A Summer Bug

Unfortunately this is not a fun colorful, fuzzy bug that my little boy has picked up. It is a little coughing, snot producing, feverish kid of bug.

Last Wednesday Jack woke up with a fever of 101. Not too serious and easily controled with Tylenol or Motrin, but it lasted for 3 days. All he wanted to do all week was sit on my lap and watch Caillou over and over and over again. So painful for Mommy (watching Caillou, not the snuggling - that I enjoyed). By Saturday morning he finally broke his 3 day fast with a big waffle and a request to watch Mickey Mouse so I thought he had turned the corner and was on the mend, but come Sunday he stopped eating again and began coughing and requesting Caillou, so that's where we are again today. Throughout the week he's been drinking lots of milk and will eat some watermelon and occasionally a bite or two of food so he's not totally starving or dehydrated or I would have called the doctor, but he's definitely lost some junk in his trunk, poor kid. I'm dying to take him out swimming or to the park or something to get us out of the house to enjoy the summer and interact with people, but alas, here we sit - me, Jack, and dreadful Caillou.

I am grateful that he is doing fine though, especially considering how many of our heart buddies are in the hospital right now. (We're thinking about you McKay, Teagan G, and Mariska!) Hopefully just a few more days of rest and he'll be able to shake this darn bug.

Yellowstone 2010

As if the previous two weeks of cousin fun weren't enough, this past week we went to Yellowstone with Hardy's entire family and Jack got to enjoy lots of time with his adoring fan club on the other side of the family. He's the youngest on this side by about 6 years so all his cousin's think he's pretty entertaining, and he adores them. He'd wake up each morning and ask to go see the "big kids."

Poor Alli and Abbey were forced to play ring-around-the-rosie about 50 times standing in the hallway outside the bathroom at a pizza place one night (obviosuly Jack chose the location, not the girls). After they would "all fall down" Jack would jump up, grab their hand and say enthusiastically "AGAIN!" What troopers they were.





We drove to Mammoth Springs one morning.

Another day we went to the Upper and Lower Falls, and of course we visited Old Faithful. As it was going off Jack declared "It's big! It's hot!" Excellent observations, my man.

Jack really loved seeing all the elk and buffalo and on the ride home any time he would see cows he would shout "Buffalo!"

Not surprisingly, Jack's favorite spot was of course the Firehole River swimming area. He found himself a nice little alcove where he sat and threw rocks for a long time.

On Wednesday we had a special reunion and birthday celebration for Grandma Strong. Amazingly all 93 of her decendants were able to make it to the reunion. How grateful we are to her for making this trip possible.

Towards the end of the party they gave everyone a marshmallow gun for a massive marshmallow war. Jack didn't quite get the hang of it but enjoyed eating his bag of ammo.

Jack did amazingly well in Yellowstone. We weren't quite sure how he'd react to the high elevation, but other than needing two naps a day in stead of one and a little blueness in the pool, he was pretty normal. He did get quite cranky as we drove near Yellowstone Lake, but when I looked at the map and it said the elevation was around 8400 ft we decided that he got a pass on his crankiness.

What a fun trip full of great memories!

A Cousin Visit

A few weeks ago my sister Erin and Jack's cousins Jake and Alex came to stay with us for a couple of days. It was so fun to have them come visit.

We took them to the splash park one day, and Jack and Alex had the best time driving Erin's minivan together in their matching shirts.

The next day we took all the kids to my sister Emily's house and let the kids play in the gentle stream that runs though their back yard. Jack thought it was great and i have the feeling we will be back often this summer.