Thursday morning I woke up not feeling well--and by Thursday afternoon Aaron was running a fever. Luckily my dad was still around and was able to do a few things that saved me--stopping by walmart to get a thermometer, medicine, sprite, saltine crackers, etc. He also came by that evening and took the kids that felt good to IHOP for dinner. I realized how nice it is to be home when everyone is sick--it is so hard to do anything when you are the only adult in a hotel room with sick kids.
By early Friday morning all of the kids were running fevers. Carter's fever was so high and his cough so bad and Caroline's cough was bad. I took them to the dr (worried about pneumonia) and left Aaron and Alex with my dad at Grandpa's apartment. The dr didn't find anything (after getting home I took them to the pediatrician and she confirmed that we all had type B Flu, but by then we couldn't take anything). By the time we got back to Grandpa's, Alex had thrown up and the fevers were pretty high. We headed back to the hotel and since no one wanted to eat anything (did I mention that I had also been running a fever), we didn't have much of a problem with what to do for meals.
We spent the day watching a movie I had brought--over and over and over. I think we watched that same movie 5 times in one day--but all the kids loved it (Rise of the Guardians) and who was I to complain?
Saturday we needed to take my dad to the airport. On the way there I decided that everyone was feeling well enough to take a short detour to temple square--Caroline had really wanted to go and we hadn't made it. We were supposed to go on Friday, but all the sickies cancelled that. So we dropped my dad off and headed to temple square. We got excellent parking (right next to the church history museum) and made the museum our first stop.
We watched a movie about a mother and her children who came to Utah--crossing on a boat from England and then traveling to Utah. I told the kids about our ancestors that also traveled on boats to come to America and on to Utah.
This was a berth that was typical on ship life. A museum worker let us know that it wasn't just one person to a berth--the entire family would sleep in that one berth. I can't even imagine spending months with 6 or more people crammed in that little berth. I guess I won't complain anymore when the kids climb in my bed!
The worker pulled out a set of planks that rocked back and forth to give the kids the idea of how it would be to walk on a boat.
The kids got bored with the history quickly and we headed to the kids portion of the museum.
We tired quickly of the museum (and everything actually), and headed for a quick trip over to temple square. Carter was already fading and we had only been away from the car for about 30 minutes.
We took a few pictures in front of the temple. This was by far the best--everyone still sick and starting to fade.
We took a quick walk to see the Christus--Carter was doing really poorly by now and so we rested for a few minutes up here and then headed to the car.
I did talk Carter into taking a quick picture of Caroline and I.
We got back to the car and the boys fell asleep quickly. We were only gone from the car for an hour, but everyone was exhausted! We managed to get everyone in the hotel and the boys spent the rest of the day like this.
I was worried going to Temple Square would be too much, but we were so tired of sitting in the hotel and being sick and I thought the fresh air might be good. It was, but I'm not sure it helped anyone feel better.
The next day, Sunday, we finally got to go home. We all woke up running fevers--so I loaded everyone up on medication and headed to the airport. I requested 2 wheelchairs to help us (there was no way Carter could have made it through the airport--he barely made it from the rental car agency to the terminal, and I was hoping that Caroline could ride in the other one, but Aaron needed it in Salt Lake and Alex had to have it in Atlanta so Caroline had to suffer through the airport with me). The wheelchairs saved us by getting through security quickly and carrying our luggage to the plane. I knew it was bad when I asked the kids who wanted lunch and everyone said no. The gate agents in Salt Lake were super kind--when they realized we had wheelchairs waiting in Atlanta for us they checked all of our bags (except Aaron's bag because he wouldn't let them) and let us board early. We were able to trade the one seat we needed to (even if the lady was grumpy about it) and Aaron slept the first two hours and Alex the last two.
In Atlanta the people with the wheelchairs were pretty rude--one guy took off with Alex (whose fever was pretty high again despite lots of meds) and I barely saw him before we got to baggage claim. They were annoyed that it was "just kids"--I was nice, but didn't back down. They dropped us off at baggage claim where Matt was meeting us and the kids just dropped in a pile on the floor--they all were laying down as I collected the luggage. I found a luggage cart and dragged it (loaded to the max with all of our bags) and the kids over to where the car seats were waiting for us. We left the terminal and Matt was waiting for us at the curb--not 10 feet from the door (I don't think we could have made it any further)! I was so happy to be done with this trip--I don't know if I ever want to go on vacation again!
No comments:
Post a Comment