Oh man. Y’all, I truly didn’t intend to take a blog hiatus but it looks like that is exactly what happened!
Christmas morning dawned bright and sunny (literally: it was like 60 degrees!), and Will and I enjoyed a wonderful morning. We surprised each other with our gifts, and I was ecstatic to learn that he had bought me one of the Mammut PAS avalanche backpacks that we had looked at during OR last year. Hooray for not dying in avalanches!
However, Christmas morning rapidly declined around lunch time when I realized I wasn’t feeling my best. I had woken up with a slight sore throat, but as the day progressed, my health went along with it. My throat pain increased and my temperature continued to rise, no matter how much DayQuil I took. For awhile, I was sitting on almost 103 degrees and the fever absolutely would not break. Y’all, I was totally miserable! I felt like someone had set my head on fire: my whole body hurt, tears were pouring out of my eyes and I was starting to wonder whether we’d have to make a hospital trip. I had once heard that 104 degrees is when people need to be concerned for their brain, so I was starting to panic!
Luckily, I texted my sis who is a PA and she advised me to switch to Ibuprofen. It didn’t eliminate my fever, but it brought it back down to 101 which was much more manageable, relatively speaking. However, I woke up yesterday morning and was still in a world of hurt. In light of our upcoming trip, I decided to play it safe and headed to the doc in the afternoon. My strep test came back negative but because of my symptoms, existing fever of 101, and history with strep, the doc thought the test was wrong and gave me some meds anyway. Fortunately, I feel worlds better today! My throat is still a mess and swallowing completely sucks, but my fever is gone which has made me feel so much better. HOORAY!!
As I mentioned, I was most worried about getting sick because we have an adventure coming! We are headed out for week of exploration in Yellowstone and the Tetons. A few of our friends from California arrived yesterday, Jon arrived today and we’re grabbing Katie on Sunday. We’re heading to the Tetons first where we’ve rented a large house to spend our NYE holiday. From there, we’re heading to Yellowstone! I’ve been to the park at least a half dozen times, but never in the winter so I am beyond excited. You see, the park is closed except for one lodge they call the Snow Lodge. We have to meet a snow cat at the entrance so that it can carry us into the interior. From there, we’ll spend a few days exploring the park via snowshoes and cross country skis which may be cold, but oh-so-exciting. Will has done a winter Yellowstone trip before and his photos are freaking amazing! I’ve pretty much decided to keep snowshoeing until I find some buffalo 
Having said that, I will be going on an intended blog hiatus for the next week or so. We arrive back from our Yellowstone trip but then I leave three days later for the mysterious OmniGames in Park City. Of course, I’m not going to complain about all of these fun adventures but it does leave minimal time for blogging (although I will have plenty of stories to share when I return!)
Have a fantastic (and healthy!) New Year everyone and I’ll catch you on the flip side!
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