So what I was going on (and on) about was that the work on our new house is finally FINALLY done!! Well, mostly...we still have to do a little floor refinishing so we will have to evacuate in a couple of weeks for a few days--but after all that's gone on here, that doesn't seem too bad.
So now that the house is under control, we managed to go off for a little weekend getaway--well technically we were going out of town for a funeral because Don's aunt fell out a window (!?!) (although the details are sketchy and shrouded in mystery) but then there was confusion with the date of the funeral, so actually we missed it entirely. So in a nutshell--we went out of town for a non-funeral and to investigate the scene of the crime so to speak where the unfortunate window accident occured.
Are you confused yet? I am. Now you can see why I'm so mad my other post was deleted--I swear it made more sense the first time I wrote it!
So we drove to the farm town where Don's mom grew up (Trivia: Don's mom rode in a cart pulled by a pony to school every day.) (More trivia: The pony's name was Don! Is it weird he's named after a horse?).
Anyway, we went to this town which is very quaint and was extra-nice because of the fall folliage--also making for a great backdrop for photos of the kids!
Our first stop was the farm where Don's mom grew up (and also the scene of the window accident). There were so many beautiful spots for pics!
I made the kids lay down in the leaves for a photo op--though they were not too keen on doing it!
They look happy--but they were complaining.
Andy and Pickle were the only ones that enjoyed it!
Here are some of the kids in front of a shed:
The farm is surrounded by corn fields as far as the eye can see--so we ended up with lots of corn pics.
Pickle was really into the corn! It's grain corn and very beautiful:
All the kids posing with their corn:
Here's Pickle with some kind of grain. Hay? I'm not too good with the farm terms...
And Pickle checking out the well water (I love this pic):
And yet another one of Pickle hanging on a windmill:
The smokehouse:
This place was infested with lady bugs! I call this pic Potrait of suitcase and Lady Bugs:
Oops--another one of Pickle ringing the dinner bell:
After that, we headed down the road to the family cemetery. There were lots of cool picture opportunities there too.Here's the cemetery with the cornfields in the background:
I liked the way the moss looked on this gravestone:
Poor Bony Bly! Struck down by one of those newfangled automobiles!
Gooser amongst the graves:
This Way Up:
Angel grave:
Miss Pickle:
After the cemetery, we did a little more sightseeing around town. Here are the kids posing by a river:
And by some beautiful trees:
I LOVE this pic of Pickle!!
Here are the kids with a cool statue:
And now for the scary part of the trip...We went out for a nice dinner that evening and Pickle ate the usual kid fare--grilled cheese, etc.--but she had a bite of Teddy's raspberry cheesecake and things went rapidly downhill after that.
Right after eating it she said she felt like she was going to throw up--and as soon as we got to the hotel room, she did. All over everything...
But as I was changing her pajamas I noticed that she had a bumpy rash on her stomach and I realized she was having an allergic reaction.
Patrick has a peaunut allergy (nightmare!) so I always carry Benadryl in my purse and I gave her one right away. Then she had a bath and seemed to be fine, so I put her to bed.
About a half hour later, she started coughing. At first I thought Oh no--I hope she's not getting sick. Then, as the coughing continued, I started to worry that maybe she had aspirated the vomit when she got sick and it was messing up her lungs or something.
So I got her out of the crib and realized that not only was she coughing non-stop, she was wheezing and it sounded BAD.
She was kind of scratching at herself so I lifted up her pajama top and saw that she was COVERED in a horrible rash.
By now it was about 11:00 at night, but Don and I had no choice--we had to drive her to the nearest Emergency Room. Which was unfortunately not very close.
I decided to give her one more Benadryl before we left--and I'm so glad I did--because I think it made a huge difference in her breathing. Then we had to drive on these very dark and winding roads--not really knowing where we were going. And did I mention it was raining?
But we made it in one piece and they were able to fix her right up with some steroids and antihistimines.
This is what the backs of her legs looked like:
Basically, her entire body was bright red and covered with bumps. It was SO scary!Poor Pickle!
But she's fine now--though I have to get to the bottom of what she's allergic to. I called the restaurant, thinking there must have been nuts in that cheesecake, but they say no...I'm having her allergy tested soon.The next day we were all exausted from our night of terror, so we didn't hang around long--just for breakfast and a few more pics.
Here are some of Teddy looking like a little model!
Gooser and Patrick:
And, finally, the kids posing on some rocks:
OMG--can you believe how long this post is? Can you believe I had to write it TWICE?? Sorry if it's incoherent--it's late, but I'm determined to post it tonight.
I also want to mention that I had ONE prescription-strength motion sickness pill left over from years ago when my friend got married on a boat. If I hadn't taken that pill I never would have survived this ferry ride--or the rest of the day.
He drove us over to the dophin swimming place on his kooky bus, telling lots of cool stories about the island along the way.
Then it was dolphin time! And it was SO fun. Here's Teddy getting a ride from our dolphin friends:
Patrick doing something called a "foot push" where the dolphins swim up underneath and lift you up!
Here I am kissing a dolphin:
I can't even believe I'm showing pics of myself in a bathing suit--but while I'm at it, here I am getting a dolphin ride:
Teddy dancing with a dolphin:
This dolphin looks really into his dance with Andy!
Here we are dancing and prancing with the dolphins:
Wow--that was a great experience and now I can cross one thing off my "bucket list." I think the kids will always remember those dolphins.
Captain Friendly gave us an amazing tour of the island (again THANK GOD I took the motion sickness pill--I never would have made it!) driving up up the twisty roads of the mountains for some beautiful (though dizzying!) views):
We learned a lot of interesting new things--for instance, these are called breadfruits:
Captain Friendly said they taste like bread when they're baked and like potatoes when they're boiled (you can't eat them raw though.) I would love to try one someday!
Lots and lots of goats:
And tons of chickens:
We stopped in the little town to look around for awhile. The streets were adorable--narrow and colorful:
I wouldn't want this job--would you?!
Then it was time for lunch. Captain Friendly drove us to this beautiful spot on the beach and we had some delicious food. This was my lunch--barbequed chicken, fried plantains and red beans and rice (also a pina colada--not pictured!).
There were also a lot of animals there which the kids were really into.
Me feeding a dog a tidbit:
There were cats too:
Then we hit the beautiful white sand beach!
Pickle romping in the waves:
Gooser playing in the water:
And in the sand:
LOL!
For the last leg of our tour, Captain Friendly drove us to this crazy place called the Bomba Shack.
This place is infamous for their "Full Moon Parties." Apparently, every full moon they spike their tea with hallucinogenic mushrooms. It's not legal to sell the tea, so they give it away, but charge you for the glass. They must be pretty wild parties because the place was littered with discarded bikini tops and bottoms!
Would you drink the mushroom tea? I would be too chicken!
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