J&J Nursery had their annual pumpkin patch ride (with free pumpkins for canned food donations). It was supposed to be a big family thing, but everyone canceled at the last minute except for us and my older sister, Suzanna. Oh well. We can have fun without everyone else!
We had a really long wait in line (seriously, an hour and a half), but they had some picture areas for the kids so that helped take up two minutes of our time.
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| Princess Ari |
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| Kaden and Lexi |
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| Farmer Lexi |
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| Farmer Kaden |
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| Princess Lexi |
My mom and her husband came by for about ten minutes, but it was long enough for Grandpa Kent to spoil the grandkids with cookies and soda (from some vendors there).
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| Lexi is drinking grape soda. Remember that for later. |
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| We got to the front of the line!! |
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| On the tractor ride. |
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| Kaden was the first to find a pumpkin he loved! |
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| Ari wanted to walk to the very back of the field. She kept saying, "C'mon, Mom!" |
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| Lexi thought she found the one... |
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| McKayla's got hers! |
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| ...but then she found a better one! |
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| Ari with her pumpkin. |
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| Ari, Kaden, baby Jared, Serenity, McKayla, and Lexi |
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| Serenity cheesin' it up |
We had big plans for after this. My dad had invited all of the grandkids over for a movie night and Shane was going to surprise me and take me to Tepanyaki's in Layton (which we LOVE, but haven't been there in forever). Well, remember that grape soda Lexi had earlier? To be honest, I hate grape soda. It smells like cough syrup and tastes like death. But I found out that I'm even less fond of grape soda that has been puked up all over the inside of my van.
Yep. The moment we arrived home to quickly feed the kids dinner, Lexi threw up multiple times inside the van. It. was. awful. I've honestly never smelled anything worse in my entire life.
We canceled all of our plans for the evening and Shane cleaned Lexi up while I cleaned my beloved van up. A few days before this, Ari had been throwing up and was diagnosed with strep throat. I was told that if the other kids (or Shane or myself) start throwing up, it's probably strep and bring them in for an antibiotic shot. So I called instacare and got an appt for Lexi. She threw up every 10-15 minutes from the first time she started puking. Five times in the room at the doctor's office. The doctor came back with the strep test and said it was negative and that this was a vicious stomach bug going around and Lexi would be puking for the next 12-18 HOURS.
I would have preferred strep.
It actually ended up being about 24 hours of near constant throwing up. Shane and I took shifts throughout the night to stay with her downstairs. And something super fun (yes, that's sarcasm you sense) that was added to the mix around midnight was explosive diarrhea. No joke - Lexi couldn't even make it to the toilet because it came on so fast and forcefully. After about six accidents, I woke Shane up (this was about 2:00 AM) to sit with Lexi while I ran to the store for some anti-diarrhea medicine and some pull-ups. (And some well-deserved treats for the adults.)
Around 5:00 pm Saturday, all the bodily fluids started magically staying inside her again. It was amazing. I swear I could hear angels singing.
Then Ari started throwing up.
I wanted to cry.
Another very, very long night for Shane and I, although with Ari this time. (And we knew to put her in pull-ups before any accidents could happen. Getting to be pros at this parenting thing.)
For whatever reason, Ari got over the sickness faster than Lexi. Maybe the antibiotics from her strep throat helped out or something. Either way, her near constant puking only lasted about 12 hours. Sunday morning dawned and I planned on spending the entire day heavily sanitizing every surface in our house.
Then Lexi threw up again.
I really did cry that time. We all stayed home from church and Shane kept Kaden as far from the girls as possible. Luckily, Lexi only threw up the one time on Sunday.
I cleaned. And sanitized. And sanitized again for good measure.
The girls didn't have much of an appetite Sunday or Monday, but I wasn't about to force any food down their throats. Just Gatorade. :)
Monday evening, Kaden starting throwing up.
About an hour later, so did I.
Poor Shane. He dealt with all of Kaden's sickness stuff on his own because I was upstairs the entire night. It was bad for both of us. Around 3:00 AM, I hadn't puked in two hours and was SOOO thirsty. I would have given my left arm for a teaspoon of water in that moment. I came downstairs and Shane said that Kaden had only thrown up a few times, but not for a few hours. I asked Kaden if he wanted some Sprite and he was like, "YESSSS!!!!"
I poured us each a very small glass of Sprite and made us both pace ourselves on drinking it. (It was hard!) Kaden recovered faster than I did, but I got there eventually.
It took me about two weeks to have an appetite again (great for weight loss, by the way). I was really, really weak and shaky for a couple of days after, but at least the puking had stopped!
Shane never got it.
Stupid men with their Herculean immune systems.
No, actually I'm really glad he never got it. I wouldn't wish that sickness on anyone.
So, yeah. That's our horrible sickness story. So glad we're done with it and hopefully won't get any other stomach bugs this winter!
