Fun in Utah...and then the Plague hit!

It's time to get honest about our trip to Utah.

We had a lot of fun the first week into our trip!

Drake and I made a Christmas plate (gift from the Rose Party),

Delicious sugar cookies were made with Grandma,

We had wonderful visits with both Great-Grandma's in their nursing homes,

And, we were invited to Fetal Foto (yes, that's the right spelling) with my sister and her hubby to see Drake's growing cousin on 3D ultrasound. It was magical. :) And we enjoyed lunch and shopping.

 Grandma made bath time a game everyday with lots of bubbles in the jacuzzi tub,

 We watched Katelyn cheer at a basketball game, we drove through the lights at Willard Bay (Drake: "Hey that's Rudolph! Look, he has a very shiny nose!"), we spent lots of time with family and friends, and we tried really hard to not complain about the frigid temperatures. ha!

Then, we all started to go down like flies. Our wonderful Payne family passed around runny noses, coughs, throwing up, headaches, stomach flu, and colds the whole week of Christmas. It was NO BUENO whatsoever. 

Drake was one of the sickest. He got sick about a week into our trip, felt better for his birthday, and then got the sickest Christmas Eve and the days after Christmas. I wish I could say I was positive about the whole thing, but I wasn't. I was mad and completely bummed that he was having such a hard time. I so badly wanted for him to be able to have fun and enjoy Christmas and his family. We had to cancel plans to see both family and friends, and we didn't get to do half the things we had planned. It was a total bummer! And I just felt so bad for Drake! But on a bright note, I guess in one way it was good that it happened in Utah because there were so many people to help us. I got so sick one day puking my guts out that I could hardly move. If my mom hadn't been there to help me, I don't know what I would have done. I felt so thankful for a blessing from Rob and my Dad and woke up feeling like a new person the next day. It was a testimony builder for sure. And back to Drake- When we got back to California, we found out he had pneumonia at his 3 year well check-up. Suddenly, the fact that he wasn't ever getting better made sense! Poor guy!

Between all the yucky sickness, we still found time to have fun though. It was just in no way the vacation we thought it was going to be. I'm not going to sugar coat it- it sucked at times, but I am so thankful that my family was there to help me and still thankful for the time we all got to spend together. :)

Here's Hannah replacing me at the Jazz game the night I had the stomach flu. I may have cried because I had to miss it. Hopefully I'll get another chance soon!