winter is hard, except when Melissa visits

Winter is hard.  It's just hard.

I know I've written about this before, but there's just no getting around it.  Winter in Utah depresses me.  Literally.  I'm almost positive I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  It's a real thing.  Google it.  It's not even so much the cold (which I don't love) as much as the cloudiness (which doesn't love me).  It is so much work (and sometimes flat-out impossible) for me to be happy when it's cloudy all the time.

This is a fairly recent discovery about myself (read: since we moved to Utah), since for the first 23 years of my life I lived in two of the sunniest states in America.  It affects me so much that one day I will either be on psych meds (when I'm through having babies) or we will be moving where it's sunny.  (The good news is that sometime in March, the sun came back out for the majority of the time, which meant that I felt instantly better.  Seriously, it's night and day.)

The bad news is that in January, the sun was not out all the time, and it was really hard for me to be happy.

Sunny days like this felt a tiny bit more bearable:

(This was the precise moment she realized I'd been right about the gloves.)

And I do actually like it when it snows.

But, since I'm not through beating a dead horse, overall, winter is hard.  Alternate crying and sobbing and you pretty much have it.  (Poor Tim.)

Luckily, I have a really cool sister-in-law who'd decided way back in September to fly up and visit us in January.  The word "inspired" did come to mind.

For the most part, Melissa and I just hung out with our kiddos at our house all day.  (And we may have watched healthy amounts of Gilmore Girls, too.)  We did, however, actually go do some fun things, too.  Like that time we went out for ice cream:

Here's the kiddos eating breakfast and watching Daniel Tiger together:

And playing in our (outdated) basement:

Ellie was not nearly as nice to Burton as I'd hoped.  He's such a sweet little guy, and she could be so ornery.  She's not used to having another little kid share the roost.

One night, we all drove up to Logan to eat dinner with Jeremy and Alison.  It was so stinkin' fun.  Alison had gotten a dinner at The Noodle Company at a silent auction, and it was amazing.  We got to try everything on the menu.  At first we were a little scared because there were a few things we hadn't heard of, but there was basically nothing we didn't like.  And Skyler and Kenzie watched the kids for us!  We were so spoiled!  I'm bummed I didn't take any pictures.  No pictures, that is, except for this gem that we took of the cousins after the meal was over:

It was impossible to get them all sitting still. :)

We also decided to take a trip down to the Treehouse Children's Museum.  (Bless you, Heather, for telling me about this place.  It's saved me on a few cloudy days.)  It's pretty much the best place for little kids, like, ever.

We didn't realize just how sick Burton (Guster) was until about halfway through.  Poor little guy.  Towards the end, he just walked aimlessly around and tried (unsuccessfully) not to trip over everything.  Later that day, Melissa and Tim took him to Urgent Care.  He had a double ear infection and a sinus infection.  He's such a happy little guy that it was really hard to tell.  When the whimpering started, though, that's when we really knew something was up.

I think Melissa was exhausted by the end, and who could blame her?  A traveling, pregnant mama taking care of a sick toddler.

But this mama was sure glad she came!  (Even though it did make me wish we were next door neighbors.)

And, thankfully, we flew down to Arizona (for Tim's work trip) the day after she left!  But that is a post for another time. :)