THANKSGIVING IN COLORADO

Let me begin by saying this trip almost never happened and the relatives we left in Colorado probably wish we hadn't come.....I will explain.

First we need to go back in time to Thursday, November 15.....

I had just spent a week off from work because I had laryngitis. I had plans to go to work on Friday, November 16th, but Sam woke up at 3 a.m. with vomiting and diarrhea. The poor boys spent the entire day with the a stomach virus. Not pretty.

On Saturday, Sam was very tired, but feeling better, but by 3 p.m. I was vomiting and had to call Richard to come home from work, because I could barely stand. Then within an hour of him arriving home he was vomiting too. We both felt like we had been hit by a truck. Thank God we had two bathrooms.

We spent all day Sunday laying around. Sam was feeling much better, at this point, but was happy just to watch t.v. with us while we recovered our strength, ate jello and chewed on ice chips.

The weekend was a total bust.

Richard was able to go to work on Monday, but Sam still had diarrhea and couldn't go to school, so I stayed home from work again. If your keeping track that is 6 days straight, I was out of work.

I went back to work on Tuesday. By that evening all seemed right with the world again so we went ahead and packed up clothes, snacks and toys. We jumped in the car at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, November 21st, and drove 7 hours to my brother, Kurt's, house in Colorado Springs.

We didn't think much more about being sick. We were just glad it was over.

Sam is a great car rider. We bought a portable DVD player, which came in very handy. Sam watched a movie and then fell asleep. We ate breakfast in Raton, Colorado, at McDonald's at around 8 a.m. We took a couple more potty breaks, but other then that the drive was uneventful and by 11:30 we arrived.

We took a break and then drove another hour and a half to my brother's cabin.

This is the only outside picture I have of the house. It's gorgeous. It's three stories. It has 3 baths, 3 bedrooms, a full basement, garage and a.....

....large living area.

 There is a nice stove and large windows with amazing views.

There is also a nice loft. See the bear climbing the large main post.

On the large post, anytime family comes together, we can write on the log and then my brother burns what we write into the wood.

Sam loved hiking around in "the woods" and on the rocks. The weather was beautiful.

Here he his hiking with his cousin, Ryan.

Sam also loved cousin Ryan's dog, Xena.

Every night, after Sam went to bed, we played games, laughed a lot, ate, drank wine and had lots of adult fun. We had a lot of great conversations too.

Here is Thanksgiving day, with my sister-in-law, Joan preparing the turkey. Ryan and his wife, Heidi are in the background preparing the potatoes.

After we ate, Ryan showed Sam his Guitar Hero game.

Sam did really well considering he's only 4.

Sam loved Cousin Ryan and Cousin Heidi...(He loves older women....watch out Ryan.), but we had a hard time explaining how I was Ryan's aunt, Kurt is my brother and Kurt and Joan are his aunt and uncle.

Then Sam let Uncle Kurt have a try, while he played along on his own guitar.

We sang karaoke too! That was hysterical.

I love this picture. Sam is the youngest of the grandchildren at only 4 and Ryan is the oldest at 40.

On Friday morning we had a great breakfast and then packed up and drove back to Colorado Springs.....

Little did we know, but found out when we arrived back at Kurt and Joan's house, that Joan was NOT feeling well. She went right into her bedroom and I never saw her again....

Joan became the first victim to our stomach flu....

Then we met up with my niece Julie (Kurt and Joan's daughter, Ryan's sister.)

Sam loved playing with Julie's daughter, Jenna. Julie also has a 10 month old daughter, Katie.

Here is Richard teaching Sam how to hit a ball.

Since Joan wasn't feeling well we went to Julie's house and played.

Jenna and he decorated gingerbread men and watched a movie.

Ryan came over briefly, but Heidi didn't because she became the second one to fall victim to the stomach flu.

We went back to Kurt's at about 7.

We found out the next morning, Saturday, November 26th, that the previous night at around 9 p.m., Ryan took sick and then at midnight Kurt became ill too.

We had planned on leaving a little later, but decided we had caused enough damage, so we packed up and were on the road by 8 a.m.

We got back home around 3:30 p.m.

The ride back was uneventful too. Sam watched movies and slept, I read a book and Richard listened to his Ipod.

Let me finish by saying, WE ARE SO SORRY WE MADE YOU ALL SICK! We love you, Kurt, Joan, Ryan and Heidi. Thanks for a great Thanksgiving.

NOTE: At this point, Julie and her two kids have not taken sick.