Dear Family and Friends,

I wrote my blog yesterday on the way home.  Jeremy is feeling worse today with a visit to the instacare to get a bunch of decongestants and pain drops for his stuffed ears.  He can't talk above a whisper and can't hear very much and is just miserable.  He has a bunch of photography events this week that he is hosting so he is praying hard that it will all soon pass.  And here is what I wrote yesterday:

We have been on the road back home for 13 hours so far with 3 hours left in our trip back from Arizona.  We took some long stops, a 45 minute wrong way detour, plus we have to go up to the airport and back for Jeremy's truck. So with a sick Jeremy gamely pushing ahead, I get to play on his ipad.

Week before the trip was full of getting ready to be gone for a week amid the normal schedule.  Allison finished up her last play performance Monday night with flowers in her arms from her Jason's family, a smile on her face and a very tired little girl.  So tired that she caught a cold (which she shared with Robyn and me).  Cold gave her a bad ear infection and sore throat which resulted in 24 hours of her laying on her pillow sobbing and holding her ear.  Till her mean mom at 2 in the morning gently closed her door and asked her to try to cry quieter as I am trying to sleep.  But antibiotics are wonderful things and the last few days she can almost hear normally again.

We had our new bishopric, Relief Society presidency, EQ president, scout leaders and deacons and teachers quorums all come over to visit.  Plus all the new Primary teachers have called.  They are really going all out to make sure we feel welcome.  I just feel bad that I don't think I will remember any of their names for awhile!  Spencer went to his first new ward mutual and all seemed to go well.

Last Saturday we headed off for Arizona.  Jeremy drove with us down, stayed for Sunday and then flew back early Monday.  The trip was wonderful despite all the "life" that happens.  Allison and I were at the tail ends of our colds, with Samantha just getting one that turned into an ear infection too and Daniel being sick the whole week.  And then Jeremy brought back some of these family germs to Utah so that by the time he arrived Friday night to drive back with us he was in the middle of this really nasty cold we have been all sharing.  He thinks allergies have made it worse as his eyes are bright red.  Add into that that we drove down through pretty bad driving conditions with icy roads etc, having our van spend a day in the shop getting fixed from a broken shock, and kids managing to plug and overflow Daniel's toilet a couple of times.  But no matter what we always have a wonderful time when we are with family.  So we just thumb our nose at the challenges life comes up with and get on with enjoying spring break.  Did I mention Taylor throwing up all over himself as we pushed him into sacrament meeting and cleaning him up in the parking lot?  Or that after acting healthy he threw up again in the car as we drove to the park that afternoon?  Or the fact that he threw up a bunch more in the middle of the night?  Yuck!

The weather was amazing the whole time.  We had a BBQ and picnics, played at parks, went to the science museum and the music museum, spent a day at the zoo, tried out in-and-out for our first time and ate more delicious food than you can imagine, stocked up at Trader Joe's in case we need a three month supply of tortillini and best of all spent two days swimming at this posh hotel resort's pools.  Our kids begged us to stay and would love to permanently move into Daniel and Mimi's house.  Seriously.  Spencer and Allison are happy with the tent in the back yard and Robyn thinks the big puffy mattress in Claire's room is the best.

Robyn finishing her meals every night so she can do the "done" dance with Mimi and packing her white kitty so she could share it with Claire.  Allison being a babysitter for Samantha whenever she could and enjoying having a baby to take care of.  Taylor laying in the pool with a big smile on his face just chirping away.  Spencer so engrossed at the music museum that he doesn't even notice Robyn copying all the video dances right next to him or trying to explain to Mimi in detail every rule for one of his video games.  Most of all just being around family again and enjoying being together. Daniel and Mimi it was an amazing week.  Thanks for letting the horde invade and hopefully the plague will leave your house (and ours) soon.

Love, Heather

After two days of not so happiness Taylor loved every moment of his spring break

Claire and Allison playing mind ball

At the Music Museum at the end of our trip we went to the experience room where kids were let loose on a bunch of instruments