ashton with his new StarWards squinkies and Mallie looking confused. Did I mention Ashton had woken up that night at 1am throwing up? He was fine a few hours before we boarded the flight but I still feel so bad thinking about how many people we probably contaminated.

And when on our last flight this little girl refused any sort of candy and crashed on David we knew we were in trouble. We just prayed she'd keep it in until we got home. Low and behold exactly 1 hour into our 2 hour drive home she started to throw up. I've never been so grateful for the timing of sickness. Sorry to everyone on the SW flight with us that caught this nasty bug.


On a side note the security guy checking our tickets in SLC talked to all of the kids as we passed through (except for Hannah who yelled "NO" at him) and then saw David's military ID and looked at us and said "You must be proud parents - and thank you for your service." Our kids were their normal selves all over the place but here was this guy about our same age taking the time to appreciate a family. I thought that was pretty much the greatest thing ever - because you know what? To me, our little family is the greatest thing ever.

1 comment:

Emily Malinka said...

first thing Elsie says is "mom I want to make a face angel like Hannah!" Love it!