a good excuse?

I'll let you decide, but I may actually have a good excuse for not having updated you all lately.

Ryan was in the hospital. (Well, he's in a hospital everyday, but this time he was a patient.) Now, don't be alarmed. He's fine, mostly back to normal. He got an infection from a bacteria that is pretty common in hospitals; he most likely got it from where he works, but we're not sure exactly why it became an infection in him. The thing about it is it's a SUPERBUG...it's resistant to most standard antibiotics, and can become pretty serious. So, after several days of severe pain from the infections, and when he got a fever and a swollen hand from it, we went to the emergency room. He ended up being transferred to the Flagstaff hospital to be seen by the specialists, where he was put on IV antibiotics and finally released on Monday. We've been back at home thoroughly disinfecting and washing everything, trying to "de-colonize" ourselves and the house. (If you have any interest in learning about what he had--and how not to get it yourself, check this out.)

Other than that, we had a great vacation to South Dakota where we spent Christmas with Ryan's family. We had another Christmas Eve at the Governor's mansion, with the Scarborough/Rounds family tradition of chicken noodle soup and prime rib (Mmmm.), and Grandpa Don (Ryan's stepdad) reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to all the grandkids. Then Christmas day at Ryan's sister's new house in Rapid City! We even got in a quick trip to the Scarborough's land in the Black Hills, where we have dreams of someday building a cabin:
I was hoping to share a shot I took at the hospital, but the only camera I had was the phone camera and I don't know how to get the pictures off of there. If anyone can tell me how I'd appreciate it. (I don't think I have the right cord, and Ryan would be glad anyway.)

When we arrived home to Chinle, there was several inches of snow, and there's something about this high desert landscape covered with snow that's awfully purtty. I went to one of the overlooks of the canyon here yesterday to snap a shot, and already lots of the snow had melted: