Christmas in Idaho 2009

December 16th Kris hugged us all goodbye and sent the boys and I off for our holiday adventure. The flight over went pretty well. The kid sitting in the isle seat next to us must have gotten up a billion times, but didn't seem to care to much. I finally started sending Jack by himself to the bathroom while I watched from the seat. At one point, Jack didn't come back right away as usual. I knew something was up. Apparently he had asked one of the flight attendants to help him in the bathroom. That must be why she was waving me back! It was great to finally land and see my brother, nephew, sister in law, sister and her boyfriend. We finally got to Idaho about 12am.

We had a pretty busy schedule which kept us all going. Jack loved watching the Nutcracker, especially the part where my little sister Catherine played a mouse. Henry loved "dancing" and conducting to the violin music of my brother Christian and sister Catherine. We got to hear them perform a bunch of times during our visit. Jack just sat and watch them as they walked around the house practicing.


Another highlight (which I had originally frowned upon) was our night in the woods. My mom had planned an overnight adventure in Harriman State Park. It was about a mile or so into the woods on cross country skis, snow shoes, or sled. Jack amazed me and crossed country skied all the way in (and back out again the next day). What a kid! Henry had a nice view from my backpack. It was beautiful and the house was great. It had electricity, a fire place, kitchen, bathroom, and beds with linen. This was more than I had imagined. I am so glad we got the opportunity to go. Thanks Grammy Avenius!

On Christmas Eve, Jack and I got the stomach flu. Fun times! We spent the afternoon and evening throwing up in plastic bag lined bowls (thanks for the tip Auntie Laura). It lasted about 24 hours for me and little longer for Jack. We missed the annual Avenius/Knight family nativity play. It sounded like a lot more fun than what was going on in our bedroom! Jack opened gifts Christmas morning, but spend most of the time lying on the floor. The next day he was still lethargic and even fell asleep for about an hour at the kitchen table during breakfast. So sad. Finally, we were better and my poor sisters were down for the count. The stomach bug was after our family this year. My brother Christian even wrote a poem about it to cheer us up.

It's really too bad
that everyone's sad
I want them all to feel better.
They've been sick for a week.
We all took our turns.
All our stomachs did turns.
It changed our Christmas forever.

Another highlight of our trip was being able to spend time with my brother Jacob. He is now in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT learning spanish and preparing for a mission to Buenos Aires, Argentina to serve as a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He and I got to spend time shopping around Idaho Falls, traveling to SLC twice (lots of talking time there), and visiting the Rexburg and SLC Temples.

All in all, it was a great trip. The flight home with the boys was an adventure. We got to the airport in Salt Lake at about 9:00 and had to wait until almost midnight to board the plane. Once on, they took another 45 minutes or so to de-ice the plane. The boys actually got some sleep. Henry has never fallen asleep on my lap before. It was a true miracle. And the guy sitting next to Jack was a real saint. Jack must have kicked him at least 7 times in his quest to find a comfortable position. When we got to NY, the boys were in decent shape. I, on the other hand, had no sleep and my eyes were red (as promised by the flight nicknamed "red-eye special). Because of our delay in Utah, we had a shorter layover in NY which was great. But it was snowing hard and I was a bit worried we would be stuck there. We boarded again and I was actually able to use Henry's car seat since the flight was very empty. (I had been carrying this car seat with me on all our flights in hopes that we would have an empty seat. I must have looked ridiculous with a car seat strapped to my back, but it finally payed off!) Both boys went right to sleep, which was another miracle. The flight was only about 45 minutes so by the time I was falling asleep, we were landing. Kris met us at the airport and I could not have been happier to see him. We had all missed having him with us on this trip. Jack perked right up when he say Kris and even shot out a cute little, "So Dad, I see you got a haircut!" That kid makes me laugh.

It was a great Christmas, one we won't forget for awhile. I will say that I don't think we will be traveling during the holiday season again any time soon.