Friday, February 13, 2009

Best Crummy Dreadfully Ill Vacation Ever

Well . . . that little vomiting incident Lydia had the two days before we left for Florida was nothing compared to what came later.

Here's the day by day run down of our lovely, once a year, looked-forward-to-for-358 days-vacation to Florida:

Monday: Lydia threw up

Tuesday: Lydia threw up

Wednesday: We head to the airport. Lydia feverish and big D, Caleb feverish and weak

Thursday and Friday: Me, the Mommy, very very desperately ill. We're talking all the kinds of pain and fever and bodily fluids you can imagine. Lydia sick. Caleb sick.

Saturday and Sunday: Mark, the Daddy, ditto the above description. Lydia's fever broke, Caleb hacking cough, vomit and big D. Caleb broke the capillaries around his eyes from all the coughing. Looks like he's got racoon mask.

Monday: Claire fever, coughing big D. Luke hanging in there but doesn't look good.

Tuesday: Lydia green nose junk, Caleb queasy, Luke withering, Claire trying to convince me she can go swimming even though she's still sick. We fill all the kids with Tylenol, Ibuprofen and Children's Nyquil and go to the beach anyway.

Wednesday: Caleb well. Lydia well. Claire fever gone, lots of congestion. Luke, looking green. Head to the airport for our return flights. Luke threw up on me in the last hour of the last flight on our way home.

People, that was not the vacation I was expecting.

We did have a few fun things along the way. Probably the highlight was our hour and a half at the beach as a family.

Our baby girl was not feeling well. This picture was the first of the day so she's still kind of pleasant. Please avert your eyes from the dried snot in various places on her face.


This was about 30 minutes later.

(Hint, hint) For all you budding photographers out there, use this picture as of sample of incorrect emotion in a photo. In my opinion, subjects in a photo look best when emotion is matched. I'm super cheezy and Lydia is ill. It sort of hurts me to look at the gross contrast for very long.

But lest I spend this whole post griping, there were blessings on our vacation.

First off, my Aunt and Uncle love us dearly and were as accommodating and helpful as possible. Secondly, not everybody was sick at the same time so we did get to do some fun stuff in small groups.

The boys loved riding bikes around the island.
It was chillier than normal on the island, hence the jackets. But we're not complaining about the weather! The 60 degrees there, sure beat the 14 degrees in Illinois!

We went to a couple great restaurants the last two days.

Caleb overcame his fear of the water and actually wore Swimmies for the first time.

As far as vacations go, it wasn't the best one we've ever had. However, we do have some decent photos from our beach excursion to fill the space in the family scrapbook! And if there's no picture of vomit or snotty noses, we'll all forget about the yucky parts and just remember the fun. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.

Don't you love Claire's new short haircut?


Who TOOK THIS PICTURE?! That's borderline indecent, if you ask me.

Love the water splashing out of the bucket!

7 comments:

Edward and Gretchen said...

Jody,
I wanted to cry when you called me from the airport on Wednesday, now I laugh reading your blog. Not because it's funny though, I just can't believe it. What a bummer! I am so, so sorry. And thanks to Lydia for being such a sweetie and sharing all her germs.

I LOVE the last pic too, the blues in the background, reds in the bucket and hat, then the water spilling. Super shot!

Love you,
Gretchen

Ginger said...

Oh man, Jody, that really stinks! I'm so sorry!!
I actually LOVE contrasting emotion in photos. One of my all time faves is a pic of my MIL with a huge smile on her face, holding Elena & Chloe, who were both throwing a huge fit. I told her: Just grab them and smile!
And I must pick this bone with you, friend: "Big D" means Dallas! I'm very disturbed by how you have changed it.

Amy said...

Hey girl! I love your positive spirit--you guys are troopers. The pics are beautiful and so are your kids. I can hardly picture such gorgeous creatures spewing bodily fluids! ;)

Love you--sorry it was so tough!

mommy4 said...

awwwww man! i'm sorry about all the yuckies you guys went through. this just means that next year will be the best vaction EVER! but you did get some great pictures, so tell me what do you do with all the pictures? do you print them and are you still scrapping? i just can't seem to find any time do it anymore, even with a scrap closet. i have four boxes full of pictures. just wondering. ;)

Ginger said...

Judy, we need to get together. :)
Jody, I was also thinking of a vacation we had a few years ago that I didn't enjoy at all. I took great pics however, so my new motto is: the pictures are more important than the memories.
Because I had great pics, I don't really remember what it was I disliked about that trip. The pics make it look like we had a great time! lol

Kelly said...

I'm sorry but I really don't see what was so terrible?! J/K
Gotta say I love the picture of you and Lydia. If you only take pictures with matching emotions you won't have any pictures. Or at least that's how it is in my house!!!!
I also love the crack picture. Oh how different life would be with boys!!
Thanks for sharing. Next time just come to Dallas. You'll have LOTS more fun! I promise!

Anonymous said...

Just for the recoed I tried leaving a comment friday night:( I am so sorry that you all had to go through that in all places Florida. But the few pics are great!!!