Just when you thought you were done with Christmas. . . .

My parents flew us out for Christmas since we were the only members of the family who weren't going to be there this year.  This was our kids' first experience flying.  Since our flight was at 8:10 a.m., we got a hotel room near the airport that night.  The kids were really excited that we were going out of town for Christmas, but we didn't tell them we were going to Utah until the morning we flew out.  We thought they would be really excited about going to Grandma's house.  Initially, they were just really disappointed that we weren't going to swim in the pool.

Our first flight went great, except for Tyler being scared of takeoff and landing.  After surviving the layover in Denver, we boarded on time, then sat for an hour.  It was miserable.  Especially since I had decided to take Tyler as a lap rider on a completely booked flight.

We finally made it to Salt Lake, where my sister picked us up and whisked us off to Grandma's house (which prospect had really climbed up the priority list for the kids).  That night we had a family party at my sister's clubhouse, where Tyler fell in love with his Great-Grandpa Olsen.  He has always really liked my dad's parents.  It's so cute.

 Christmas Eve was movie day.  The moms and kids saw Arthur Christmas, while the guys saw Mission Impossible.  Those guys really missed out.  Zack threw up on himself before the movie even started and ended up in his 9-year-old cousin's extra shirt that was in their car for the rest of the movie, while my nephew peed in his mom's lap.  Good times, right?

Since we couldn't bring any wrapped gifts, I helped the kids with their gifts that afternoon.  After the Christmas Eve festivities, we actually got the kids to bed at a decent hour and started on everything else.  There were presents everywhere (yes, we did bring all of our gifts on the plane).

I was grateful I made it to bed when I did since Tyler threw up all over his bed at 12:30 a.m.  I found out in the morning that we had missed my sister and her son when he threw up at 11:30.  I had planned on getting a picture of all of my kids in their Christmas jammies in the morning, but Tyler needed a change of wardrobe.  He finally fell asleep like this, in the family room with the tree and gifts he hadn't even noticed.

 When all of the kids came up in the morning, this was the most excitement he could muster at first.  He would dig around in the stocking, look at what he had grabbed, set it down, and dig some more.  He moved up to Ben's lap once presents started.

 I wish you could see the huge grin on face.  This boy loves Mickey Mouse.

 Time for church.  I've never been so grateful for 1:00 church in my life.  As you can see, Tyler is feeling better.  It was a quick bug, which made its rounds over the next few days.

 We got to stay and play for the next week.  On Friday, the day before we flew home, Tyler woke up with a fever of 102 and wouldn't eat.  I took him to Urgent Care and found out he had strep throat.  Poor baby.  At least the amoxicillin and pain killers got him feeling better pretty quickly.

We flew home on New Year's Eve.  Sydney did not do well with the ear pressure on the flight into Kansas City.

 Tyler finally got a seat and was totally happy.

 Zack and Tansy enjoyed the entire experience.  We even got to fly out of Las Vegas when it was dark.  It was awesome to see all the lights.

 Our plane got in to Kansas City at 10:00 p.m.  We went straight to the family bathroom where all of the kids got into their pajamas.  Once we had the luggage, I settled in with the kids and my new Kindle Fire (awesome!) to watch some Netflix while Ben took the shuttle to get the car.

Once we got there, he found that the van was dead.  The airport parking staff gave him a jump, but we were the last people out of the airport.  We finally got on the road at about 11:15, wished each other a Happy New Year at around Lone Jack, and got home shortly before 1:00 a.m.  Sydney's ears were still hurting, so I gave her another dose of pain killers and and decongestant.  She finally went to sleep around 2:00.  Tansy's ears were bugging her at 3:00, and by morning, we knew that Ben and the kids would be skipping church.

The kids, especially Sydney, were really disappointed that we didn't celebrate the new year.  So Sunday night, we had some treats, and at 9:47, we counted down from 10 and shouted, "Happy New Year!"  The kids hated their sparkling cider but felt like they had gotten what they wanted.

 Real life hit faster than I was ready for.  Sydney went back to school on Tuesday, and Tansy went back Wednesday.  Tyler spent most of the week acting like he had an ear infection, which I knew he couldn't because he was already on amoxicillin.  After three sleepless nights, I finally took him in to the clinic, and his left ear is badly infected.  Once again, poor baby.  A change of antibiotics has him bouncing around again.

Sydney's first basketball game is next week.  She is in a higher age group this year so I hope she isn't overwhelmed. 

Zack starts basketball next week, and Tansy started music class and returns to tumbling. You can't say we don't have fun.