Vacation?

I've never before done as much laundry while on vacation.

We left Friday afternoon for Invermere, as John's band played there. I was hoping to be able to go out and watch. We arrived in Fairmont (we stayed at the lead singers friends house there on the golf course - GORGOUS!! SO lucky to have spent the night there instead of a hotel) at 8 pm. Approximately 9:15 Arlan puked. yay Now don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for the little dude, but that was Friday and it's now Monday!
So I spent a good part of Friday night catching puke. Oh yeah, and Landon still has remnants of his flu (which started Wed afternoon when he puked on the daycamp girl!), so he was crying every time he was in the bathroom. Finally John got home, so he slept with Arlan (catching puke every hour or so) and I slept with Landon (making multiple crying trips to the bathroom).

Saturday - do we hang out in Fairmont in this beautiful house overlooking the golf course with our pooping/puking children, or hit the road for 5 hours to get to Vernon (and our vacation for this week)? We opt for the road - not wanting to spread the joy any more than necessary to our gracious hosts. That was surprisingly a good decision. Arlan only hurled once, and we stopped for Landon to poop (did you know the weigh scale stations for semi's have public washrooms! Phew!) once and we were good to go. A bit of whining from the back seat, but mostly sleeping so our drive was surprisingly pleasant. The scenery was absolutely INCREDIBLE too! John caught up on some sleep so I enjoyed the amazing views (while keeping the car between the lines) in peace and quiet.

We made it to Vernon shortly after 4 pm (local time), and are so glad we came when we did. Our landlords left Sunday morning, if we hadn't made it Saturday we would've inconvenienced them as well. Plus I doubt our Sunday drive would've been as uneventful as Arlan has moved into the diarrhea stage of this flu bug. Between puking (mostly from over-drinking, poor kid is so thirsty!), and diarrhea-contaminated items, I have washed more clothing and blankets and sheets than ever before in a one day period!

We did manage to get Landon to the beach a couple of times - which he loves! Although he's still pretty worn out from this flu so he slept for 4 hours yesterday afternoon!

So it's Monday; Arlan can mostly keep liquids down now - he'll upchuck if he drinks too much at once. But no solids since Sat night (when he ate a handful of baked macaroni). Yesterday afternoon he looked so rough I was thinking of taking him to the doctor. But he did an over-drinking puke and that seems to have been the turning point. He's napping again right now - most of his time is spent sleeping; his awake time consists of pooping and whining, with some drinking and puking thrown in for good measure.

But I am hopeful we are on the tail-end of this one, and that we'll get to enjoy our vacation more in the days to come. One nice thing: the landlords have offered us the place for additional nights - so we are staying until Monday instead of Saturday! Nice - we can hopefully make up for our 2 days spent indoors on the weekend. Our drive back to Calgary will be considerably more congested, but I think we'll manage -- assuming the pooping and puking has abated by then!

until next time...from beautiful, hot and sunny VERNON....