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....
Hanging out after the butterflies - both boys are a tad bit tired I'd say!
When we first arrived, Isabel and Landon set off to do some exploring!!
Chasing butterflies -- Arlan was on the floor studying this one, which was so co-operative to just sit there with him.
We spent a couple of days on Juniper Beach in Kalamalka Provincial Park. The water was glorious, the beach smaller, and the water got deeper much quicker which meant we could really throw Landon high in the air (like dad's doing here). Landon thought that was fabulous, until he did a belly flop with mom!! lol
Hanging out with the trucks in the play area. All the fun stuff to see & this is where he wanted to spend his time (surprise surprise)
heading out on the orchard tour - the tractor pulled about 7 cars behind it ... plenty bumpy and dusty, but a pretty cool tour 9in my opinion, Landon wasn't as impressed)
the "market" ... full of yummy things like homemade bread, pies, ice cream, real apple juice, plus the produce of the orchards. Not to mention the toys (yes, Landon and Arlan each got a toy, even though Arlan wasn't with us as he was still sick at home with dad ... I'm so weak).
Reading stories to the boys before bed. Landon slept in the top bunk almost every night (some nights he was so sleepy after stories that he'd stay on the bottom to go to sleep, we'd lift him up top after). Either John or I would sleep in the bottom bunk, then other in the 'master bedroom' with Arlan. Why? The master bed wasn't as comfy as the bunk bed, but the bunk bed was too hot for both of us to sleep. oh yeah, and John was snoring every night!
The boys playing piano together. Arlan loved the "demo" song on here, Landon would cover his ears. But they both enjoyed making noise ...er I mean music on it!
Mom and Arlan - as you can see here, he was fully recovered from his illness and being a stinker again!
Landon had fun spraying dad with the water gun. The weather was so gorgeous, even into the evening, that we didn't mind getting sprayed with water at all!
A deer wandered by the beach, right next to where Landon was playing. What a nice sight!
we were treated to a glorious full double rainbow! An upside to all the rain showers we had in Invermere :-) It was so vibrant - I just couldn't capture it adequately. We must've spent about 10 minutes just enjoying this view.
Here's Landon and Camryn walking over here today ... they spent the entire afternoon playing together. They were so cute, walking down the path, holding hands, like teen-agers in love or something!
Landon and Arlan crashed on our drive home from Invermere on Sunday. We stopped in Radium on the way home for some swimming, which was really nice! Then a quick lunch (our only restaurant meal all weekend!) and on the road. Poor John had to drive through the rainy day while the rest of us snored! lol
This pic of Arlan sleeping is actually taken AFTER the hike :-) He was VERY tuckered out from that climb!
Looking out at the top - with dad holding on very tightly!
A family shot taken in the condo (self-timer). 
We watched Canada Day fireworks on the night of the 1st at Fairmont. Here is Landon, sliding down the grassy hill right by where the fireworks went off. He had so much fun he barely cared about the fireworks at all!
Cool fire truck - one of the first vehicles to go by. The parade started right outside our condo, so we were able to watch them preparing from about 9 am (parade started at 11 am). 
Arlan watched the parade from dad's shoulders - best seat in the house!
Before the parade started, the boys waited very patiently. That is attributed solely to the fact that the police car started the parade, and was parked just up the street from where we were waiting. Landon rarely took his eyes off the police car.
