Sick Week!

This week was pretty much a down week for us. We spent the majority of it at home with Keira sick, and then both. We did have a couple highlights; our anniversary and that Ryan's friend Patrick, visited from Germany this weekend.

Monday was pretty much our most normal day this week. We started with the gym followed by storytime.



It was also Ryan and I's 7th wedding anniversary. Congratulations to us! We went out to dinner as a family to the Macaroni Grill to celebrate. We hadn't been there in a long time, and it was such a great start to the week.

On Tuesday, it was the start of the illnesses. Keira had been coughing during the night, and we woke up to a mess. Needless to say, we stayed in the house from Tuesday until Friday afternoon, dealing with coughing and a fever that was coming and going. I went out a bit in the evenings to take a much needed break from the sickness. Thanks to Ryan, I was able to pretty much get in all my regular weekly workouts completed in the evenings. We also got some cleaning/organizing done that probably would not have happened otherwise, as well as got went through things to donate and cleaned up my closet. Below are pictures of how we spent our week indoors.






On Friday afternoon, we went to the Dr because Keira was just not improving. The ruling was that it was a bad cold, and that she will likely be a lot better by Monday. Soren had also begun to have a runny nose today, and then came down with a fever at night as well. Ryan had gone to Canton to pick up Patrick, and stayed they both stayed at Kris and Linda's where there is more space. We were able to visit Patrick while we were in Muenchen, Germany, and it was ironic that Ryan hadn't seen him in YEARS before that time, and now he gets to see him twice so close. Patrick was coming through Detroit for a business trip and would only be here for the weekend.

On Saturday, the kids slept in VERY late, which was great for them to get the rest they needed. They seemed in pretty good spirits. Once we were finally able to get everyone up and ready, we came down to Kris and Linda's to eat our breakfast (everyone else had eaten long before we arrived). We wanted to do some sightseeing around Detroit, so we took everyone over to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. I had never been inside before, and it was huge, and had all sorts of American history items that not only covered transportation, but housewares, civil rights, and other manufacturing items. Keira really enjoyed the trains (with a big engine like Polar Express) and a little "street" that on the ground going through the past 100 years of automobiles. Soren loved being able to be out of the house and enjoyed walking along the exhibits and the huge combine that he could go in. They both really liked this area of nothing, of course. We saw President Regan and Kennedy's cars, as well as the Wright Brother's plane, a round manufactured home circa 1920s (that was billed to be of the future), and the chair that President Lincoln was seated in when he was assassinated. Additionally, we boarded the bus where Rosa Parks would not give up her seat. There were several stations around the museum where Keira (and Kris) could make crayon rubbings of a plate representing the displays. There was also a station where Keira and Soren (with help) could build their own cars and race them down hills of various terrain.

We finished off the day with a meal at Sidetrack in Ypsilanti for some burgers, and then drove through Ann Arbor to show Patrick the UM campus and downtown. Keira and Soren were pretty much done at this point. We brought them home and got them tucked into bed before Ryan headed back to his parents house with Patrick for the night. It was a terrible night for Keira. She was just uncomfortable and had a hard time sleeping. She was up several times crying. Soren had a high fever again, and was up one more time than usual.

Needless to say, Sunday was a rough day for Keira, Soren, and I. Ryan and Patrick attended our church, but I stayed home with Keira and Soren. They got up at their normal times and wouldn't go back to sleep for some much needed rest. Ryan and Patrick left church early to help me out with them, and we took them over to Kris and Linda's for late lunch. Linda offered to watch them so Ryan and I could take Patrick around to see a few more things before taking him to the airport. We drove through downtown Plymouth, and then headed to Detroit. We drove by the science museum, DIA, Fox Theatre, Comerica Park and through Campus Martius to Hart Plaza. We took Jefferson north to Belle Isle, and drove around the island. Additionally, we drove into Gross Point to view the mansions from the road. It was nice to finish up in the nice part of town before getting on the freeway to head back to the airport.
For next week, hopefully, we can all get better this week and get out and get back to normal!

Ski Crystal Mountain and Auto Show

This week was so much fun. We started the week at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort for 3 nights with both of our parents, Bob and Miriam and Kris and Linda. We finished off the week by hitting the auto show and attending a party for Ryan's cycling group.

Sunday was a very busy day. We attended church in the morning. It was Ward Conference, so both Kris and Linda attended our church for their callings and I got a break from my sharing time duties as the stake Primary Presidency did a presentation. It also meant I had a short meeting after the block, but we tried to get home quickly. We packed up the cars, and my parents caravaned up to Crystal Mountain. Kris and Linda would be arriving on Monday. We stayed in a mountain top home again this year, and they are really great. Ryan joked on the drive up to the condo that we would have a yellow one, and sure enough, we did. It was fairly similar to the unit we had last year, but the downstairs had a much better layout for us. It had 2 separate bedrooms downstairs instead of one bedroom and a rec room. The bathroom was larger as well, which was nice since this is the one that was used by all 4 of us. We didn't have another huge round table this year, which was a little disappointing, because the round table was so great for game playing, but the rectangle table accommodated us nicely.
The living room was pretty much the same as before.
This was the second bedroom in the basement where Keira slept.
Here is where Ryan, Soren, and I slept in the basement.
Our yellow condo. It had another large master bedroom upstairs that comprised the top floor.

We got settled in, cooked a simple dinner of sweet and sour chicken over rice (both from Trader Joe's), and then hit the pool before bedtime.
Keira and Soren did not want to leave the pool area.

On Monday, we got up and had a nice pancake breakfast with fruit, bacon, and banana walnut pancakes, which is one of the major perks about being right on the mountain- you can take your time in the morning because the slopes are just a few steps away. It is also nice because it was very easy to trade off and on skiing and staying back with Keira and Soren. Keira skied in the morning, and she did great. Kris and Linda also arrived and were able to get in a few runs before the end of the day. We had a dinner of lasagna that my dad prepared at home and then brought up to cook. It was a huge time and cost saver to cook all of our meals in the condo and not go out. We brought all sorts of meats, cheese, and bread for sandwiches for lunches as well. One unusual thing happened today, and Soren came down with a bad rash all over. It was small red dots. I thought about taking his picture, but then didn't because I wasn't sure what I would do with it (was I crazy for wanting to document my speckled son?), but then regretted it later in the week when we couldn't figure it out.


On Tuesday, we started the morning with an excellent breakfast of Nutella filled Ebelskivers. They are filled pancakes and they were so good. The pan was a gift from my parents to Ryan's parents, and I totally want one now too. I started the morning with Soren on the sled. He really enjoyed it, and Keira did too. I also took Keira out a little bit with the skis. I took her down way too fast and she had a decent crash, but got up (after a few tears) and kept going for a few more runs. Ryan and I managed to find a little bit of fresh snow on Little Vincent, but for the most part, everything was pretty groomed and fast. Kris and Linda prepare pork tenderloin for dinner from Minde's recipe.







Wednesday was our last morning at the house, so we had to pack up everything and check out. Our last meal at the house consisted of snowflake shaped whole grain pancakes. They are so cute and Keira really likes them. We got all packed up Soren spent the morning with my mom at the registration building with my mom where there was a small playarea. Keira did a few runs, this time we took her down a different area where it was easier on us to control her speed. She finished up with a Blue run, and then we had a few last runs before having lunch at "The Thistle". We ate here last year too before getting on the road, and it is just a nice sit down restaurant in the bottom of the Kinlochen building. It was such a fun trip, we can't wait to do it again next year!
Keira is going down her first blue run!
You can see our yellow condo just over Ryan's shoulder in this picture.

The slide show contains most of the pictures from the trip, including the ones that are already above.

On Thursday, Keira had a field trip to the ITC center for a puppet show and to celebrate Frosty the Snowman's birthday. She got to ride on a bus again and was very excited. She didn't make any crafts today. We also went to the auto show. We were initially going to go on Friday during the day with Ryan's team from work. Due to Soren's rash, which was initially thought to be a reaction to his antibiotic, I had to schedule a Dr's appointment for Friday, so we had to go to the show today. There was a bit of excitement about going today because around 1:00pm, an electrical fire broke out above the Audi exhibit. We were not there when it happened, and there were no injuries and very little damage to the auto show displays, but it threw another wrench in our plans to go see the auto show. We had planned to meet Ryan at 3:30 at his work and drive over from there, but the show was closed until 4:30 or 5, according to the initial report. Since there is literally nothing to do in Detroit with 2 small children in January EXCEPT go to the auto show (and even that is a stretch for some people), we wanted to err on the later side, and got to the COBO roof parking lot right after 5, and it was still closed, and it was looking like it would open at 5:30 instead. We ended up driving around Detroit for about 20 minutes before circling back to COBO and got in line for the roof parking lot. Crazy, I know, to park on the roof after the ceiling had been on fire, but it wasn't the ceiling of the top floor, so it was fine. We finally got inside, and enjoyed the show. Kris and Linda came down a bit later than us, and we were able to meet up for a bit. I made a slideshow of most of the pics, since I sometimes feel like it is a waste of time to take them anyway, because we don't do anything with them typically. Here are a couple of the highlights.
Soren was OK with the Michelin Man as long as I was in the middle. Keira was terrified as we expected.

Keira is chillin' at the Mini Beach exhibit. She was not afraid of the mini Michelin Man in her hand.

Ryan and Keira on a BMW motorcycle (with mini Michelin Man)

This was a 2010 Taurus demonstration that we did to get tote bags. The circular device dropped down from the ceiling and had a 360 degree screen on it.

Keira did the demo with Kris and Linda. Soren rode with Ryan and I, because only 3 people could do it at a time. This is the same vehicle that is pictured above, prior to the screen coming down.

The slideshow contains the rest of the photos from the auto show.

On Friday, we had a usual morning where we hit the gym and then took Soren to the Dr. We were really surprised to learn that Soren had a low grade fever at his appointment. His ears were cleared up enough that she didn't feel that further treatment would be necessary. She was unsure if the rash was caused by the antibiotic or not, since there were so many factors, and I didn't have a picture. There wasn't much of it to see since it was practically gone by now. Also, since he had a slight fever, we didn't want to do his immunizations and further complicate things, so we still have to go back in about another week. Ugh. Now I was thinking that I am that terrible mom that hauls sick kids around everywhere infecting others. I had just thought he was being tired from being up so late the previous night and not really sick. He finished off the night with his fever going up high enough to treat with Tylenol, but not high enough to be concerned, especially since the Dr said that the fevers typically come at the end of viruses. We hoped this was the end. Keira and Soren pulled these chairs from the table at the Dr's office to watch TV. Keira was upset with me for standing in front of it, of course.

On Saturday, I got up and ran 8 miles outside. It was so much nicer to run outside than inside the gym. We did take both Keira and Soren to a special storytime at the library since Soren's fever was gone. He seemed a lot better, but was still on the tired side. Both enjoyed the library very much, although Keira was upset that we weren't going to the gym first!

Once home, they both had a great time playing in a couple boxes left over from all the stuff we packed to take up to Crystal Mountain. They were very cute in them.




That evening, Ryan and I were very excited to be social without the kids! We brought them over to Kris and Linda's to spend the night so we could go to dinner with Valerie and Kent at Buca Di Beppo. After a great dinner, we all went over to a party for the Wolverine Sports Club members. With Ryan, Kent, and David being the new ride leaders for the spring, it was important (as well as fun) to go and get to know some of the other riders in the club. David and Sharonlea were already there when we arrived, and we got to chat bikes and sports with everyone. It has been a long time since I had been to an "athletes" party. We spent the night at Kris and Linda's where Soren had a miserable night's sleep. Perhaps we let him sleep too much during the day or he still wasn't feeling 100%. It seems like his bad nights always seem to conincide with nights that I need sleep the most.

Sunday was regular day for the most part. We went to church from Kris and Linda's house. It was my last day for a couple months to do the Sharing Time, so that was a relief. Keira is doing really well in Primary, and was asked to give the scripture next Sunday in Sharing Time. Hopefully she will not be too shy to do it, but I guess we will see. Soren and I both had LONG naps after church back at our place. Soren was clowning around with Keira's blanket from her bed. Where is Soren?
Here he is!
We found him, but his legs are missing. It is just his head and torso with some feet due to his camo pants!
Keira was happy to get her music box out again since it had been put away for the holidays to make room for Christmas decorations. She was asking for her wobbly dancing girls on the mirror.

Up for next week, it looks like it will be another "normal week" again. We don't have anything special planned, except to hopefully have Soren back to 100%. He was acting fine this evening, but hopefully that isn't deceiving.