Party weekend with the cousins. Or so we hoped!

Miss Paris and Scarlett arrived on Thursday, Feb 16th after going through 4 states in 6 hours! Several modes of transportation and rides through California, Nevada, the corner of Arizona and finally to Utah. It was most definitely party time! We had a great night together and we sooooo glad they had arrived! Spencer had had the stomach flu the night before (Wed) and was pretty sick….but majorly quarantined to the playroom and only allowed to leave to go to my bathroom. I had washed a dozen loads of laundry, used several packages of Lysol disinfectant wipes and cleaned galore! No one was going to get this!! Friday was a very successful day. The big girls went on a nice 5mile bike ride down to Dutchmans to get Frazzles. Yum. And just might have possibly had their phone numbers asked for, to which Paris replied, “We’re from California”. The high school kid said, “Oh what part?” She said, “San Francisco”. He said, “Ohhh, that’s a big city! I’m a country kind of kid. I don’t like big cities. St George is big enough for me” Haha. She wasn’t about to give out her number!!

That afternoon I had the pleasure of taking the three big girls out shopping. We had a blast at a couple different thrift stores, purchasing things that had “POTENTIAL!” Ha. It was a great adventure. They crafted all night long turning kids skirts into headbands, adding bows and flowers and such to others. You’ll have to look for Erin’s up coming blog post about these fun re-do’s!

We had just enough time to pick up the dog at the groomers and head over to Grace’s soccer game. She had quite the cheering squad! It was a great game to watch and we all enjoyed the sunshine!

I found this note on the counter…..part of the “list” that they are planning on doing this weekend! I have to admit, I was unsure what cottonballing a car was. Well. apparently you get cotton balls slightly wet on a cold night and put them on someone’s car. Or maybe all over their car. And the cotton balls end up freezing onto their car overnight. Ha. That’s a good one!

Lex, Brian, and Brian’s brother Travis arrived Friday night. Sorry boys, I don’t have a picture of you! But below is a picture of all the girls (Lex, Paris, Scarlett and Erin) and their 13 year old diamond ring! We love that tradition in our family. It reminds them of their sparkling beauty that comes from within and how precious they each are. We are so blessed to have each of them in our family!! Grace will be getting one next year and Miss Chloe the year after! Friday night turned out to be the last of their fun for awhile :( After a long night of visiting, laughing and telling stories we all started to head to bed about midnight. Right then Erin said, “Hey mom, I really don’t feel so good. My stomach just is grumbly and not feeling right.” So I told her to go into my room, just as Scarlett said, “I really don’t feel so great either, my stomach just doesn’t feel right”. I told Scarlett I’d be right back as I went into Erin who told me (while sitting on my rocking chair in my room) “Mom, I am going to throw up right now”. “Get into the bathroom!!!” Miss Long Leg Erin runs over to the toilet and stands up and barfs. And barfs. And completely misses the inside of the toilet, but manages to hit the front rim of the seat so it all splats EVERYWHERE. Ewwwww. It was sooo yucky. Jeremy was sooo good to help me clean up the mess, while I helped miss Erin get changed. I was hurrying so I could run in to check on Scarlett. On my way back to her room, I was passing Alexa (at 1am) as she said “Hey mom, what’s the symptoms of a yeast infection? Cause I’m in so much pain!” After checking on Scarlett (who was doing ok, not great, but not as bad as Erin) I went with Lex to Lins (closed), Alberstons (closed) and Walgreens (closed)….so off we drove all the way into town to the 24 hr Walgreens for Monistat 1. Yes ONE! Remember the Monistat 7? It’s down to ONE! Yea! So, back at home…..1:40am. Erin is throwing up every 20 min, bless Jeremy for his help.

I decided to sleep with Scarlett in case she needed me for the night. She wasn’t feeling so great, but we were hoping that maybe if we could get some sleep that it would just go away? We were quiet and just falling asleep when Paris (who has been asleep for quite some time) says, “Hey Brian or Zac, if you loan me two dollars I promise I’ll pay you back”. Ha. It was so funny. Until she sat straight up in bed and was staring at me and Scarlett for what seemed like forever! Then she reached her hand down and started digging around in her bag…..apparently looking/feeling for money. Then she says, “I promise I will pay you back” To which Scarlett and I BUST up laughing. Paris wakes up and tells us that she just wanted to borrow money to buy a taco or something. Haha.

Ahhh, drifting off to sleep again and Erin busts in the room saying, “I need underwear! I was just throwing up and I peed!” (boo, poor girl! if you knew Erin and her throwing up….it is the most violent throwing up I have ever heard!). I shoo her and her germs out of the room and tell her I will bring her some. So I grab two pairs out of her drawer and walk through the house to bring them to her. I pass Jeremy along the way (who is cleaning out the throw up bowl…ewww). As I pass him waving panties I say, “Clean underwear since she peed” To which he says, “Scarlett peed?” “No, Erin!” (2:30am mind you). Oh boy. Erin proceeded to throw up for a few more hours but the rest of us fell asleep around 3am. LONG night!!

I was up by 8am, hoping for a happy, healthy day. It was happy. Somewhat. But not healthy! Scarlett was down for the count by morning with a terrible stomach ache, and feeling downright miserable. I helped her into the playroom / sick room / Call hospital, while Jeremy pulled in the blow up bed to plop Scar by Erin. I was able to make Miss Paris an early birthday breakfast request of crepes with cinnamon sugar. Good thing we did them Saturday!!

We got those two all settled while we ran off to Gracies next tournament soccer game. Yea for two wins, but one loss. They were great games, semi-final game Monday morning!!

I came home after the game to THREE girls down and out and sound alseep. Poor girls. Stomach aches, chills, fever, and overall misery. It was so sad!! Paris started with the stomach ache mid morning, so Lex helped her find a spot in the “hospital”.   See the little silver bell on Scarlett’s bed? That was the “nurses’ call”. Give it a ring and watch me come running! Here is the delivery of 2 Sprites, a gogurt and an apple juice (on the “sick tray” from France). I think they were on movie 3 of the day by now!! Spencer was also allowed to help anytime, since he had already had the stomach bug and was now all better. Alexa and I ran out to the store to grab a couple more chick flicks (The Notebook and The Proposal) and at a second hand movie shop we found this movie below personally signed by Ryan Reynolds…at least that’s what we like to think! It was the RYAN night. There is a Ryan in all three of those movies! Ha. Paris had a tough night, throwing up, boooooo! But thankfully everyone slept for a few hours that night all at once! Yea for getting some sleep. Sunday was Miss Paris’ 18th birthday which she spent with her sister and cousin curled up in their respective “hospital beds” watching movies. I think about 7 total today. They still are weak, tired, tummy aches here and there, and the hot/colds. We decided to postpone the “birthday” dinner / cupcakes, etc until Monday.  She did decide to open her presents and we stuck 18 candles into a piece of cheesecake and sang to her. Boo for being sick on your birthday!! While they watched movies, the rest of us watched “Secondhand Lions”, played a great game of Train Dominoes (yea to Travis for winning the two hour game!) and answered the “nurse bell” every time it rang!! Monday morning brought each of the three sick girls out slowly, but surely! They were slow and being careful. They showered and ate something little so carefully. But it hit miss Scarlett again as she got dizzy and light headed and then…..yes, threw up for the first time in her life. All over her clean, just showered self, hair, outfit, etc. My washing machine has ran all weekend long! She showered again and was determined to be better today. All of the girls got ready at a nice, easy pace today. Then they decided to go out on a little photo shoot. My suggestions – don’t walk too far from the car to take pictures, take a barf bucket, water bottles for everyone with their names on them….no sharing!

It has been a long weekend and the girls had so many fun things planned to do, I was only so sad that they were sick. They were excellent patients and so good to want to care for each other even though they each felt miserable. I know it’s not what any of us wanted, but we did make the best of a yucky, miserable situation. It’s one weekend we won’t forget any time soon.

We have the rest of today and all day tomorrow to squeeze in as much fun as we can, just not sure we’ll get the “cotton-balling” in this trip!!

Grace, Paris, Erin, Scarlett and Alexa     February 20, 1012