Memorable weekend

Baba, Papa, Mike, Carrie, Ryan, and Nicholas came into town this past weekend for Savannah's baby blessing.  We had a fun day on Saturday going to the zoo, eating dinner, and hanging out.  

Sunday was also memorable, but not in a good way.  Alex had been fighting a staph infection for about a week and a half.  He was almost better, until he started getting a rash on his face on Saturday evening.  He spent a little bit of time out in the sun on Saturday morning, helping Papa build a treehouse.  However, the antibiotics Alex was taking said to avoid being in the sun.  We figured that he had spent too long outside.  By about 1:00am, his face was swollen and red.  The rash had also spread to his back and chest, so he drove himself to the ER.  It turns out that he was having an allergic reaction to the medicine he was taking.  They gave him a shot and hooked him up to an IV for a while.  He called me about 3:00am to let me know what was going on.  I hated that he was over there by himself, but I had to stay at home with the kids.  I sent a text message to my parents at about 3:30am.  My dad drove over to the hospital, just in time to give Alex a ride home (since he couldn't drive for a while).  My dad left the suburban here and then began to walk back to the hospital to get the car.  As soon as I realized that, I went out to find him and give him a ride.  

Alex rested Sunday morning, but wasn't in any state for giving Savannah her blessing at church.  It also turns out that my Mom, Mike, and Carrie got some kind of stomach bug too.  Nicholas had been coughing most of the night.  So Mike and his family headed out right after the 1st hour of church.  I had planned on taking a bunch of pictures of everyone on Sunday after church, but that didn't happen.  So unfortunately I didn't end up with any pictures of all the cousins together or any pictures of Mike and Savannah.  The pictures that Mike shows up in are helping with the treehouse and in the background of one doing the dishes.  I am grateful he was here, quietly helping with whatever needed to be done.  He also came before church on Sunday to help my dad give Alex a blessing.  I guess Mike didn't realize which blessing he was going to be a part of on Sunday morning... it was touching to me to witness the authority of the priesthood in action.  It's a reminder to me of the importance of teaching our boys about the priesthood so they can be worthy to receive that authority later to bless their families. 

I was pretty sad about not being able to do Savannah's blessing at church with family, but we still had a good time on Friday and Saturday.  It was memorable!     

   

My dad worked on a treehouse most of the day on Saturday and on Monday morning.  Mike and Alex also helped on Saturday morning.  The boys were so excited about this treehouse.  As soon as they found out that Papa would be in town, they started talking about him building a treehouse again.  (He built one in our rental house, but we had to take that one down.)  And as soon as Nathan and Jared got home from school on Friday, they came home looking for Papa.  They barely said "hi" to Baba - they wanted to see if Papa was building their treehouse!  It was so cute to see all the boys lined up in their chairs watching them work on the treehouse.  

Thanks Dad for working so hard on it (although it still makes me nervous to see the boys up there).  He didn't quite have time to finish - I think he started on a lower level, but ran out of time.  

Carrie got to hold Savannah quite a bit amidst all the chaos.  Thanks for coming - we'll have to get together again soon!

It was fun to see the boys laughing, and wrestling, and having a good time together.  Sure was LOUD and WILD though!