Ano Nuevo

On our first day, we went to Año Nuevo State Park to see the Elephant Seals! We took a guided walk through the park to the shore where the elephant seals were. We learned quite a bit about elephant seals!

Between December and March, male elephant seals come to this beach to fight it out for Alpha Male. There are thousands of males once the season ends to only a couple hundred females. Once the alpha males are established, the women circle around the alpha male for mating. The non-alpha males lounge around the beach in defeat for the rest of the season. They seem to take their defeat in stride.

Males can get up to 4000lbs, however, they actually take their name from their trunk-like snout. A mature male can have a snout. The females are much smaller and do not have the snout. Once the females give birth (one pup only) they feed it for four weeks. After four weeks the mother leaves and the pup must fend for itself. 

Not only were these beast extraordinary, but they also pick a great spot to breed for 3 months. The views are terrific. We hiked about 3 miles around the park to visit the seals.

We hit a local brewery on Hwy 1 and made an impromptu stop on the beach to watch the sunset. It was absolutely stunning. We hiked around the beach and climbed up cliffs to find the best view. I think we found it.

It was a GREAT way to spend our first day in California!

CA bound!!!

You know that week between Christmas and New Years where you don't know what day it is or what you are supposed to be doing? Yeah, I had had enough of those...so we planned a trip!

Evan was getting over the flu and the nice doctor prescribed us Tamiflu for Luke as a preventative. He took the first two doses with no problem. I threw the third dose at him as we left at 5:30am on the 26th.

You see those faces? One newly healthy, and one newly sick....Luke started throwing up on the plane about half an hour in the air.

Technically, he threw up in the lobby of the airport, but to me, it just seemed like spit up and I chalked it up to being motion sick from the car ride. Even though he doesn't get motion sick...at all....I might have been deep in that river of DENIAL. John was Luke's plane partner and had to hold the sick bags for him each time. I thought I was helping out by sitting next to the just recovered, really does get motion sick child. Turns out, I had the easy seat.

We bought some Dramamine on the layover and with 13 minutes left to spare before the next flight we sent up some prayers for flight 2 to be uneventful.

I sat next to Luke this time armed with all the sick bags I could find. We loaded up with Dramamine and said a couple more prayers. He feel asleep almost instantly. When he woke up he announced he was hungry. Since it had been two hours since his last 'event', I tested the waters. He ended up eating 2 bags of pretzels, 4 cookies, 1 fruit bar, and some other snack I can't even remember. I think he was healed.

Thankfully we arrived in San Francisco with no other drama. We were ready for a couple days of family, food, and fun!

Fierce Ping Pong competition all weekend long! They might have ALMOST convinced us to get a ping pong table and/or basketball goal!

Christmas Flu

On the last day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....one diagnosis of the Flu B.

The flu has hit St. George's hard this winter. I thought we escaped all of that sickness until the evening of the 23rd. Evan announced around 9pm that he was going to bed. I can count on ONE hand the number of times Evan has said he wants to go to bed. He mentioned not feeling good, but we chalked it up to a busy day playing outside and running around.

About 1:30am he appeared in our room saying he was sick. With one cheek against his forever, the mom check for fever, I knew we were in for a rough Christmas.

Christmas Eve morning we were at the doctor's office first thing. I was convinced and fervently praying, it was strep. I knew with strep, we'd only be down 24 hours and our trip to CA would still be on. With the flu, I had my doubts. We tested him for both and left before the results came in. The doctor said he'd call with either prescription. 

I got a call about an hour later it was the flu. I went to get the Tamiflu along with all the things to disinfect the house while making all the phone calls. Cancelling Christmas Eve, warning our family about Christmas day, and possibly making alternate plans for our trip to California. I was in total go mode.

Sadly, the Tamiflu made Evan sick....like bad sick. I have some amazing friends in the medical field who were able to hook me up with a different flu drug. We gave it to him and kept our fingers crossed.

Nonna and Pop still planned their trip on Christmas Eve saying germs weren't going to keep them away, so we were able to celebrate with them. Luke and I went over the Gran and Jed to celebrate with them. 

Evan was able to get up Christmas morning and open presents! He even wanted to eat pancakes! He may have needed a two hour nap after all that excitement, but it was nice he could come downstairs!

Luke was so surprised with a letter from Joey, his elf!

After Evan's nap, he felt good enough to go to Janice's. He had been fever free all morning! It was a Christmas miracle!!

But again, after about 2 hours, he needed some rest time. I spent the rest of Christmas packing for San Francisco, still praying he'd wake up fever free so he wouldn't be contagious anymore! Thankfully that 5am alarm went off and Evan was ready to fly!