Vacation?

Last weekend, Jack and I took SB on our yearly family vacay to Rosemary Beach. This year, we invited another family, the Johnsons, to share in the fun, the babysitter and unfortunately, the stomach bug. That's right. Our friends loaded up their SUV with two kids, a ton of luggage and one highly contagious strain of vomit.


To be fair, this bug has apparently been making the rounds through our church nursery, as three other families with small children have also been sick in the past two weeks. All of us have kids in the nursery together at church. Dang kids, always ruin everything.


Thursday was completely uneventful: the trip, the unloading and unpacking, the grocery shopping and settling into the house. Friday was fantastic. The weather was perfect, and we spent the morning at the beach. Naps, showers and photo shoots that afternoon, and the adults had a fabulous dinner and night out on the town on Halloween while the babysitter wrangled the kids at home.


We returned to a quiet house, which remained quiet until 1 am, when the fun started. Our friends were up all night with their 3-year-old, who quickly passed the virus to his father, who ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration and other complications. We didn't get much sleep, and at 4 am, a knock on our door announced that an ambulance was on the way to pick up the dehydrated father.


Did I mention that the mother of the sick kid was pregnant? Yeah. She got sick the next morning. They offered to get a hotel room in hopes of keeping the virus contained, but we knew it was probably too late. Jack and I escaped with SB and the babysitter, praying we would be spared, although we knew we had already been exposed. We went to the beach, the outlet malls and the pool- anything to keep us out of the house.


But of course, the damage was already done, and SB woke us up around 12:30 that night with a stomach bug all her own. We spent the rest of the night between SB's throw up sessions cleaning sheets, changing and washing clothes and trying to sleep a little too.


Early the next day (Sunday) we decided to bolt for home before we got sick too. We both felt fine, but we knew it was just a matter of time. We said goodbye to our friends, grabbed the babysitter and ran. The trip home was a nightmare, as SB screamed all the way, save the hour and a half that she slept.


We finally made it home, just in time. Jack and I spent Monday and Tuesday in the bed, sick, as the virus claimed its final victims. I called our precious babysitter yesterday to check on her, certain that our sickness had fallen upon her. I could not believe it when she told me that she had been spared. This feat is even more amazing when you consider the fact that she is the church nursery worker, and she has been keeping all these kids that have been spreading this awful virus for the past 2-3 weeks.

It's no wonder this thing spread the way it did, considering what a loving mood SB was in that weekend.

At least we got some good pictures out of the weekend, which you can see here, you know, if you care about that sort of thing.