Salem Bathtub Tour 2007

Thanksgiving morning in Tucson at Casa de Clause--my mom's house

The Alaska Klan--our friends from AK who joined us for Turkey Day

Due to not feeling well, she didn't even eat a bite of Turkey

A kiss from her cousin who was trying to make her feel better

But this is how she really spent most of the days on the trip

Even her Mimi brought her a special bear for Christmas to cheer her up

What a trip, what a trip. We spent the past 2 weeks in AZ and what a joy it was! I mean that in both truthiness (Stephen Cobert's made up word) and also in complete sarcasm. As we were getting ready to leave for our trip, I came down with the stomach flu...bad, bad, very f'ing bad. Then, wouldn't you know, that as soon as we get there, Salem gets the same damn thing. After that, it was just a HUGE, HUGE chain reaction. Every one that we came in contact with on the trip got it. Andrew, my mom, stepdad, oh, and did I mention 25 out of the 40 people that were at my mom's house for Thanksgiving? Talk about feeling like crap. It's one thing for yourself to have it, but knowing that a shit ton of other people got it most likely from you.....makes you feel a little guilty.

This was her worst day ever on the trip at my cousin's house in Prescott. Pictured are my daddy and stepmom.

Anyways, besides Salem being sick for almost the whole trip and having the shits out of her car seat 10 x's, it was a GREAT TRIP!!! We called the week of traveling around to all of our friends and families homes across AZ: Salem's Bathtub Tour 2007 because she needed a clean rub down at each house we stopped at. It was embarassing. "Oh Hi Old Granny. I haven't seen you in over a year, but before we get to talking....could I use your nice, pretty white polished tub to clean the diarrhea off of my daughter from head to toe?" We spent days, upon days, reciting those exact words to every family member we came in contact with.

Just being in the presence of friends and family that you love and adore makes you forget about the humps in the road. I always wish I could have had more time to spend with each and every one of them. For those of you we were able to catch up with and those of you we wish we could have, we love you all and thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives and schedules to see us.

Aahhh....here we are dinning at my favorite Mexican food restaurant in AZ called La Parilla Suiza. This day we met up with HARB ( one of our B.F.F.'s that married us), his wife Teressa, Andrew's A-10 roomate in Tucson John Buske and his beautiful wife Lisa and thier baby girl. We laughed how I basically took up the whole picture like: Look at me, look at me!!! I had no S.A. that there were people behind me that needed to also be in the photo. Hhhmm...I'm sure you are all laughing right now that some things never change!! Hey, at least I can laugh at myself!

And Congrats to the Nelson family who welcomed a beautiful baby girl yesterday: Ms. Elliot Noel Nelson. We love you guys and it was great seeing you in Tucson! Give Sweet Elliot a kiss for us!