On the day we arrived at my Jake and Tamara’s house (my bro and sister in law), my throat was starting to feel a little less than ideal. So, I kept my distance as much as I could (especially from 4 month-old Gabe, who I was meeting for the very first time).
By the next day, I woke up and I was full on sick. And it was a pretty bad one; I’m pretty sure it was influenza (fever, chills, sore throat, body aches, headache, and fatigue. All the fun.) Fortunately, my parents currently live in the basement of Jake and Tamara’s house. So, I went and begged my mom to come upstairs and help out with my kids while I died for a bit. And she did it. She is an angel.
Honestly, I am not too surprised that I got sick. I was pretty stressed in the days before we arrived. And my immune system just noped out.
Despite my attempts to stay away from everyone, within a couple of days, the sickness moved on to my kids and then to Jake and Tamara’s family as well. 😫😫
Needless to say, there was a little more screen time than we usually go for. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
On the Friday after we arrived, I retrieved Jonathan from the airport after his trip to Seattle. I was still feeling under the weather, and so I was very happy to have parental backup again. Jonathan opted to sleep on the couch for a bit so that he would hopefully be able to avoid getting sick. (It worked!)
And while the sickness moved through the ranks, we all did our best to keep everyone fed, reasonably hygienic, and entertained.
Game night! 
Baby Gabey is the cutest guy in the whole wide world. 
Obviously, we are a little obsessed. 
Decorating the tree. (yes, it was before Thanksgiving. We were desperate ok? 9 cabin feverish children!) 
Uncle Jack is a favorite toy. 
Jonathan made a couple of runs to Crumbl cookie. The man has a problem.
But honestly, our sanity was largely saved by play dough. The kids spent so much time playing with play dough.
I’m so grateful that they all play really well together (for the most part, they are still kids after all). And Grammy lives in the basement. And uncle Jack visited a lot.
And then. Clara started throwing up. After all parties were sufficiently recovered, Jonathan took Clara, Jonas, Logan, and Lauren rock climbing.
That same night, Jonathan took the three older kids to go see their cousin, Nathaniel, play Jack Kelly in his high school’s production of Newsies. The show and Nathaniel were both amazing, and afterwards they all went to Leatherby’s for ice cream.
I stayed home with the sick twins; And it was a good thing I did, because I threw up that night. It seems that I caught whatever bug Clara had earlier.
Unfortunatelly the stomach bug did not end with me. It started getting passed around as well. Fortunately, it was, in most cases, a 24 hours or less sort of bug. The crazy thing is that we have no clue where this darn thing came from.
Our first ten days in Utah were certainly not what we had bargained on. So. much. sickness. But I guess if you have to be sick and quarantined, it’s nice to do so with people you love. ❤️
