Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down #36

My apologies for the much belated post! I'm going to do something I don't usually do and start with 'downs' first.

Down:

• Mike and I had really been looking forward to a non-work related vacation this Labor Day weekend in Spokane, WA. Mike really enjoyed SERE(survival school) when he was there in Sept. of 2008 and has been wanting us to go together ever since. It's a fairly long drive from Mountain Home, but not bad for a 4 day weekend. We arrived there on Friday night, had a great time Saturday and then in the middle of the night Kennedy woke us up - she had vomited all over her bed. We cleaned her up and calmed her down and put her back to bed, 45 minutes later she vomited again. This cycle continued until the next day when she seemed to be doing fine. Since none of the rest of us felt bad, Mike and I decided it must have been he food we fed her that night being too rich for her system. We went to church that morning and were going to head out to Coeur d'Alene afterwards. We stopped by the mall to pick something up and Kennedy puked all over Mike in the middle of the mall - it was awful. We headed back to our room and stayed there the rest of the day. On Monday we drove home and things had been going great for Kennedy. Literally 15 minutes from home (on an 8 hr. drive) Jackson threw up all over himself and in his car seat. It was so gross, but we booked it home and cleaned everything up. I stayed up all night with Jackson on Monday and by Tuesday he was doing fine. Tuesday morning Mike felt bad, but thankfully never threw up and by Tuesday evening I got it! All of us were doing much better yesterday with the exception of a few diaper blow-outs from Kennedy until last night when Kennedy decided to throw up some more. So far all is well today, but I'm so exhausted and needless to say our vacation stunk - literally! Maybe we just aren't meant to travel.
• With all of this going on we have definitely relapsed on the potty training for Jackson. He did do fairly well on the road trip and always went when we took him at a rest stop. The problem is the miles of nothingness between here and Washington. I suppose we could have just let him go on the side of the road, but we were lazy and just let him go in his diaper. Hopefully we won't be starting back at square one with him.

UP:

• On the positive side of things the one day we did spend in Spokane we had a great time. They had a festival called Pig Out in the Park going on where local restaurants and food vendors gathered in the Riverfront Park. Jackson had fun riding some of the kiddie rides and we enjoyed walking around down town and seeing all the beautiful architecture of the old buildings. 

Didn't think we were ever going to get Jackson away from the big wagon!

Yes, we're the cheesy tourists that took the 5 minute gondola ride!

Who needs a vacation when you can just play in the playground!

Backseater just like his Daddy!

This was the only size available - what a waste, we only ate like an 8th of it.

Seriously!

I just thought this display in the mall was neat, so I took a pic!

Eating at the Rusty Moose!

• For every one thing I don't like about the military (i.e. deployments, TDYs, long work hours) there are at least three things I love, so it more than evens out. We stayed at the TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility) at Fairchild AFB in Spokane instead of a hotel this weekend. It was literally a two bedroom furnished house with full size kitchen, laundry room, dining table with high chair everything you could think of needing for $52/night! Despite this awful illness, we were so blessed to be in a facility with laundry and separate bedrooms so some of us could sleep. There is nothing worse than being sick when you are away from home, but it's much better to feel like you're in a home instead of a confined hotel room.
• Kennedy is walking all over the place and her two top teeth have finally broken through! Such a cutie!

Favorite Thing:

  Last year we joined the iphone movement. I seriously love having a smart phone and all the cool things you can do on them, but it seems like every time I'm talking to someone and try to hold the phone against my shoulder so I can multitask, I end up muting them or three way calling someone else. I found this handset at Bed Bath and Beyond for $15 (I used $5 off a $15 purchase coupon to make it $10) that you plug into the headphone jack. It has a volume up/down and call button on it. It makes it so much easier to talk to everyone! I even like using it in the car!