Heading Home

Elise picked up a new trick on our drive from Arizona to Maryland: taking off her shirt and then screaming because she can't take it all the way off thanks to her seat belt.

Luckily she quickly discovered that she now had more bare skin 

available for tattooing, so all was well: 

After reversing our travels (same hotels and everything), we finally made it to West Virginia. After all that Arizona sunshine Aaron was very excited for the snow. I would have been excited too if it weren't bitterly cold outside! 

And then there was Elise. She's always been a climber but has been pretty good about keeping her balance (much like her older sister). We call her our little cat. So when she started crawling along the back of Grandma's couch, we didn't think anything of it. She does it at our house all the time, and at least they have carpet behind their couch instead of wood flooring.

But then she fell. We could tell immediately from her crying that she was really hurt. We were hopeful that she just landed funny and sprained her wrist. It took her a long time to calm down: I snuggled with her in bed and watched a movie with her.

She was still favoring it the next day, but not hysterical. We thought we were okay. Until she tripped and caught herself using her hands. When she started screaming again we knew it was probably broken. Jon hauled her off to urgent care and brought her home with a splint and X-rays of her buckle fracture on her radius. The good news is that it was a very stable fracture and would heal quickly: 

We just like breaking bones at Grandma Sara's house. 

This was Catherine's leg in 2014:

We stuck around long enough to celebrate New Years at the Bloods. James was home and Stephen & Claudia came over to spend the night. Stephen had spent many an evening trying to convince us to play his new game, Blood Rage. After the six-hour-long game over Thanksgiving, I was not inclined. But he pulled it out on New Year's Eve and since we had nothing better to do...

Turns out it was actually pretty fun. Still way too long, but it did get us to actually stay up until (almost) the New Year! Seth played with us and seemed to enjoy it (what nine-year-old boy would pass up a game called "Blood Rage"). Until he started losing. Then he threw a fit and was sent to bed. But that's understandable when it's 11 pm and you're usually in bed at 9. 

2018...here we come...