Mammen Family Christmas Vacation 2010

I know - I haven't blogged since November!!! Yikes! Yes, life has been crazy, yes, my motivation for blogging has been lacking, but really those are just excuses. Oh well. To make up, here's my "catch up" novel.

It begins a week before Thanksgiving...

I was late. I'm never late...okay, except for maybe to church and taking Spencer to preschool, but when it comes to my period, it's like clockwork. I am never late. We weren't trying for a baby and there was no way I could have possibly been pregnant (or so I thought). I waited a week thinking it was just a fluke...but after 7 days, I realized I'd better venture to the store for a pregnancy test.

I didn't even have to wait the full two minutes. Within 20 seconds, there were the two little pink lines.

Yikes.

Ally had just turned one at the beginning of October! What in the world?!?!

So there I was. Almost 6 weeks pregnant. My Dad and I had signed up to run the Dallas Thanksgiving Turkey Trot together. All 8 miles. I'd trained for it and was definitely ready for it, so bright and early Thanksgiving morning we set out on our trek. Only once running up hill did I have to stop and walk for a minute to avoid throwing up, but just once. Was it because I was pregnant or just pushing myself? I'll never know. Nevertheless, we finished the 8 miles and I have to say, I was kind of proud of myself and especially proud of my Dad who had never run that far before! His knees paid for it through the next two days, but I don't think he regretted it in the least!

About a week later I started getting sick. Really, really sick. I was pretty much nauseous 24 hours a day, it was terrible. So when I made my first prenatal appointment I asked the nurse if she could prescribe anything for me. She called in an Rx for Zofran and it literally saved my life. I had to teach preschool the next day and there is no way on earth I could have done it had I not had the medication. I was a new person.

I could take the medicine every 8 hours, which I did religiously. Once it started wearing off, I was confined to the couch, so needless to say I went through those 30 pills very quickly!

We'd had plans all year to drive to Utah to spend Christmas with Kyle's family. It was insane trying to pack everything, finishing Christmas shopping and homemade gifts, teaching preschool twice that week (instead of the usual once), editing 4 photography sessions and trying to fight exhaustion. The day before we were supposed to leave for Utah I ran out of my anti-nauseous medication. I called to renew it and they couldn't renew it for another 6 days or my insurance wasn't going to pay for it. My choices were to tough it out or spend $149 for 30 teeny tiny pills. I chose to tough it out.

Amazingly, we got out the door on the 18th all packed and ready to go. I drove most of the day mostly because it helped me not feel sick. We made it to Albequerque really late that night. We got up early the next day to finish the second leg of our trip...things were going surprisingly smoothly until we were 45 minutes away from Park City in Provo Canyon. Spencer kept complaining that he was hot, so I told him to just take his shirt off (yes, even though it was freezing outside!) Ally had had it. She was done driving and was letting everyone know it with her wailing. It was snowing and very dark, so I wasn't surprised when Janelle told me she wasn't feeling very well. I told her to move up to the middle seat and just look out the window until we got to Park City. About 5 minutes later, she says in a very panicky voice, "I think I'm going to throw up!" And 5 seconds after that before I could find anything for her to throw up in, she threw up all over. All over herself, the seat, three blankets that we had... It was horrible. Kyle pulled over so we could clean everything up as much as we possibly could. I had to keep sticking my head out the window into the blustery air to escape the smell. Spencer was livid that Janelle had thrown up on his blue blankie and Ally was as mad as ever that we'd stopped the car. A kindly car pulled over behind us to check up on us and make sure we were okay. We assured them we were fine and just cleaning up puke and then waved them on. It was a kindly gesture.

We got things somewhat cleaned up, gave Janelle a bag "just in case" and continued on our way for about 8 minutes. And then we stopped again in totally stopped traffic. Kyle and I were thinking the worst that an accident had happened and that we were going to have to turn completely around and go back through Salt Lake. Fortunately we were only stopped for a few minutes when cars started moving again and we realized there had been a mud slide. We were so grateful that it was a minor mudslide and that no one was hurt and that we could keep going!

Janelle kept her eyes on the road and I was sure she'd just been carsick. Nope. I was wrong. 5 minutes before we got to Kyle's parents' house she threw up again. And then again and again all night long after we'd reached Grandma and Grandpa's. Poor thing. She kept saying, "I hate being sick on vacation!" And who could blame her?

Fortunately she was okay by morning. I sent Kyle and Spencer snowmobiling with my Dad and Emily and Janelle and I rested from our crazy night. By the afternoon she was totally fine and out playing in the snow. It's amazing how quickly kids recover from things!

Wednesday the 22nd was Janelle's baptism. We had some friends and family drive up for it and of course had all the Mammens there. We were all excited for it!

About 10 minutes before we were supposed to walk out the door, I was holding Ally and she threw up all over herself and me. It was disgusting. I couldn't believe her impeccable timing! I changed her and myself as quickly as I could and just prayed over and over that it was just a one time thing. Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for us, because she only did it once. Whew! So we finally loaded everyone up in the car(s) to head to the church which was only a 1-minute drive down the street. Did I mention how much snow had been falling? It had been snowing pretty much non-stop since we'd arrived 3 days earlier. So there was a ton of snow. The Mammens driveway was a slippery arctic slide and getting up it proved to be a harder feat than we'd estimated. The Tahoe we were driving totally got stuck in the ice. Only with the help of my two brothers-in-law, father-in-law, sister-n-law's boyfriend and Kyle were they able to push it out! So we arrived at the church fashionably late by about 10 minutes. Good thing it wasn't a Stake baptism!

The baptism was beautiful! Janelle only had to go down once, despite the cold water. All her aunts and uncles (and Grandpa) sang and played a musical number for her. Grandma Kay spoke to her about baptism and Grandpa Richard spoke about the Holy Ghost. I think it was a special day for her.

Kyle's parents were so sweet to put on a little "Open House" for her right after the baptism for everyone that came. We had lunch and a delicious chocolate cake that Grandpa Bill made for her. It was nice getting to talk with everyone.

That night Kyle and I decided to go see the new "Narnia" movie. Kyle's parents graciously offered to stay with the kids after they were in bed so we could sneak out. But of course, an hour after we left, Spencer got "the bug." Fortunately he'd seen the whole ordeal once and knew exactly what he needed to do. He spent the night next to the bathroom and threw up all night long. He didn't get it nearly as bad as Janelle did and was running around completely normal by the next day. Thank heavens!

On Thursday we hung out with Kyle's family - eating, talking, eating some more, watching Christmas movies, and of course eating even more. ;) That night Kyle and I were able to spend the night in Salt Lake at a hotel and going out to dinner. Kyle's parents and siblings graciously helped keep our kids, who amazingly stayed well while we were gone! We had a fun night. We went to an awesome restaurant at the Gateway Mall called the Happy Sumo. Their tempura veggies were to die for. Yum!! We got to sleep in the next morning and even ordered room service for breakfast. It was an amazingly lazy morning. I loved every second of it!

Friday was Christmas Eve and we took all the kids up to the Park City Mountain Resort to watch the Parade of Lights (were Santa skis down the mountain). It was madness. To sum it up...6 kids - one dog - 7 adults - free sticky candy canes - then free cookies and hot chocolate - 2 full cups of spilled hot chocolate - crying kids - freezing kids - massive crowds...BUT, amazingly, we all had fun! When we got home Santa made a surprise visit and we got to all take pictures with him. We also had the kids act out the Nativity before setting cookies out for Santa and heading to bed. Of course I'm biased, but they were pretty darn cute!

Christmas morning arrived and it was absolutely perfect! The kids got up about 7:30. I guess everyone made the "nice" list because we all found our stockings full of goodies. We leisurely snacked on breakfast, opened presents, finagled toys out of crazy packaging, played with new toys, made phone calls to family, took naps, visited and then ate the best prime rib dinner ever! It was a really nice day and I'm so happy we got to spend it with the Mammen clan.

On Sunday a miracle occurred and we all made it to church on time with all the kids in their darling matching outfits from Grandma and Grandpa!

That night my Dad called to tell me that my grandmother who had been battling cancer for awhile had passed away. I was hit with a wave of emotions. I was relieved that she was no longer suffering and in the terrible pain she'd been in lately. I knew that she was having a very joyous reunion with her mother that very moment. But I was really sad that I wouldn't get to see her in this life again. I miss her quite a bit and think of her often. Kyle's family was very sweet and gave me lots of hugs. I just love his whole family!

My Grandma's funeral was scheduled for Thursday morning. Our plans were to leave Wednesday, but we decided to leave Tuesday so we could make it in time for her funeral. The next few days were kind of a blur. We spent a lot of Monday packing and cramming in a last tubing adventure with Grandma and Grandpa. Tuesday we left at 3am and drove a bajillion miles and made it to Amarillo that night. Ally was a royal pain in the booty at the hotel. They were totally out of cribs, so we tried making her a little enclosed bed, we tried letting her sleep in our bed, she just would NOT go to sleep. It was terrible. Neither Kyle or I could sleep. And THEN, Kyle got the stomach bug. Ugh. We left bright and early Wednesday since no one could sleep anyway, made a few bathroom stops on the way, but finally made it home. I have never been so happy to see my own bed in my whole life!

Amazingly, our adventure wasn't over.

That night I started to get sharp cramping pains. They got worse and worse until finally I couldn't take it anymore. I totally felt like I was in labor. So Kyle in his weak condition rushed me to the ER so they could check things out. They admitted me and took me back to get an ultrasound done. Fortunately the baby was totally fine, they couldn't find anything wrong with me and then discharged me without any kind of medical explanation of what my cramping could be. "You're probably just overdoing it. Be sure and rest and take some tylenol." Right. Stupid $150+ ER doctor.

Anyway, after our adventuresome night we were a little late to my Grandma's funeral, but made it in the nick of time. Her service was beautiful. I'm pretty sure she was looking down from heaven and smiling. My mom's whole family was here visiting for the funeral, so it was really fun seeing everyone and being able to spend time with each other. We all spent a wonderful night reminiscing about our grandma. I won't ever forget that night, it was perfect. ;)

By Sunday, all the our out of town family had returned home. Things were quiet and returning back to normal. School was starting and our Christmas vacation came to a close. It was an amazing two weeks. We got to see Kyle's whole family and my mom's whole family including all my siblings, we got to eat some yummy food, play in some awesome snow, laugh, cry and just be with those we love most.

It's crazy, but it was the perfect Christmas vacation!