Rowan Down the River of Life: March 2014

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Stuff

Just call him Matt Tell.

Oliver's triangle pose (according to Elliot). Still no steps but I'm hoping once he gets better he will start working on it again.

Isabel and Elliot sharing her bed for a month finally prompted us to make a change.

Now they officially share a room. I put it off a long time because I had put so much energy Into making a boy room and a girl room that it took some time to be willing to undo it. But everyone is happy now.

Poor Oliver!!!!! He was almost over his cold and then started getting fevers again every day and night. Finally on Sunday we woke up to this...burst ear drum! No wonder he has been sooooooo fussy the last week!!!! Poor ear had to have been killing him! But Isabel only got 1 mild ear infection, Elliot had none, so I never even considered he might have an ear problem until I saw the results this morning.

But wow is it nice to have our happy kiddo back!!!!!! He no longer demands I hold him 24/7 (and of course I couldn't sit down and hold him. I had to be standing to hold him or he would just keep screaming). Now he is just playing by himself and being cute. Matt and I honestly had forgotten how sweet and independent Oliver could be! So glad to have him not in so much pain with the pressure gone so he can be his regular content self!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Sandy Good Times

After we finished at the ski cabin we headed up to Sandy for a few fun days with cousins and grandparents. We hit up the new Utah Natural History Museum. I had just renewed our Denver Nature & Science Museum pass so we got into the museum for free as well as at the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur museum on our way up to Sandy.

Striking a pose on the roof of the Natural History Museum.

Can you see the giant snot drip on Oliver's face? Poor Elliot and Oliver got sick from some friends who came over for our Pi Day celebration and brought their sick kids. Just the little boys got the bad colds, but were pretty fine outside of being extra tired and extra sensitive.

We also made it to Wheeler Farm and fed the ducks and geese.

They were not shy at all! Elliot was totally in heaven with so many animals around to touch and look at!

Isabel was a little more hesitant.

We also got to help milk the cows.

I was the designated helper for all the kids, including cousins, for some reason.

Matt celebrated his 33rd birthday and got some money and a big griddle. Yay for 8 pancakes at a time!

We also found this picture of Jack when he was a baby. Looks quite a bit like Oliver, wouldn't you say?????? Unfortunately our visit was cut short from Robbi throwing up like 15 times overnight, followed by Matt feeling nauseated, me feeling sick, and eventually Jack started throwing up too. But by then we were already almost home because we decided a) we weren't going to be doing anything fun with Jack and Robbi that day, b) we didn't dare see any friends and expose them to our potential sickness, and c) in case we got really sick we wouldn't be able to drive ourselves home. So we packed up and drove home Saturday instead of Sunday. Matt got the runs, I avoided most of that, but then Elliot and Oliver's cold snuck up on us and now Matt and I have an awful cold...Elliot ended up throwing up one day and being completely lethargic and Oliver's cold has also flared up and he's back to running fevers. Sigh! It seems like it's been FOREVER that someone has been sick in our house and frankly I'm just amazed that Isabel hasn't gotten sick AT ALL! Crazy. But in the end, we sure enjoyed our week off. It's been a long time since we had vacation (end of October was our last one) so it was perfect to take a week off!

Brian Head--days of fun in the cabin

We had another great time in Brian Head. WE had a HUGE crowd, again, which makes it that much more fun! We had 3 days of skiing (1 day all the lifts got shut down at noon from the wind so they let us go tubing for free, 1 day of bitter cold at -20 degrees, and 1 beautiful day of sunshine and weather in the 50s...). Man I love this vacation!

One of the epic Mafia games with Dave as the narrator. He would always come up with these super crazy methods of "getting killed" that had everyone in stitches.

And poor Trey was the collarbone breaking perpetrator this year. On the first day, too! When a couple of the lifts started back up, he borrowed a snowboard from someone who was tubing, and then fell and broke his collarbone. Sigh.

Just part of the daily melee to get everyone garbed up and ready to hit the slopes from the ski-in/ski-out cabin.

Mom and Dad came up one day to watch the kids, the next day it was so cold that some people came in the afternoon and agreed to watch the kids, and then the last day we put the kids in ski school and when Penny left and couldn't watch Oliver anymore, Matt stuck him in the backpack and hit the slopes that way. Oliver was obviously a favorite with everyone!

We got a new point and shoot camera right before we left on the trip (it was on an amazing sale and it was one of the highest rated cameras...how could we resist?) So we have a bunch of random pictures while Matt was trying out the different modes.