positives and negatives

I have to admit I was very nervous about Thanksgiving this year. Last year was a nightmare; when asked why from my aunt Denise, I replied that the fight with Adam was so bad that Isaac would be a few months older if it hadn't happened. Whether it is fighting over whose house to be at, or the stress of driving home in a snowstorm that extended the drive 3 hours, it just hasn't been my favorite holiday weekend.
Anyhow here are the positives and negatives of Thanksgiving holiday this year:
-Adam passed his last CPA exam!!! He is done!!!! I think this fact alone kept us in high spirits.
-Jackson suffered his 1,638th almost-concussion right before we left Ogden. Smacked his head on the concrete floor of Cafe Rio. Adam had me try and wake him up every 45 minutes of the beginning of our trip to make sure he was okay; cue me yelling his name, slapping him, pinching him, etc etc with no response for 3 minutes until finally he would barely open one eye. Stressful!
-Engine failure in the Subaru. Right around midnight - super stressful! Jack was still out like he was in a coma, it was freezing outside and I was so worried all 3 kids would wake up cold and crying.
-We were near Fillmore and Alicia's mechanic father, who the tow-truck guy knew so gave us a 'discount' (Adam suspects he says that to everyone).
-I am apparently terrified of tow-trucks? I cannot believe how scared I was to get up there and ride the 20 miles to Fillmore. I kept on imagining the car just sliding off the truck and all of us diving into the ravine.
-We got Jack to wake up completely, telling (shouting to) him that we were on a tow truck. Definitely no concussion! He was wide awake until we got in bed at 2 a.m.
-I realized the extreme pain I had experienced throughout the day was mastitis, and the flu symptoms were manifesting themselves right while we were trying to get settled into the hotel room.
-Jon and Natalie Zempter were willing to pick up the van from Ogden and bring it to us so we could finish our trip to St. George. Lifesavers!!!!!!!! Also the kids were great during the wait; thankfully we had my bike and Adam gave them rides on the handlebars.
-The Subaru is finished. Maybe I would be a bit more sad if it hadn't broken down in the middle of a cold night in between Beaver and Fillmore. Adam is talking about getting a Tribeca but I feel betrayed.
-Mom and Dad are letting us use the van until we can get something else. Talk about being generous! We would be in deep trouble without it.
So anyways, all of the crappy stuff got out of the way before we even got to St. George, and it ended up being a wonderful trip. Mom and Dad of course took us out to eat to celebrate Adam passing the Audit section, which was fun. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Bentley's at the ward - YUM! And this year we stayed for the entire talent show, including Lily and Jackson's somersaults. Yes, pretty sad as I didn't really prepare them, but knew they wanted some candy so I suggested that. Wonderful memories come from Bentley Thanksgivings. I got in a ton of time shopping with my mom, the world's best person to go shopping with as things you are looking for magically appear right in front of you and they're on sale! I got to go running outside, and Adam and I went on my first official bike ride on my new bike! Postpartum exercise is very exciting. We only went 7 miles but it was wonderful. Plus some family time, just us, to the crack and the St. George Temple to see Christmas lights.
The kids spent most of their time over at Mimi and Papa's new house that has a swimming pool. Lily's tiny fingertips all have blisters on them from being prunes that were rubbed on the side of the pool all day long. They also have a little tramp and playset, and Jackson was just in heaven.
We also had the chance to bless Isaac while we were there, which was nice; I didn't have to worry about an open house as the Bird's took care of everything, and Adam was able to have all of his brothers and dad with him. We also got Isaac together with Crew, Ezra and Jet, his other cousins born this fall. So fun!

So all in all, things turned out great. We were so blessed in a situation that could have had a much worse outcome. Happy Thanksgiving!