A Road Trip, A Virus and a Birthday!

A Road Trip
The weekend before Christmas, I decided to hop in the car with Jack for an overnight road trip to Milwaukee. My aunts/uncles and cousins were getting together for an early Christmas and to celebrate the December birthdays in our family. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to getaway from the Holiday craziness and spend some alone time with Jack. Plus, I was able to spend some QT with this lovey......

 My niece, Frankie.

 

Doesn't she look like the sweetest little Kewpie Doll?

 

 And this little lovey, my nephew Ty!

I don't think I saw much of these two during the party...the ran around (with Aidan, who didn't like the camera) playing trucks and pirate ships the entire time.

 

Oh, and these two cuties, too! My cousin's twins, Abbie & Maggie! 

I think they love anything baby! 

So, they love the current babies, Frankie and Owen.

See...they love their babies! She (not sure which twin?) is listening to them! Yep, that's right, Amy has two babies, a boy and a girl due in April!

More of the boys!

 

Freshly bathed and silly. Oh, and the "cheese face" makes an appearance. I think Ty has enough of his Auntie taking his picture!

One more of Frankie, who could possibly be the best baby ever! 

And my pretty, pretty cousin Katie holding her!

An attempt at a kiddie group shot!

 

This was very difficult. I have a new lens that I am still figuring out along with the size of the group along with the fact that the group is all kids 3 years old and younger and it was a weird angle filled with lots of adults trying to get the kids to smile.

Notice the girls posing nicely and the boys...I don't know what they are doing? They both look totally bored with the whole thing.

And now a dog?!

Who proceeded to lay on the floor in front of the kids like this!? Hmmm?

It was actually very funny!

 By this point, we lost both boys to making imaginary snow angels on the carpet!! Hilarious! I couldn't fit it all in with the new lens...darn it!

The girls, of course, are still troopers! 

After this, the night had come to an end! Everyone had to go home and Jack was instantly asleep when his head hit the pillow. He was exhausted from playing so hard and I heard that at one point he showing everyone how he could lift eight pound dumbbells over his head! 

The Virus 

All was great for our drive back to Michigan the next day. Jack seemed pretty tired still and he wasn't too hungry most of the day. I just thought it was because of all the craziness the day before. Well, at about bedtime, he started complaining of his tummy hurting and he was actually wincing in pain!? Within minutes, he started getting sick and this continued on about every 30 minutes the entire night. About half way through the night, I was sick just the same. I was then thinking we had food poisoning due how quickly it came on and how terrible it was! But, it eventually, went through all four of us! I also found out that my brother Andy's family (Frankie and Ty) had had the exact same thing the week before. We spent the entire night at the party smooching and hugging them! Darn it...we got a "Terrible, No Good, Very Bad" Smoochie virus! 

A Birthday

And a sad, sad 3rd birthday it was.

Empty chair for his Birthday dinner. He laid on the couch.

Presents unopened. He laid on the couch.

 A birthday cake that Jack didn't want to eat or even blow the candles out!

He laid on the couch.

Poor little guy.

He was really sick for about three full days, including his birthday.

It takes a lot to get this kiddo down. And to not want to enjoy the three things above....I knew that he was one worn out little buddy!

However, Jack is all better. Thank goodness!

We had another party for him, Ty and Owen as they were all born within a few weeks of each other.

 He loved every minute of it! Cake, presents, and he even blew out the candles, which in Jack's book is the best part!