Travel!!!

We just got off the phone with our agency. Everything has been approved! We will meet Ella on January 13!

Tentative itinerary:

Fri 1/10 - Dave and Karla depart for China

Sun 1/12 - Arrive in Guangxi province

Mon 1/13 - Ella - gotcha day!

Fri 1/17 - Karla and Ella fly to Guangzhou, Dave flies home

Thu 1/23 - Visa interview at US Consulate in Guangzhou

Fri 1/24 - Pickup Ella's Visa 

Sat 1/25 Karla and Ella fly home

We are working with the agency on the final itinerary and we'll send that over as soon as we get it.

Thanks for all your prayers on our behalf!

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve

 

Merry Christmas! Dave and Luke had a Eventful t'was the night before Christmas. . . .

We had an eventful evening. On the way to Tiffani's house in Layton, Luke was coughing and had a lot of labored breathing. When we got there, it was obvious he wasn't doing so great -- rapid, shallow breathing, kind of spacey. So I (Dave) left the party and tried to take him to an instacare, thinking they might give us a nebulizer or something. But all the instacare clinics were closed early on account of Christmas Eve, so I took him to the nearest ER, which was McKay Dee in Ogden.

They gave him some asthma medication and some steroids but he was still really breathing hard, and too fast. They were thinking of checking him in and running some additional tests. I figured that if he were going to be admitted, it made sense to do it at Riverton which is only ten minutes away from our house rather than 75. They agreed to allow us to transfer him, so I drove back to Layton, loaded the family up, and then drove to Riverton. Karla dropped Luke and me off at the hospital and went home to put the older boys to bed. 

By the time we finally got checked into the new ER, Luke actually was doing better. They used a suction to aspirate his nose and then he really perked up, taking some fluids once he could drink and breathe at the same time! Seven hours later, we were finally discharged. The doctor at Riverton diagnosed him with bronchiolitis, inflammation most likely due to a virus. There's not much to do but monitor him and wait it out. We may need to take him back if the really labored breathing shows up again, but right now he seems to be doing okay.

Temple Square and The Lights

One tradition the boys love is taking the train downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. This past Friday we had a ball! We left for our adventure at 3:40PM. We caught the 4PM train downtown and the boys sat glued to the window taking in all the sights and sounds.

When we made it to Temple Square we met Dave's brother and his family. It was great. The kids loved running around and it was not too cold. The lights were just fabulous and it had such a peaceful feeling. It was not as busy as it has been in past years. Just a nice calm low-key event.

However, when we crossed the street to have dinner at City Creek, it got pretty hectic. (City Creek is a newish downtown shopping complex.)  We tried several restaurants and they were all packed. The most ridiculous was Cheesecake Factory, they told us it was a 3-hour wait. Three Hours. Really? So, should we come back at 10PM to eat dinner?

We finally left City Creek when we realized it wasn't going to happen.  (On our way out I may have walked very slowly pasted the Pandora Jewelry store.) We stopped at a JB's (like a Big Boy's or IHOP.) It was right by the train stop that takes us back home. It was only 20 min. until we had a table for our party of 10. Nice :) All the kids had pancakes, eggs and bacon and I had cheeseburger. . . it was actually pretty good.

By the time dinner was done and we hopped on the train it felt pretty late. We got home around 9:30PM. . . We were all exhausted and happy. Just think in only 30 more minutes we could have gotten a table at Cheesecake Factory instead of snuggling into a warm bed :)