The rest of our Christmas story

I don't have a lot of pictures from the rest of our Christmas visit in Montana. And the ones I do have tend to not include Charlie. Because who wants to see pictures of a miserable little boy??? Instead - check out the fun these guys were having - out on the swingset, blowing "smoke" in the hot tub under the stars... what a life!


Why was Charlie miserable? Well, a 103.6 degree fever and strep throat will do that to a kid. And being away from home when you're sick isn't fun for anyone, especially not a 1.5 year old. So we spent the last few days (especially before we figured out the fever was serious and made a run to urgent care) sleeping in short shifts and carrying Charlie everywhere we went. We did a lot of snuggling:


After he had the first dose of magic antibiotic elixir and some drugs for the pain, Charlie became himself (for a while) again. We were relieved, since that was about the same time Scott's older sister Kristin and her family arrived. The Charlie they'd seen to that point was not the Charlie we know! Our Charlie looks like this when he's "playing" Mario Kart with the big kids:


Take a good look at the boy in the green shirt, because unfortunately these are the only pictures I have of the boys' cousin Liam. We had a great time seeing Kristin, Tim, Aislyn and Liam - I wish I had the pictures to prove it!