...And It Was Going So Well

On the morning of Roller Valley, Peter threw up.  I should have stayed home with him and quarantined us all then and there, but I hoped it wasn't anything serious and it would pass quickly.  I was wrong.  After Roller Valley I kept Peter home at Jesse and Amy's for the rest of the day, but the damage was done.  The Plague of 2015 spread like wildfire. 

The next day was Fox Family Olympics planned at Grandma and Grandpa's house up on the hill.  Peter was even worse, so I stayed back with him.  Within a couple of hours Abe returned with a sick George.

Shortly thereafter Bethany went down.  At this point we knew we were dealing with something very contagious and quite frankly, very violent.  Abe whisked the entire family away from FoxHill.  Poor Bethany, George, and Peter had the worst of it.  For most of us it was a 24-hour thing, but Bethany and George were 48 hours and Peter was even longer.

Soon the message came that Jesse and Amy had their first victim in their family and they were coming back.  No surprise since we'd been living with them for several days at this point.  Well, you can imagine-- or maybe you can't-- the scenes that ensued for the following couple of days.  When it was all said and done there were 15 victims between our two families living in one house, plus several others in the extended family who succumbed to The Plague of 2015.

  This is more detail than you want, but so much sickness from both ends.  So much bedding.  So much washing of pots and bowls.  So much sickness.  So memorable, but not in a good way.  Abe and I are pretty sure that our families are bonded even tighter together, and yet it may be quite some time before we are welcome to stay with Jesse and Amy again.
That being said, they were beyond marvelous, patient, understanding hosts.  We are forever grateful!
Miraculously, Abe and Jesse never did get sick.

The pictures you are seeing were taken before things went horribly wrong.  Aunt Katie planned tons of fun activities and it was most unfortunate we couldn't be a part of more of them.  Each family had matching shirts.

Older teenagers and young adults.

Younger teens.

Tweenies.

Looks like boys dominate this age range.

This picture was snapped just before Abe left the party for good.  Jesse and Amy are the family in white.  Little did we know what awaited.

Shaving cream, cheetos, and a shower cap.  Fun stuff.

It's getting tougher for Grandma to get around, but we were happy to see Grandma and Grandpa Fox in their matching brown shirts.  They are so good to each other.

Even though it was a sad moment of leaving early, I love this picture of Bethany being bid farewell by cousins.  I really missed getting to visit with family we don't see often enough.  We may need to make another Spokane trip sooner, rather than later. 

Poor Georgie had a rough go of things.  So Tuesday it began with Peter, then Wednesday we all dropped like flies.  The frightening thing was, we needed to drive home on Thursday.  Abe planned to be back to work on Friday.  How was this to be done? 

Lots of Priesthood blessings and ziplock bags for the ride home.  You might notice we have a couple additions joining us.  Alexis and Julia (Jesse and Amy's two oldest girls) rode home with us and have stayed a few days with us as they await EFY in Logan next week.  Sadly, they both got sick the morning we drove home.  Quite the adventure we had. 
You can't win them all, but, admittedly, this was not our best family reunion.