4th of Jul-EYE

What a fun past few days! We were originally supposed to head up to Gillette last Thursday after Josh got done teaching summer school. However, his kids worked really hard and finished on Tuesday morning so we took off on Tuesday afternoon. Ended up working out really well, because my mom was flying home from Europe on Wednesday and my dad had a closing out of town that day, so my mom was still able to have someone pick her up at the airport.

That night, Brecken woke up in the night saying he didn't feel good. I thought it was just that he was in a new bed, and I tucked him back in and he went back to sleep. At 1:30 am, he woke up again and was burning up. We got medicine down him and Josh went to get a temporal thermometer at Walmart (since our other one got wet in the ocean along with the stupid car keys and quit working). He said shopping there at 2:00 am was a nice treat- nice and empty! :) By the time he got back, Brecken's medicine had started working and his fever was down to 101.7 or something. I slept with him the rest of the night and in the morning, his fever was still there. So off to Urgent Care we went. This one is run by the hospital and I was really impressed!! The PA we saw was really nice and the whole facility was spotlessly clean and we were in and out very fast. Poor kid had an ear infection. This makes 6 in his left ear and 5 in his right. All he could do was cry and say "owie!!" We got three prescriptions filled (ear drops, ear numbing drops, and antibiotic) and gave him his first dose. That afternoon he was a new kid- laughing and playing again. Hooray!!

Everyone else (14 total people!) showed up Thursday and Friday. We had a great time seeing a lot of our family. And my mom and dad's neighbors were out of town, so we were able to have their house for bedrooms so nobody had to stay at a hotel. It was great!

Friday morning, a bunch of us headed out to the golf course to try out the new clubs my dad made for Brecken and my nephew Ryan. Brecken is in LOVE with golf and was pretty sad when it was time to go home and eat lunch. The clubs are quite heavy compared to his plastic ones, so swinging them took some getting used to. He never gave up though, he just kept on swinging!

That afternoon, we went down to a new waterpark that is part of a hotel in town. It was fun- there were two waterslides, a lazy river, and a really cute kids play area with little waterslides and fountains and stuff. We had a good couple of hours there. Brecken was shivering to death but he loves swimming so much that he did not want to leave!!

Saturday started off fabulous. We went to the parade and Brecken had a blast watching everything. Both little boys ended up filling their own gallon sized Ziplock with candy! Holy moly, that's a lot of candy! He had fun watching the horses and fire trucks and ambulances and all the other things going on.

After a BBQ and naptime, Brecken, Ryan, my sister, my cousin Ian, and myself went to the neighborhood park. Brecken loves parks so this was a great afternoon for him.

While at the park, I had an allergic reaction to the weeds and grass and everything else around outside. My eyes started itching something fierce, and when we got back in the car, I rubbed my eyes. Soon after, my eye formed a mass on the eyeball itself and it got hard to blink. Around 5:30, Josh and my sister took me to Urgent Care. We saw the same PA that saw Brecken. She donned a crazy looking helmet with special things to look in eyes and then sent us to the ER since she didn't know much about eyes and didn't want to mess it up. I appreciated that. And on our way out I told her that while I liked her, I hoped we didn't meet again for a 3rd time. :)

The ER took FOREVER, like I was expecting. I sent Josh home at 8:00, as everyone at home was getting ready to go out and do some fireworks. I wanted Brecken to have a dad to do them with, and besides, we had Brecken's car seat so they weren't able to get him anywhere unless Josh went home!! Kristen stayed with me and then my mom and dad came up so we had a car. After waiting in the exam room for over an hour and a half, we finally saw the doctor. She diagnosed me with Chemosis, which is the swelling of the eye tissue. There's some disgusting pictures on the internet if you want to google it. :) In addition, I have a scratched eyeball. AND, she made me tell her that I was overdue for a tetanus shot, so I had to get one of those, too!!! So one shot, a tube full of stuff as thick as neosporin, a prescription for eye drops, an eye exam, orders to NOT wear my contacts for 10 days (DANG IT!!), instructions to see my eye doctor this week, and a LOT of time later, I finally got to leave. Oy.

I missed doing the fireworks with Brecken, which I had really looked forward too. Last July 4, we had been up since 1 am to get on a plane and come home for a wedding, so Brecken was so tired that he made it through one sparkler before he crashed. This year he was excited to do them, so I'm completely bummed I missed it. However, we were out of the hospital at 9:30 so we were able to meet everyone else at the big fireworks show that Gillette puts on, so I was able to watch those with him. He loved every minute of it, even though it was almost 11:00 when we got back to go to bed!!

July 5 was my mom's birthday. Brecken had got to pick out her birthday cake from Dairy Queen. He originally wanted one with Santa and snowmen, but Dairy Queen didn't have that option in their book right now. :) So he picked out Lightning McQueen. He also insisted on party hats, but the only ones the store had were Transformers. So my mom had a McQueen/Transformers party! :)

Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July weekend!!