Our spring break didn't go exactly as planned....but despite the detours, we had a GREAT time!
The trip down was great. The girls were great travelers and handled driving straight through the night with no problems.
The first morning we woke up in the house we noticed that Presley had some sort of infection in her ear. She had a sore in her nose a few days before also so we decided to take her to an urgent care to get it taken care of so she could enjoy the rest of the trip. They at first weren't sure what it was and decided to culture it. They were thinking either shingles, herpes complex virus, or impetigo. She was given an antibiotic and also recommend that we pick up a cream for her while waiting for the culture to come back. We had to run to 3 different pharmacies before we finally had to have them order the cream and go back and pick it up the next day. The antibiotic was free, but the cream ended up costing us $130! And it was the size of my pinky finger (and I'm not exaggerating - if anything it is smaller!)!! Oh well, if that is what they thought she needed of course we would get it for her. (Plus, we didn't know the cost before we went to pick it up.) Luckily none of her problems seemed to bother her, so we was able to enjoy the trip with no issues and everything cleared up just as it should. When they called us later in the week they told us that the culture had come back negative for shingles and herpes complex virus and so they were thinking it was probably a mild form of impetigo but they couldn't say for sure...and oh by the way, "she probably didn't need that cream." Nice. Now on to the rest of the trip...
Our awesome home away from home! This house had it all plus some.
We rented this house with 3 other families. There were 8 adults and 9 kiddos. So much fun!
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| Addison and Millie |
Since the house was literally steps from the beach/ocean we spent as much time as we could on the beach. We would wake up in the mornings and get our bathing suits on first thing. We'd head back to the house for snacks and lunch and then back to the beach. It was nice being so close, the kids could run back and forth when they wanted to grab something from the house, go to the bathroom or jump in the hot tub.
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| Addison |
Our first couple of days at the house we didn't leave the beach....
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| Reese |
Except to get the girls first manicure and pedicures.
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| Reese, Addison and Millie |
They LOVED it!
And then right after, it was back to the beach.
The 2 older girls had seen these beach bags at Target a month or so our trip and decided that they wanted to use their own money to buy them so they could put what they wanted to take the beach in them. : )
Toes in the sand, we were all feeling good.
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| Presley |
Boogie boards were a bit hit with the older kids.
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| Reese |
After eating out at
Pinchers we stopped for ice cream on the way back.
Afternoons usually found the kiddos with popsicles on the deck.
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| Presley with brothers - Mason and Kaden |
These two - Millie and Reese became GREAT friends!
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| Leah, Millie & Reese |
Presley learned how to play Uno this trip and spent lots of time playing with her friends/parents/whoever she could convince.
We were able to enjoy sunsets from our back deck.
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| Reese |
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| Addison |
By Wednesday morning we had decided to take Addison to the same Urgent Care that we had taken Presley to. Addy just wasn't acting herself. She was extra tired falling asleep several times before we had even eaten dinner. Randomly she would say her throat hurt or maybe an ear. She would play most of the day, and then at night get whiny and tired. We at first had assumed that she was just wearing herself out playing during the day, but wanted to make sure it wasn't something else.
Chad actually volunteered to take her to the Dr. since he had gone fishing with the guys the day before. (Where they had actually been able to catch 2 sting rays and see lots of dolphins.) I stayed at the house and took the 2 other girls to the beach. They did a strep test but it came back negative. While the Dr. was doing the strep test he noticed that she had an abscess behind her tonsil and told us he was going to call an ENT (Ear Nose Throat Dr.) to see if they felt comfortable looking at a child. After talking to the ENT in town he felt like we should take her to the Children's Hospital ER. Chad came back to the house and picked me up and off we went. Because we were with such great friends, they had us leave Presley and Reese with them so we could both be with Addison. We spent about 7 hours in ER getting looked at and having tests done. The ER Dr.'s confirmed the abscess and ordered a CT scan. They also did another strep test and a mono test which both came back negative. The ER Dr. finally said that they were going to be admitting her because they were worried that her tonsil was so swollen her throat could close at any time. (A cool connection...the ER Dr.'s son is a student at Notre Dame and she is actually coming to visit later this month.) It was around 7:00 p.m. when we finally were taken up to our room. Chad went back to the house to be with the other girls while I stayed with Addy. She was given antibiotics through her IV.
From that point on it was just a lot of waiting...waiting for the Dr.'s to determine what the course of action was for getting Addy better. We were told several different scenarios from surgery with long hospital stays to going home on antibiotics. Chad brought the girls up to visit with Addy and keep her entertained a bit. The 2 other girls were so sweet to Addy and so worried about her and her "button" (iv). They called her each night and even cried a few times. : (
We had to wait until late the next afternoon (now Thursday) for a Pediatric ENT to come and finally decide that she needed surgery to get that tonsil out and to drain the abscess. The hospital did their best to keep Addison's spirits up. She was visited by the Easter Bunny on 2 different days. She had a therapy dog that came and laid with her in her bed, high school students come and bring gifts and talk to her and also was able to "shop" from the library cart for lots of new books. It's not fun to see your little girl so scared, but we tried our best to put on our brave faces. The Dr. knew we needed to leave to head back to Indiana either Friday or Saturday and felt like this was our best shot. There was a chance that the antibiotics would have worked, but it would've taken several days in the hospital with the IV to see if that would be enough. He decided that since we have had no prior problems and it was only on the left side that he would just take out the left tonsil and drain the abscess. Taking only 1 tonsil would cut her recovery time in half. The actual surgery was about 20 minutes. It felt like a lot longer, but almost immediately when she woke up you could tell she was feeling better. He wanted to keep her overnight to make sure everything went as planned...and then we could finally be released. She was begging to eat (ice cream) about an hour after surgery. : ) Thankfully she didn't get sick one bit from the anesthesia and bounced back quickly.
By the next day late afternoon (Friday) we were finally released. Addy had been asking since we were admitted for us to "just take her back to our beach house so she could go to the beach" so that's just what we did (with a quick stop before heading to the beach at the pharmacy to pick up her meds). She was so happy to just sit in the sand with the ocean touching her toes.
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| Millie and Addison |
Presley and Mason are the same age and both really shy. It took a couple of days for them to warm up to each other, but mid-week they had become quite the pair.
The other moms were nice enough to wait to have the Easter Egg Hunt on the beach until Addy got home from the hospital.
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| Reese and Kate |
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| Kaden |
The kids also spent the morning coloring pictures and making posters for Addy's "Welcome Home Ice-Cream Party".
Baby Sully (Sullivan) enjoyed the ice cream party too.
So glad to have my smiley girl back!
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Kate, Presley (holding Reagan) Mason, Reese, Sullivan, Kaden and Millie (the kiddos minue Addison and Leah)
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Our final night there (after Addy was released) we were able to head out for a nice dinner on the ocean.
They had singing and dancing and we couldn't stop Addy...she was feeling the music. She kept asking if she could go and dance! This is about 24 hour post surgery...crazy!
After dinner we walked down the pier.
Our only picture of the whole family from this trip. : (
One more beautiful morning with a cup of coffee on the deck.
And then it was time to pack up and head up to downtown for a little shopping.
A walk out to another pier...
A stop for shakes, you know because the Dr. ordered...
A few more pictures...
(taken by Addy) and we were on our way back home. The kiddos did wonderful traveling on the way home also.
We were heading near Tyler on our way back home and decided to take him and Abby out for Easter brunch before getting home. We knew it would cheer Addy up and also would be nice for Tyler to see some family on Easter.
And that folks is our Spring Break. Definitely not as planned, but so very thankful. Thankful for pretty healthy kids, great Dr.'s who can fix my kids, beautiful weather, and great friends who helped us out tremendously!!! Now we need to head back to so we can have a vacation re-do!
Next Year...
