Lake Powell 2010

Week three of our marathon vacation: Glenn flew straight home from Vegas to finish thesis revisions and I went back to Utah to chill with the fam on our fabulous Lake Powell vacation. Nanna and Grampa have a time share in a house boat and we've been every year since...well, for a really long time. This year was super fun because EVERYONE was able to come. Mal home from her mission, Cody and Aubry and their two girls, Adam and Camarie, of course Nanna, Grampa and Kenzie, AND Aunt Kimber with her three kiddos! It was a fantastic time.

We drove down on Sunday and got everything situated and unpacked and enjoyed a night in the slip with the AC. Then on Monday we took the boat out and found a great spot really close so it wasn't too crazy to drive back at the end of the week, a major concern for my dad, seen here snuggling with his favorite grandson. I can say that for sure because he's only got one so far.Those first couple of days were filled with tons of swimming out the back of the houseboat, great rides on the speedboat that greatly aided with naptime

A wee bit of tubing, (Adam showing off his skills, Camarie, and Kenzers)

and of course, feeding the gross carp at the marina store. Also known as "Whoa, Big Fish."Tate started throwing up on Tuesday night. It just kept coming. He probably let loose 6 or 7 times that one night and was up in the night to boot. I thought he was better the next morning so I gave him some juice. My mistake. He just barfed it all up and then after a minute or so he looked at my shirt, pointed his little finger at it and said, "agusting!" Yes, Tate, that was disgusting.

I really wasn't too worried for the first few days. He'd never really been sick. Never had a real cold or flu before so I figured he was due and it wasn't much to worry about. He just spent most of the time in a diaper or swimming suit so as not to get too hot and although his whining when we were eating and he couldn't was pretty sad, ("pancakes, eggs, french toast, cereal, please, please.") he was really a trooper.

The rest of the fam came on Wednesday so as not to miss a full week of work and school and Tate was in heaven with so many kids to follow around. He loved Mya of course and he constantly hit Maggie for some reason. And he found Janie and Charlie absolutely fascinating. In fact, we were at a car dealership this week (another story entirely) and he met a girl and boy in the toy area and he kept following them around calling them Charlie and Janie. So sweet.
The kids had a blast watching movies on the little DVD player, swimming, climbing off rocks, tubing, and jumping off rocks too. I was reminded how gutsy little Charlie is. It's kind of cool and also freaky that he has no fear whatsoever. Is that what I'm in store for raising my own little boy?Seriously, the boat had some kind of sleeping power over the kiddos. They all fell asleep minutes into every ride we took.

Little Maggie, swimsuit bummies don't get much cuter than this:Little man Tate continued to vomit everything we put in him and he got more and more snuggly as the week went on. Auntie Mallory loved it. He was just a limp, sweet, tender little kid after a few days. It was SO nice that he wanted to be snuggled all the time, but pretty sad that my active little boy truly didn't want to do anything else.We all managed to have a great time despite the fact that people kept dropping like flies. It was like we had our own little plague. Mom got sick on Wednesday. On Thursday night little Mya started throwing up. Every 15 minutes. All night long. Poor little thing. Then Kenzie tossed it too. I sat up thinking to myself, "Who is going to go next?"
Poor little Tate got really good recognizing when he was going to lose it. The first few days he just tossed it out and was surprised after it happened. But after a few days he would tell me when he was, "all done mom" after he'd heaved or thrown up a few times. So so sad. By Friday he looked like this:Days of throwing up left him totally exhausted and visibly thinner too. Friday was the first time I got nervous. He slept all day. His body was limp and loose and I couldn't get him to wake up and open his eyes for more than a few minutes at a time. All day long. It was scary. So we took him to the medical clinic in Bullfrog to have him looked at. The doctors were nervous and called in another doctor to take a look at him too. They said it might be wise to take him to the hospital, but they wanted to try to wake him up and get him to eat something while they watched for an hour or so. We hadn't been able to get him to eat or drink anything for a couple of days so we laughed at them a little but then Tate sat up, at a popsicle and kept it down for an hour and they told us that he had turned a corner and we should be fine. Mom and I didn't buy it and just waited for him to toss it all up again but he never did. He didn't throw up again after that. It took almost 5 days to get him to eat and drink normally, I guess I would be the same after a whole week of vomiting, but he's fine now.

We took him to the doctor here in Austin the day we got home. He weighed 25 lbs and 3.5 oz. at his 15 month visit and at his 18 month he only weighed a flat 25 pounds. He'd lost a few ounces from his weight a few months ago. Dr. was worried that it couldn't have all been from just being sick for one week. I just thought, "You didn't see how much he threw up then did you?"

Anyway, it was actually a great week. Just the right amount of sunshine to get a little color but not be miserable outside all day, the food and company were great of course, and it was just so much fun to be back there. We didn't get to go last year and I forgot how gorgeous it is there. It was wonderful just to be in nature, swimming every day, and lounging around in one of the most beautiful places God has created.

It was a wonderful week to spend with the fam. Thanks everyone for helping me out so much with 1 barfing little one and no husband. It was so great that everyone just jumped up and started grabbing towells and bowls and rags to clean up when they heard the gagging start. Truly amazing. That's love folks!