Barky the Seal

If you came to my house today, you would think we went to Sea World and made off with a seal. Poor Caroline has croup--or something croupy. On Wednesday, I thought she was being dramatic . . . on Thursday, it was kind of funny (she thought so too) . . . on Friday, she started feeling lousy . . . on Monday, we took her to the doctor . . . now it's Wednesday, and she seems worse than ever, so we are trudging back to the doctor. I hate it when she's sick--when any of my munchkins are, really. I wish I sounded like the seal and she was at school having fun.

Which reminds me of our beach trip . . . the urgent care clinic beach trip . . . which reminds me, I never did a beach post, so . . .

Josh and I loaded up our car on a Friday night (and I mean LOADED UP because we were going to be gone for 2 WEEKS and Caroline had a dance competition in the middle of it all). I cleaned the house and got everyone's travel bag ready for the car and made sure our hotel bag was easy to grab. About the time we were ready to buckle up, Sascha said her head hurt, so I did what every good mom does in a moment like that and ignored her. 'Til we got to Dumas and she said her tummy hurt. And she had that look on her face. You know the look--the one that says this isn't going to turn out well. We pulled over somewhere for gas and to let her get out and get some air and I thought, "Hmmm, she's pretty warm." Yep. 103. I'll save you all the details, but PRAISE THE LORD, she managed to make it to the hotel before she started throwing up. Now, I'm not gonna lie, and if you know me, it's not news, but I HATE VOMIT. DETEST IT. Mine, my kids, someone on tv, reading about someone 3 states over vomiting. Whatever. I hate it, so I was a little bummed that our wonderful beach vaca was beginning to look like a crash diet for the family. Little bit drifted off to sleep and then woke up SCREAMING around 3 that her head hurt and she was going to "FROW UP ADEN!!!!" The head hurting part was excruciating though, and  we realized it might be driving the barfing. Once again, I'm not gonna lie, I did the WORST thing any mom can do at 3 in the morning while sleep deprived with a sick child--I googled her symptoms.

Don't google symptoms. Never. Google. Symptoms. Because brain tumor is ALWAYS on the list of possibilities. And in Sascha's case, so was strep, which is what the on call nurse at our pediatric clinic thought it was, so . . . Josh can now recommend an excellent urgent care clinic in Mobile. Strep was confirmed (although he cautioned that mono was on the rise and we should have her reseen if the antibiotics didn't work). Ibuprofen, zofran and amoxicillin kicked in and she was functioning and not puking, so on we went.

Did I mention we were meeting my sister, her husband and her 6 month old baby at the beach? Don't you know they were SOOOOOOOOO happy to see us with streppy-strepperson?

Sascha eventually rallied and we really ended up having an amazing trip (minus Tru's NASTY ear infection and the fact that baby Davis ended up at another urgent care clinic with a fever and ear infection--yay, it wasn't strep). The 4th of July fireworks were sooo fun. Bo LOOOOVED the ocean and boogie boarding. Sascha was not as much of a fan . . . except for Caroline, we have discovered that our kids don't love the beach til age 4. Not sure why. We had such a great house that was bayside on a pond so the kids could fish--it was catch and release and I swear that they all caught the same fish. I wanted to mark it with a Sharpy marker, but Josh wouldn't let me--something about ruining the magic of it. There were 2 golf carts that took us everywhere we needed to go (including the grocery store--I love grocery shopping by golf cart). Life just slowed down and it was great. And for reasons I am not ready to express on the web and some I can't even verbalize, just the very fact that we were all there together was special beyond words.

The week was over all to fast, but the Basses were not done living the beach life . . . beach part 2 to come. (Can you even stand it?!) But til then, here are some highlight photos

 Poor baby didn't feel like sitting around food, but hated being left out too.

 One of my favorites--just trust me

 The fish

 The fish (again)--I imagine him thinking, "SERIOUSLY?! AGAIN?!"

 LOVE

 The ocean was crystal clear ALL WEEK. It looked like a swimming pool. And isn't that little rafter cute?

 Tru and Papa

 Heading to Baytown for fireworks

 My real kids

 Oh how I love this mess

 (she chose a balloon animal--she did NOT want her face painted)

 Once Aunt Kristin suggested a little kiddie pool for Sassy to sit in at the beach, she was much happier!

 the boy loves his flippers

 tired babies

 the end of a great week, despite a rocky start!!

 Cousins!

 Could you not EAT HIM UP?!

 The Presleys

Funny thing about this picture . . . we put our names on the list at a restaurant and had less than an hour to take pictures on the beach (it's called multi-tasking with kids). As we were taking the BIG family picture, they paged us. I'm not sure if you have ever tried to get 6 adults and 5 kids to smile at once, but it ain't easy. Especially when you keep hearing your name being called over the beach. The picture I really wish we had was the one of Josh running like an Olympian to confirm our seat!!