New Year's Trip to Sedona

So, I got a comment the other day about how we (as a family) are always going on trips.... really?? I guess we do go on a lot, but most of the time they are just little getaways. Like the trips to Steamboat Springs every year on my birthday, a place very near and dear to my heart, so this is always something Steve does for me :) And then the conferences, and of course here and there we get to go some places thanks to my wonderful grandmother and grandfather! They are members of the Gold Crown Resorts, so get points toward any Crown Resort... anywhere. Most of the time we take them up on going to Sedona... we love it there! I took Steve and Em there for the first time on our way back from our very first Chromosome 18 Conference to San Antonio back in 2008 (before I blogged).

Em was nearing 7 months in these pictures

Then my mom, Em and I went for Spring Break in 2010, I did blog about this trip here.

I also have been several times growing up with my family

 Me, one of my besties Ashley and my cousin Cassidy

Me, my baby brother Connor (he was about 2 here) and Cassidy again

My cousin Alexis, Cassidy, me, my cousin Melissa and my cousin Ashlee (this shot is courtesy of my grandmother, she was crazy and took us five girls ((all pre-merging teenagers)) on this trip by herself!)

All of the above pictures were summer 98 and 99 (which would have put me in Jr. high and first year of high school), please don't tell me I look the same!

Now for this trip, we left the day after Christmas.... not as early as we would have liked because it took us a while longer to get out the door in the first place... and then we had to turn around and come back for Em's formula because of course we can't just go to the store and buy some replacements! One of the many joys of having a special needs child... and one that's allergic to everything at that!

So we didn't get into Sedona until about 11 pm and I was sick, sick, sick when we got there! Thanks to the last stretch of about 10 miles on about the windiest road I've ever been on (and I've driven in the Alps!)... and not lit at all, so I couldn't see very well :P So, I spent the first night throwing up... and that was not the end of the sickness for the trip sadly! 

The resort we stayed at was nothing short of spectacular! We really didn't even have to leave! There was a mini golf course, playground, amazing grounds to walk around with a pond and ducks (we couldn't pass up an opportunity to take some amateur pictures of our cute girl! And in one of the cute dresses the Bowen family gave her, it went so well with the scenery!). And they had activities going on everyday! Also, for Christmas, the whole place was decked out with light displays, they called it "Red Rock Fantasy" and were charging people $5 to walk through. Since we were guests we didn't have to pay and had a lot of fun looking at it all! And Em was in heaven when we saw the Rapunzel display for the first time! Sadly we never got to swim in the gorgeous outdoor spa, because we still have yet to locate some of our swimsuits since the move (which includes the only one that fits Emarie right now)... the more and more I think about it, I'm worried we left them in Indianapolis since that's the last time we used them :( Anyway, we figured there'd be no problem finding one in a place that's pretty warm year-round... but NO such luck. We finally found a Walmart in a town 30 miles away and found something that would work... not exactly a swimsuit, but it was on clearance for $1.50, can't beat that! But the day after we bought it is when Em started to get sick. And well, since her surgery was coming up, we didn't want to take any chances of her getting worse!

Despite the amazing resort, it often had a lot of people coming and going... not just because of the light display, but there was also a fairly new shopping center with tons of restaurants (which we tried to eat at a couple of them since they were within walking distance from our room. But each of them always had more than an hour wait, so it didn't happen). So we did leave quite often to sight-see and just admire the gorgeous red rocks surrounding the area! The Indian ruins are always a must see, as well as the Church of the Holy Cross that is built right into the rock!

We came across so many nice people while we were there, ones admiring our gorgeous Em and telling us things like, "God gave the world special children to teach the world compassion" wow! I really like that and it made me cry that a stranger felt inclined to tell us that and Em even gave her a hug! Also, we ate a restaurant one night where the manager gave us free food... just because I was admiring the spectacular salad bar! 

We spent a very low-key New Years in our room, after going out for dinner and grabbing a Redbox movie. Steve and Em were both battling a cold at this point, so we thought it was best to stay in, even with all the parties going on all over the place! But we usually like it better this way anyway. 

So, we headed home on New Year's day (Sunday) because Steve actually had to work the next Monday when most got it off. Before we had left, I had noticed a bit of dried blood in Em's left ear and figured she was getting an ear infection, though I thought it weird because we had treated her for one of these when we treated for a sinus infection 2 weeks before Christmas... but I went ahead and started some drops in there that morning. And we got a picture with the Sesame Street display and Em's beloved Abby Cadabby and then fed the ducks before we headed on our way. When we were about halfway home, in Paige, Arizona, we stopped for lunch and that's where I discovered Em was now having large clots of blood expelling from her ear. I was totally freaked... and it started to show that it was really bothering Em when we were about 3 hours from home (this is where she pretty much screamed the rest of the way). As soon as we got in cell service range again I immediately called her dr's office and got her an appointment for the moment we'd be into town at the after hours office. Em did fall asleep for about a half an hour, maybe 45 minutes and she had had a dose of Tylenol, so she was feeling a bit better when we got there. The doctor couldn't see in her ear because there was too much blood, but decided it would be best to put her on some higher strength drops and a heavy-duty antibiotic. All in all, it meant for no surgery for Em the next Wednesday :( But thankfully the anesthesiologist was ok with doing it 2 weeks later since it wasn't anything really serious (like RSV or pneumonia), and 2 weeks should be enough time for it to clear out of her system. And well, she was able to have the surgery and you can read about the surgery here and here. 

All sickness aside, it was a great trip! And here's the highlights in slideshow form (yeah I'm pretty fond of these slideshows, though Steve did most of this one!)

Just to be redundant! Choose 720HD instead of the 320p and full screen to see everything best!