Florida

 Giddy-up! We started our long drive on Friday. We drove 7 hours the first day and stayed in a hotel in Mississippi. But, just 30 minutes before arriving at the hotel Ryan says, 'I feel sick!' and immediately starts vomiting. Gross! Luckily Marcela was armed with supplies. Why did I forget this kid used to get car sick? He changed into his swim clothes since they were handy. I had the good pleasure of cleaning up the mess once we got settled at the hotel. After a month of nursing Macey, this was not a good start to our vacation!

 But eventually we did arrive at the condo and the beach. Hoorah! It was so fun to take this vacation with the DeLucias. They are a fun bunch always good for a laugh or two.

 Alex getting buried and kissed.

 Ryan is such a character everywhere we go.

 Nico had to be both Alex and Ryan's friend during this trip. It did get tricky at times, but for the most part everyone had a great time with each other.

 This is why you shouldn't sleep with Ryan. Ever. Even if you have a king bed and 1 adult with 2 kids. He should always sleep alone or on the floor. Always.

 We were at the beach for 6 days. The beach by our house was like swimming in a salad with all the algae and seaweed. We did it without complaints for 2 days, but on day 3 we went looking for different waters.

 Sand castle fun. Mine.

 John's.

 Marcela's. This was made to be Macey's birthday cake.

 I thought I better do something if I was going to have proof I went on this vacation. This is the view from our condo.

 Always an adventure when we travel with the D's. We went to Harbor Village.

 Ryan wanted to zipline. (Well, he wanted to rock climb, zipline, laser-maze, 4-d Movie ride, etc.) Nico went with him.

 They start at this medium sized tower.

 And go over to this tall tower. Then return from the top of this tower. It was a long (20 sec) awesome trip.

 There really isn't anything better than taking 3 boys to the beach. They boogie boarded, played in the sand, jumped the waves, looked for water life, and had just plain fun. BTW, once we got to a new, clean and clear beach, there was no more swimming in a salad for us!

 The three kids. We sure missed having our Macey girl. However, it was probably easier on the sisters to not have to share Macey.

 John's mermaid.

 Boogie boarding.

 Crab night. John and Marcela spent 45 min shelling all of their food!

 Well, I signed up Ryan for surfing lessons. It was really just renting a board for 3 hours and having someone help push him onto the waves.

 But it was totally worth it!

 He got up and rode on his very first try. He surfed all the way to the shore. He couldn't get going on his own. And he was wore out after an hour. But he kept at it.

 Alex and Nico did their usual beach fun while we waited for Ryan to finish.

 Santa, please send Ryan a surf board and another trip to the beach for Christmas!

 Family pics by the shore.

 One more piece of evidence that I went on this trip.

 So, we went to the beach in the evening we found these small globs on the shore. All over the shore. Once we picked them up and investigated them we discovered Sooty Sea Hare's. A sea slug. The eeks out purple toxins. Remember that sea salad we were swimming in. Yeah, those things were in there too.

 Peace. Wonderful peace. I did relax and have a very soothing trip. Until my back went out. Awesome. So I was free of stress, but full of pain. Ugh, I'm still recovering.

 Brothers.

 Alex did no daredevil activities. He wanted to eat breakfast at IHOP. Cheap and easy to please!

 These are my happy peoples smiling on me.

 Selfie.

 Going home.

12 hours drive, all in one day. The next day was Macey's bday. We had to get back! School started in 2 days. We had to get back! We loved our vacation. See you next summer Destin!

August

I leave in a.m. to take boys to Florida. I am super excited to sleep and relax. I hope I get to do both! I am not super excited about long car drive by myself, but I have picked up audiobooks from every genre, so surely between that and V8 energy drinks and crunchy snacks, I'll be OK. :)
Pictures below are some goodies from my phone.

Really is tough to be a pet. Especially a pet welcomed on the furniture. I love snuggling this cutie.

Macey had a kinder playdate to 'make new friends'. She instead played with Megan...

The brothers also found old friends. There was some swinging...

...and dodging of camera.

Oh, you mean when you fill your body with lots and lots of antibiotics, your skin can actually slough off? OK, that's cool. NOT! It was a short experience that was a bit creepy. Lotion and socks were the prescribed solution.

BTW, when the DR. says, 'No swimming with a PICC line,' he really meant it. We wrapped it in 3 layers of plastic and went to the 6" pool. That was a fail. It was worth a try, but only that.

The girls next door asked me to get the boys in the backyard. I did. With popsicles. I locked them in the backyard. Later Alex said, you should have been on our side and let us back in. But I was in cahoots with the girls...

An attempt at retaliation.

It was dismal since the boys had no weapons, only armor! The sounds of summer. Girls screaming, boys laughing. Fun!

The Illness

I realize that those of you who read this blog, have already heard about The Illness, but this is for posterity's sake...

On July 19 at 5 am I awoke to Macey yelling, 'Mom, I threw up, I threw up!' I rushed to her room and found her holding her hands in front of her face clean as a whistle. I quickly carried her to the bathroom, where she did actually throw-up. And throw-up she did for the next 3 days. She had a fever and her body ached all over, especially her left pelvis, thigh.

Thinking it could be flu, I took her to the pediatrician Monday morning. There she was given a strep test first thing, which she tested positive. The Dr suggested a urine test but Macey did not want to have anything to do with her or with peeing in a cup. So, the dr said since she has strep we'll just go with that. She was given Amoxicillin and off we went.
By Wednesday she was no longer throwing up, but she still had 102 temp. Over the phone the DR changed her prescription to Augmentin. Thursday night she peaked at 105. We took Macey to the Medical City Children's Hospital at 5 pm on Friday night. Her main symptoms were a high fever and severe leg pain. A pediatric orthopedic surgeon was consulted predicting she had an infection either around her bone or inside it. An ultrasound ruled out a hip infection.
Saturday morning Macey was taken downstairs for an MRI. She had to be put to sleep. Poor girl! The MRI results showed an inflammation of her leg muscles, but not in the bone. However, the radiologist noticed that at the top of the MRI her kidney looked abnormal. An ultrasound Sunday and a CT scan Monday showed that her left kidney was severely swollen. She started a round of strong antibiotics that the kidney dr predicted would last 2-3 weeks.

 Macey watched lots of movies.

 When she was fever free for 48 hours she was allowed to visit the playroom. The blue pole is her IV pole.

 The Sumners came one night with dinner and fun. This was the first visitor Macey was excited to see!

 Sophia was the next friend to visit. Mia and Marcela came too.

 When Autumn came, the clown Zoe stopped by too.
Macey had to stay in the hospital until that Friday, making it one week there. Dan and I traded turns staying the with her 24 hours a day. Many visitors came and brought balloons, toys, movies, dinners and activities. We had many friends reach out to us for comfort and assistance. Uncle Mike came and helped with the boys and stayed one night with sister while Dan was on a business trip.

 Macey felt like playing on the floor. The bed was getting very old!

 Macey received lots of gifts to help her keep busy and cheered.

 This was my one picture of me and sister in the hospital just before we left.

 Alex helped carry stuff down to the car.

 Macey with 'Glamour' on her ride down and out!

Megan and Paige made this awesome sign for the front door!
Since coming home, I have had to give Macey antibiotics through a PICC line 3 x's a day. There is no end in site to this regimen. Hopefully before kindergarten starts! A home health nurse comes for blood draws and dressing changes. We have had one trip back for an ultrasound. But there will be more in the future until this is all taken care of.