New Year's Eve

Since we returned from our trip to Ohio after Christmas, I have taken the kids to Disneyworld, co-hosted a gourmet dinner, and then, after that was done, contracted pneumonia. As it turns out, trying to go for a morning run in sub-freezing temperatures when you have pneumonia is an incredibly bad idea. That was Monday. I wasn't able to run much, had the shakes for two hours after I got back, and spent the rest of the day comatose on the couch. Wednesday, I finally broke down and decided I was going to go see a doctor about the completely debilitating "pulled muscle" in my back even though, in my experience, visits on those types of issues aren't usually very helpful. Surprise! A few days of antibiotics later, I'm no longer running fevers or crying every time I try to breathe, but I'm still far from 100%. Although "resting" at home with two small children is a bit of a misnomer, we have taken it down a notch (or a dozen) from our usually active lifestyle. And so, I feel it might be appropriate to finally blog about, or maybe just post lots of pictures from, our trip to Ohio over the holidays.

During the five days we were there, we saw all of my six siblings and associated significant others (one husband, one son/cousin, one boyfriend). Six of the seven of us even made it into a photo together, which is pretty momentous; I think it had probably been about three years since the five oldest siblings were all together in a room. Plus, I made John sit with Hyrum on the plane, so it was a pretty enjoyable vacation all around. Without further ado . . .

This year for Christmas, I instituted a new family gift tradition. The idea is to buy a membership to a museum, zoo, etc every year. This year, we joined the Brooklyn Children's Museum, which also gives us reciprocal admission to other children's museums and science museums nationwide. So, when we were in Ohio, we went to COSI for free. Other than losing Hyrum for what seemed like a really, really long time at one point, it was great. We will be back, I'm sure.

Originally, Laurel and Mark weren't planning to come. So, when they showed up unexpectedly on the night of the 30th, of course we immediately celebrated by going to Walmart. Right?

Hyrum turned out to be a master Silverton player.

I failed at convincing mom to let me buy this vintage dress from her but succeeded in convincing her to loan it to me for the traditional New Year's Eve dinner.

A dinner cooked mostly by Mark. Thanks again!

Dillon is a champion at drinking cashews.

And just like that, we were home again,

drinking milk out of Ikea cups,

playing with trains in our pajamas,

and making Costco trips via public transportation thanks to our new stroller.