This is one of the those blog posts that will not show everything perfect and happy in our family. We got back from a family vacation last week, and I have to confess, it was disappointing. After the madness of the holidays, my husband took off 4 days from work (which is a decent chunk of his vacation time for the year) and we headed back down to Orange County, for a little R&R. We were looking forward to lazy days at the beach, lounging around, and possibly a trip to the Magic Kingdom on one of the days.
The first night we got there, we noticed that our older daughter's cough seemed to be worse, and suspected that she might have a slight fever. So we bought some tylenol and she slept ok. The next day, she seemed better, so we lounged around in the morning and in the afternoon, ventured out to the beach. It was a beautiful day, and we were so close to the beach, we had to get out there!
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| Taking the ferry out to the peninsula |
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| First trip to the beach at 9 weeks old |
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| She doesn't look sick here, does she? |
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We borrowed my brother's double sit/stand stroller. What a ride!
Like a stroller-limo for kids...all 3 of them fit on it! |
Apparently we pushed it going to the beach, because that night it was clear that we would not be going anywhere the next day. Sorry Disneyland. Our daughter was SICK. She had a fever, lost her appetite, woke up several times during the night and was pretty much inconsolable. We felt really bad for her, but also a little sad for the rest of us, missing out on the vacation we'd envisioned.
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| Oh, this picture makes me so sad! |
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Not all things are bad when you're sick...Papa got extra snuggles and earned
brownie points with Mama for sleeping with our little sickie. Between the illness and a
newborn to care for, we didn't get even one full night's sleep. |
Sa-Pe & Sa-Mm came to the rescue for our son and offered to take him with them to Knott's Berry Farm, so at least he had something to go and do, which was a decent substitute for Disneyland. He had a great time with his aunt, uncle and cousin at Knott's, and came back with grand stories to tell about riding his first upside-down roller coaster and other "big kid" rides. (yikes!)
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| Camp Snoopy |
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Montezuma's Revenge
(my son is in the last car...up on the top!!)
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| A "tamer" kid roller coaster, they rode this 11 times! |
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| Thank you Sa-Pe & Sa-Mm for a fun day! |
On the third and final full day of vacation at the timeshare, our daughter was slightly better, and we decided to go to an urgent care to see if there was something else we could do for her. We got there and discovered an hour and a half wait. With 3 whiny children, a room full of other peoples' germs, and a beautiful sunny day outside, we quickly changed our minds and headed out of there. A quick phone call to Dr. Greg (my brother!) and we had a prescription for Amoxicillin called out to a nearby pharmacy. With only the afternoon left, my gracious husband stayed home with both daughters who were napping, and I took our son down to the beach. He and I had a great time discovering all sorts of creatures in the tidepools and we built a pretty cool castle. Jackson insisted on calling it a "chateau" (which reflects that we had been listening to an adapted kids' version of The Count of Monte Cristo in the car during this vacation).
When sisters woke up from their naps, we could already tell that the meds had kicked in, or just coincidentally, the fever had broke and she'd turned the corner...so we went out to dinner at Fashion Island. At least we got a nice meal in.
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| Our baby was unaffected by all the drama... |
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| Siblings in matching PJs |
On Thursday, it was time to go home, and wouldn't you know it, a storm was coming in and snow was expected over the Grapevine. In fact, the Grapevine had been closed to traffic the previous night and early morning, but we were hoping we'd catch it after it had opened back up again. We kept checking CalTrans and it reported clear weather and no road closures. So, we were sort of surprised when it started snowing on us! We've driven in snow before, but we were not prepared with chains for the tires, nor have we ever experienced driving in the snow with LOTS of cars and big rigs all around us.
I have to say that it was the grace of God, and His hand of protection on us that we got through. It took us 2 hours of inching along to get from the peak down to the bottom. Our kids, who never did fall asleep as we'd assumed, were very well behaved and did not need to go to the bathroom! If they had, I don't know what we would've done, since there was no way we could've moved out of our lane. There was snow everywhere, and only the lane we were in was clear. We saw many cars and trucks who had slid off the road and fishtailing around us. My husband who has nerves of steel was so calm and patiently guided us through. My stomach was in knots! We were so relieved when we got down and stopped at the first rest stop to decompress and get dinner!
Needless to say, we were actually happy to get back home. We needed a vacation after our vacation!
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