The last two weeks have sucked, due to a horrible virus that infected our household. I haven't been sick with a fever for many years, and it was terrible. Dave and the kids' also were sick and it was a miserable two weeks.
Today we had to get out. The boys wanted to go to the zoo, so despite the snow and rain we took off first thing. We had a great time. When we got to the zoo, the parking lot was empty, and the temperature was a nice 39 degrees. When we were getting ready to leave this morning , I made the boys get their hats and gloves and winter coats, since it was snowing. I had to run back into the house ten times for miscellaneous items, but Dylan was all buckled in and wearing his hat and gloves so I didn't give it another thought. When we got to the zoo, and started to unload, Dylan had forgotten his coat. I was ticked, but we scrounged up a sweatshirt and called it good. While we were walking into the zoo, Dylan said "Remember that time we came to the zoo, and that monkey smacked Dawson in the head?" I didn't remember that specifically and Dawson couldn't recall that ever happening, but Dylan was so serious about it, and explained it in detail. I told him he must have dreamed it, but he got upset, and said it really happened. It was quite the story and by the time we got to the elephants, Dawson was starting to remember it too. It was pretty funny. Emma refused to ride in the stroller, she has become very independent, and walked for most of our trip. She loved the monkeys and was making noises at them. She formed a bond with a huge gorilla, and they just stood opposite each other and stared. We had such a good time.
Tonight we decided to forgo movie night, and instead went swimming. Dawson took his life jacket off, and practiced swimming. He was doing incredible, and was very pleased with himself. He is one motivated kid. He loves to master new things and learn. We took Kory and Brooklyn, (niece and nephew), and Dylan had a blast playing with Kory. I am always impressed with Kory because he is 12, but he is always great with the boys, and they love him. Emma was a little bit of a pain. She doesn't get that she can't breathe under water. She is completely fearless, and doesn't want to be held. Finally she was content climbing the stairs in the pool and then wriggling off the edge. It was a fun night and we were all exhausted.

This morning, the boys were playing so good with each other in the basement. Our basement is only a 1/3 finished and there is a long concrete area that has been set up with the skate board ramps, toys, and a wrestling mattress. Last summer when we thought we had sold our house, we moved most of the basement stuff into a storage unit, including a home made trapeze. ( see photo) That was their favorite toy downstairs. I liked it too. We had a lot of fun throwing balls, or shooting nerf bullets, at Dawson while he would try to swing out of the way. Anyway, Dave made them an obstacle course the other day, with their dinosaurs, and other toys, that they had to maneuver on their bikes, that they loved. They also had a great time lying on their stomachs, on their skateboards, and going head first down the ramps into the mattress. I can't believe we haven't had any broken bones or stitches, knock on wood.
I had to tear them away from the fun around 10:00 so we could make a Wal-Mart run. We got some valentines for the kids to take to school, and yarn for my grandma. Dylan has started asking for everything he can see, but he always ask's if he can have it for our new house. My reply is always, "we will see," and it works. After a quick stop at Wendy's, we headed for home and naps.
Dave came home early so that we could jet over to Coalville to get our passports. I think it is a little funny that we have to go to a smaller, redder-necked town to get passports, but that is what we did. We saw probably a hundred deer on the way to Coalville, and I feel so bad for them. The forest service is starting to feed them now, because they are becoming so dangerous on the highways.
Dawson and Dylan had great naps, so we did our usual pizza and movie night. We saw Eragon, a movie about dragons, hopefully there won't be any nightmares.

Today we are finally starting to feel better. I had to come home early from work on Monday because I felt like crap. I haven't been sick for a long, long time, and it hasn't been fun. Sunday night Emma had a terrible night, she wouldn't go to bed and was just kind of thrashing around. She bawled for a few hours straight, and we couldn't figure out what was the matter. She had a reaction to her last shots but that had been a full week ago, then Dave mentioned maybe she was having a reaction to whole milk. He is so smart, I started to think about it and the symptoms she had all week, fit a milk allergy. Dave gave her a blessing about 10:00 Sunday night and she immediately settled down. She just hung out on the couch and watched t.v. with us for awhile, then we gave her some formula and she went to bed. Dave got up with her twice during the night since I had to be up at 5:30 for work. He is the best husband in the whole world. I never even knew she was up.
Today is a better day. Emma's nose is still flowing and my guts are still churning, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. This morning I got up to get Emma's bottle and when I went back to my bedroom, my bed was made. Dawson has been a very good helper lately. He thinks it is fun to sneak around doing nice things for people. He has been making everyone's bed and taking diapers out to the outside garbage without being asked. This morning after finding my bed made, I said "who made my bed?" He came and gave me a big hung and said " I did, cause I think you shouldn't have to do all the work yourself." What a great kid.
At breakfast, Dawson was telling me that he played with Taylee at school yesterday. Taylee pretty much ran our lives the first 2 weeks of school, because Dawson had a major crush on her and sometimes she liked him, and sometimes she didn't. I kept urging him to find a boyfriend, because they usually don't have the highs and lows that girls do, and he made friends with Colby. Anyway, Colby wasn't at school yesterday so he played with Taylee, and they played Doctor. Dawson said her patient was a Barbie, but then he offered to be the patient. He said she checked his eyes, ears, mouth, and then poked his belly. I hope Colby gets back to school soon.
Tonight Dave brought home presents for all the kids, from the Sportsman's Expo. The boys got camoflage jackets, (yikes!) actually they weren't terrible, and Emma got a stuffed Big Horn Sheep. Dave was excited because he got a great deal on one of his hunting magazines, and I was glad because he didn't get me anything. We decided to go to dinner tonight, I was really craving my favorite Don Pedros, but the weather was terrible so we went to the Gateway instead. The boys were whining because they didn't want to go out, so when I mentioned a babysitter, they were happy again. One of the neighborhood girls came over, and we enjoyed a lovely, quiet dinner.

Ah, Costco. Something always seems to go down at Costco. Today as we were all rolling towards the checkout lines, Dylan caught sight of the midget handing out samples of Joint Juice, and let out a very loud "Holy shit, Mom!" As I tried to shush him, he said "Did you see that little tiny guy?" I knew exactly who he was talking about, but it surprised me, because we have seen this same man every 2 weeks for the last few years, and neither of the boys has ever blinked an eye. Dawson was in awe also. He said "I didn't know they made a-dolts in little boy bodies. Let's go back and look at him." Luckily I found a line that wasn't very long and we zipped through it. On the way out I bought the boys a hot dog and while we were sitting at the table I tried to have a good conversation with them. We discussed not swearing, which I am going to work on myself, and then we talked about the "little guy". The boys were still laughing and joking about him and I got really stern about other people's feelings and gave them a good sermon. I thought they were starting to understand, especially when I told them they were going to be really tall, and some people might think that was really funny. As we got ready to leave I told Dawson that I couldn't believe he had eaten his whole hot dog, and he got this sly little smile on his face and said "yeah, that little guy probably couldn't eat a whole hot dog." Both boys were in hysterics until I told Dawson, "actually that is how he became a little guy, he ate one huge Costco hotdog when he was 5 and he stayed that size." The whole way home Dawson was really worried and kept asking me if I was teasing, and Dylan was heaven jabbing him in the side calling him "little guy."