Utah Trip --- Bummer!

We just got back from our week long trip to Utah, and I must say we are pretty bummed out! We always look forward all year long to our visits home, but this last one just didn't measure up. It started out with Ella getting sick the day before we flew home. Then, the evening of our first day home I got sick as a dog and was up the whole night throwing up. If this wasn't bad enough, it seemed like whatever little bug Ella and I came down with was extremely contagious as everyone we had seen the first few days came down with the same thing. We even cleaned the whole house with bleach in order to get rid of the germs and thought we had taken care of everything before we had a little early birthday party for Ella. Well, despite our best efforts, people who came to the party still got sick! I couldn't believe it. So not only did we feel like we shouldn't see anyone else because of our sickness, but I also felt so guilty for starting this plague that spread through our family and friends. We finally decided that we should just stay away from everyone and as such, didn't even get to see half of the people we wanted to. Overall the trip was just a bust. . .not what we had planned it being at all! I'm so bummed out because of our bad luck, and what makes it worse we will not get to see anyone again until Christmas.

So to those of you we saw while we were in town--we're sorry we got you sick. And to those of you we didn't see (there are many), we are so sorry we missed you but glad we didn't give you our friendly little stomach bug. Now we will just be eagerly awaiting Christmas time and hope for better luck next time around! (And in case you were wondering, we have had no more signs of sickness since we have been home--what horrible timing!)

Here are some fun pictures of the good times we did have in between all the illness:


Ella went crazy for Corn-on-the-Cob at my Mom's house. She sat there for at least 15 minutes just chewing away on the cob!


Ella with Jonah and Grace, 2 of the 3 kids I used to nanny for

Family photo op at the park

Ella's first time rolling down a hill with Daddy (there are no opportunities for that in coastal Virginia as their are NO hills to speak of

The birthday girl at her early birthday party

Being sneaky and yanking cousin Emily's hair while the adults are busy with their cameras

Playing with her birthday balloons. . .by far the favorite thing at the party

Meeting her new cousin Kaden for the first time

Feeding our one and only nephew

It was fun seeing those of you we could see, but we missed seeing everyone else immensely! Anyone want to come out here for a visit so we can see you before Christmas??