We had thought that spring break 2012 would be spent in Florida. It was a sick, long winter, and even though it was never really cold, we’d had enough and wanted to escape to a warm beach where we could relax-in-the-sand our cares away. We even looked into Disney vacations (shhh, don’t tell the kids), and were ready to drop a gazillion dollars from savings just to get somewhere warm and see a princess or five. But as the day approached and we started considering the real implications of spending a gazillion dollars, we watched the weather here in the midwest hit a a very unseasonable warming trend. The forecast showed that it would be in the mid 80’s in Florida. It would also be in the low 80’s in MICHIGAN. Pretty easy decision, and thankfully, Ross and Lynn agreed to put up with all of us for a few days on short notice. Little did we know that our horrid sick season would follow us.
We arrived Saturday late afternoon after a surprisingly easy drive. The kids got to play with the cousins and get reacquainted and not eat their pizza for dinner. Now, I’m not sure if it was a bug or if it was because Leva ate a whole bag of potato chips and a nasty fake juice drink in a strawberry shortcake bottle for a snack, followed by french fries and a shamrock shake for lunch, but around 10p, after checking on her twice for her “tummy hurts”, she said “i think i need a bowl”. I ran to the kitchen, Ross deftly pulled the family puke bowl from the cabinet and i ran back in to slip the bowl under her chin as she brought all the nastiness she had eaten all day right back up. But hey, we caught every drop (she was so proud). She promptly fell asleep, but we were awakened twice in the night for delightful explosive diarrhea (that actually had her giggling). Night 1: no sleep. She was a trooper the next day, though, and ate breakfast, so we went and spent a few hours at the fantastic beach. Seriously, it was 82F, the sand was warm, the sun was out, and all three kids played without fighting or needing anything. Heaven.
That night Hattie woke up with a 350F fever (i put my hand in da oven and den my hand on da baby and dey was both the same hot! – old fellowship joke). She threw up a little, I got some of it in the bowl (ew), and it took two hours to get her fever down to where she would sleep. Night 2: no sleep. But hey, the next morning (or really, a few hours later), she ate and seemed happy, so what the heck, let’s hit the beach! Beach day #2 was as much of a success as beach day #1. Heaven. Except that later that afternoon she spiked temps to 350F again and was acting dopey. I took her into a local urgent care that was incredibly fast, if not incredibly thorough (seriously, we got half a physical exam out of the NP, oh well), and she was diagnosed with a “raging” ear infection. But that night she spiked fevers to 350F again, even after a good slug of abx, and we were up a few hours trying to get it back down so we could all sleep again. And make sure she didn’t throw up all over anything. Night #3: no sleep.
By now we’re really tired – well, Brad and I are really tired. So we pulled the plug. We’d planned on another beach day in the morning and playing with the cousins after school, but just didn’t have it in us. Which was really too bad. The kids were ENAMORED with their cousins. Geert especially clung to Cameron and Joe and followed them (and their remote control cars) around. They enjoyed playing with new toys in a new house, and we all slept well together in the same room. And for the first time in our family history, it wasn’t Geert who caused us to abandon a trip! But it speaks well for the future. Barring sickness, we appear to now be a mobile family. This is a very big deal. After suffering through every jaunt outside of our own city, we may actually be able to enjoy taking a vacation, rather than just taking a trip. Big deal, indeed. Special thanks to the Michigan Fischers who put up with us – I really hope the next time we visit, no one throws up.





Cousins!!