As I said earlier, Ali and Joe were here for almost a week starting June 23, evening time. Everyone was happy to be out of the car. We had all kinds of plans or rather they did, we were just along for the ride, however, as Scott says, he knows Murphy intimately and Murphy's law for this week dictated that if something could go wrong, it would. And that started our week.
The kids got here just in time for both Scott and I to not feel good. The week prior, all 3 grandkids were sick and we thought we weren't getting it, but then low and behold, after church on Sunday Scott felt like he was getting a sore throat. I soon followed and by Tuesday, both of us were sick. He'd been down flat all day and I'd been trying to tell myself I wasn't sick, but alas, I was.
Wednesday dawned and we seemed to feel a little better so after everyone got up and going, Scott took Joe and Ali and kids to the March AFB Aircraft Museum. Ada was down for a nap and so I stayed with her. I was glad because again I really didn't feel well. I think they had fun, they seemed to.
Thursday we packed up and went to the beach. Everyone got sunscreen and was set to have a really good time and I think they did. The bad part was, Joe, Scott and I did not get suncreen. Joe tried to put some on himself, but he missed a lot of places so when we were done, he and Scott were pretty sunburned, both being so fair. I just had some on one shoulder. We finished off the day with dinner at In-N-Out for burgers, fries and shakes. After being in the fresh air for 3 hours, everyone really enjoyed the food. The baby was especially happy to have something to eat. She was eating and drinking everything she could get her hands on!
After getting home, we discovered just how burned the men were and so proceeded to try to cool them off with aloe vera gel and ice packs and cold drinks. Scott cooled off but Joe unfortunately didn't and he got sick. He seemed better Friday morning, but after just a bit of time in the sun, discovered that he was more ill than he knew. By that time, we were at Knott's Berry Farm and the kids were trying to ride everything. After a couple of hours we brought the little kids home and Joe and Scott and Joseph, Grant, Taylor and Lyndsee stayed to ride a couple more roller coasters.
Well, it turns out, Lyndsee is fearless and so the boys decided that they would ride anything she decided to ride, not to be outdone by a girl. She was game for every roller coaster that they had open as well as the extreme scream which is the tall tower like ride that takes you way up and then drops you fast. She loved them. I'm not sure that the boys were quite as enthusiastic but they couldn't let her know that of course, or anyone else!
That ended the fun. Grant got sick that night, Joe was flat in bed, Scott was flat in bed and Ada and Jennabee didn't feel very well. We were supposed to go see a minor league baseball game, but no one felt good enough. too bad because Manny Garcia was playing that game and it was sold out. We didn't really care though as all the adults felt too bad to go anywhere.
We rested on Sunday and on Monday just before noon, they left to go on to Utah and then home. We were sad to see them go but more than that, hated that there was sickness here and they took it with them.
We are so happy they got to come and stay with us for a few days. This is the first time they whole family has gotten to come visit since we left Washington State 6 years ago. That's a long time. I hope the next visit isn't as long in coming.
Our desire is to have all our kids within an hour of us so that we can see them often and it's not a hardship for anyone. I know it's a dream, but it's a good one. Maybe someday we will be closer geographically, maybe not, but it's good to have a big, loving, close family, especially since it's a blended one. The next goal is to have a family reunion that everyone can come to. That would be great.
