Sand, Sea, Sun...and Sickness

Every year, we try to take a trip in January or February to combat the winter blues. For the most part, it's great, because we go to warm places to get out of the cold weather and awful air, but in some ways, it makes the winter blues worse! It's hard not to dream about moving to California, especially during Salt Lake Februarys. 

Although, this winter has officially been the warmest winter on record for Utah. It has been insanely, suspiciously warm, and I'm not kidding when I say it has only snowed in the valley ONCE this whole winter, and even that didn't stick for more than a couple of hours. It's been crazy! And as much as I love the heat, this has been hard to enjoy because we're all constantly worried about a drought and dry mountains for fire season. And now, I'm remembering I already wrote this same rant last month. Ahh well. Weather is my whole personality.

Even though it's been warm, sicknesses have still been rampant. So many people I know have gotten really, really sick this year with some kind of nasty virus or flu. I've luckily been spared from any really bad sickness (unlike last year...also, knock on wood), but the girls got it BAD the first week of February. When Julia came down with a fever the Sunday before our California trip, I thought, "Great! We'll get the sickness over with and be done before Saturday when we leave." Oh contrare. Julia was feverish all day Monday, and it was so sad, but also kind of sweet, because she was actually willing to stay still and snuggle with me for a lot of the day. She is the squirmiest, most active baby, so I knew she must have been feeling pretty crappy since she was content to just snuggle. We took a couple of hot, steamy showers together, and she was so sweet rolled up in her towel. What a pretty baby girl.

Tuesday, when SJ got home from school, Hayden took them both to the doctor to have a look at the goop coming out of their eyes. What do you know? They both had double eye infections, and Julia had a double ear infection! So fun!

They both got eyedrops (which was REALLY fun), and Julia got an antibiotic. The antibiotic started working almost immediately, and our baby girl got so much better within just a few hours. SJ was a different story...

That night, SJ came down with a fever and chills. She woke up the next morning before I left for work, and by the time I left, she had already fallen back to sleep, which was really bizarre. She ended up taking four different naps that day. Thursday was bad too, and she had the worst cough I've ever heard her have. By Friday, the day before our trip and the day I worked from home, she hadn't gotten any better. She actually threw up just pure mucus, and I knew something really bad was happening. I took her to the doctor once more, and after they reviewed her oxygen levels a couple of times and, after they ruled out COVID or the flu, they determined she had pneumonia! My poor baby girl had pneumonia, and it took us three whole days to get her some help. I was so, so sad, but so glad we could start her on antibiotics before our trip. Much like Julia, she turned a corner really quickly, and by the evening, her fever was gone, and she was able to sleep really well.

(Was this a really boring story? Maybe.)

Of course, she was still coughing soooooo bad, but what were we going to do, cancel our trip?? Maybe we should have. But we didn't. On Saturday morning, we went to the airport and began our adventure! We had a few pretty bad coughing fits, but overall, she was feeling so much better. The girls loooooved the airport, especially all the escalators. And of course, they loved playing with iPads on the plane. They did pretty well on the plane! And once we landed, I felt so, so happy to be in the warmth. We drove straight to the beach to meet Hayden's cousin Zach and his family. The beach was fun!...for about 30 minutes. It was the windiest beach day I've ever seen. Once SJ got cold and stopped having fun, I stopped having fun, so we pretty quickly packed up and headed to Corona to stay with my mom's cousin, Addie.

The next day had the best weather of the week. It was like 80 degrees, and we spent the second hour of church just lying in the sun, basking in the warmth. We went to Jay and Pam's house for dinner and spent the whole afternoon and evening outside. It was the best! Seeing my babies running around in the grass, eating ice cream, warmed my soul. I know everyone says it's crazy to move to California, but it's just SO BEAUTIFUL. A gal can dream, right?

The next day, we headed down to San Diego! When we arrived in La Jolla, the sun was out, and the beach was so pretty. We hadn't planned to go in the water, but it was just so lovely! We enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon in the sand and then grabbed some delicious tacos at The Taco Stand. Unfortunately, that was the end of the sunshine for us.

The next two days were cloudy and rainy in San Diego, but the kids loved the hotel so much that they didn't mind! We tried to make the most of it by playing at parks and swimming in the hotel pool, which was nice and warm. SJ said she wanted to live at the hotel...which wouldn't be too bad, honestly. The breakfast in the morning was awesome!

We went to the Mormon Battalion museum in Old Town San Diego, and it was such a fun, full-circle moment for me! We used to go there growing up with the Layton side of my family, since Christopher Layton was part of the battalion. SJ was cute wearing the soldier clothes, and the girls panned for gold at the end. We ended the evening with some delicious Mexican food and a churro!

The next day, we slowly made our way back to the airport. We stopped at a pretty park with the cutest little friendship garden. I just love that area so, so much. Maybe someday we'll live out my dream of living in California!

The girls have been snotty and coughing basically ever since. So that's great. But we still had some fun this month! Valentine's Day was super fun. Hayden and I went to a stake dance together (lol), and on the 14th, Isaac proposed to Brooke! So, we got to have a fun Valentine's/engagement party for them.

Julia is getting smarter and more talkative every day! She is hilarious and also SO opinionated, it's scary. But we love her dearly and can't believe how quickly she's learning! I thought SJ was an early talker, but THIS GIRL is learning so much from her older sister, and she's talking more than I remember SJ being able to at this age. The most common words she's saying lately are:

• YEAHHH!
• No.
• shoes
• show
• ca-cah (cracker)
• apple
• GO!!!
• house
• OUTside
• peece (please)
• kee-koo (thank you)
• MOMMY!!
• ga-ga (dada:)
• boo (book)
• bee-bee (baby or binkie or blankie)
• na-na (night-night or banana)
• and (my personal favorite) ESHAYY! (SJ:)

I can't even stand how cute she is. Her cheeks?! Amazing. She's walking and running and climbing and playing with the big kids and I couldn't love her more.

Sara Jane is still the sweetest, most joyful little girl, and I can't believe how lucky I am to call her mine. She started doing dance this week, and my heart could hardly take it. Watching her absolutely fall in love with dancing is such a joy to see. At the end of every dance class, she asks, "Can we come back to dance every day?" We tried soccer last year, and it was a bit of a disaster, but dance has been a different story. It's obviously too early to make the call (especially since I didn't start playing soccer until I was 10), but I think if either of my kids is going to be a competitive athlete, my money's on Julia.

SJ also discovered the books that read to you at the library, and it's been so sweet to watch my girls read books together before bed. Oh, I love them so much!

I mentioned we had one little snowstorm, right? Here's my cute family with the first (and probably only) snowman of the year. Cutie pies.

I've mentioned how messy Julia is when she eats, right? Putting the yogurt cup on her head was next level.

Well, I'd say the worst months of the year are behind us. Despite the constant sicknesses, I've been feeling pretty in flow lately. We've got a good system going, and I love that I get to share the load of parenthood with my love, Hayden. We've built quite the life together!