Vacation in Review

Lily enjoying some homemade baby food!


It seems hard to believe that we have been back home 7 days already. We got home late Friday night and ever since I have been so busy with our daily routine that I am just getting around to sitting down to blog about the trip.

We left on Thursday, July 2nd around 1pm in the afternoon. We made two stops, one to go potty and one to get some dinner at Applebee's, yum! We arrived at my sister-in-law's house about 9pm. We were greeted by Aunt Traci, Uncle Kelly, baby Jenna, and their two dogs Dingo and Bella. It was the beginning of our rest and relaxation.

Day One: We hung out around the house. Since they live on a lake there is a lot to do right there during the summer. We went out in their pontoon boat for a ride and the kids really enjoyed it. I relaxed outside in the sun and we ate most of our meals outside since it is beautiful there. Later that evening, my other sister-in-law and her family arrived and the kids went fishing. Gwynny was so enthralled with the fish that my niece and nephew were catching. She wanted to pet every fish that they were catching! LOL! There were two fireworks displays, one by the bait shop and one across the lake at the beach. It was definitely a site to see with fireworks going off over the lake and everywhere. I don't know how Lily slept through it because it was very noisy.

Day Two: It was the Fourth Of July and the weather did not cooperate at all. The kids managed to get a little bit of fishing and swimming in first thing in the morning before the rain came and stayed the entire day. After awhile the kids were getting a bit stir crazy being cooped up in the house so what did we do? We went bowling! Now this wasn't your average bowling alley. It was probably 30 years old and it still looked the same. Get the picture? Well, the kids big and small had a blast! It was a first for Gwynny and she wanted to try rolling the ball herself after several people helped her get the hand of things. She was so proud of herself when she knocked down those pins! Yeah for Gwynny! After bowling we decided to eat at the Amish buffet called Stoll's. They have an excellent spread of food. As usual I ate way too much but it all tasted very good. We then headed back home and pretty much called it a night rather early since we couldn't sit outside with a fire due to the bad weather.

Day Three: The weather got a little bit better...no more rain, just cool. After a breakfast of Mickey Mouse waffles using Aunt Traci's special Mickey waffle iron the kids got in some more fishing. We decided to grill out that day since we weren't able to on the fourth. Annette and her family had to leave that afternoon so after a hearty lunch we said goodbye to them and were sad to see them go. Well, we still had a few more days with Aunt Traci and family. That evening we were able to have a fire in their outdoor fireplace and made smores. Mmmmmmmm! Good! I love those things.

Day Four: This was my birthday which to me is just like any other day. We decided to pack the kids up and head over to the beach for a few hours. Gwynny had a great time swimming and playing in the sand. Lily even went in the lake with Daddy. Later that day we grilled steaks and we got a small cake from the grocery. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me! It was very special and we all had a great time.

Day Five: We got up as early as possible and everyone got ready to go to a local amusement part called Holiday World. It was scorching hot that day and very humid. Poor Lily was not enjoying the heat very well, but she did ok. Gwynny I think had the most fun riding all the kiddie rides and enjoying the splash park area at the HUGE, I mean HUGE water park that is all part of Holiday World. If you are ever looking for a water park to take your kids this one is the bomb! They have everything and it is huge! I didn't get to go on anything I just stayed with Lily by the splash park area but we definitely would love to go back some day when the kids are older to do it all over again. We finished out the day with a quick dinner at Grandy's on the way home.

Day Six: I wanted to hit some of the Amish stores before I went home especially one that's called, "The Black Buggy". I love that store! I always get some blueberry jam and Amish noodles to bring home. They always have so many yummy things there! We also decided to stop at Walmart since Traci needed a few things and so did we. Well, while in there I noticed that Lily needed a diaper change. Gwynny wanted to come with me so the three of us went to the women's restroom. I went to pick Lily up and I don't know if the G-tube caught on something or what but she let out a ear piercing scream. I immediately checked her tube and it appeared to have some greenish gooey stuff oozing from the site and it looked like tissue was hanging out. I freaked and of course I got the kids together as fast as I could left the bathroom and proceeded to tell Bill that we needed to go to the ER immediately. Well, we headed to the ER and to make a long story short, we were given an antibiotic, some gauze and sent on our merry way. Turned out that the ER doc told us that they don't deal with G-tubes that often but from what he could remember when he was in Chicago it was totally ok. I was not real happy with his confidence level but what was I supposed to do. I did insist that they give us an antibiotic so that I could be sure that Lily didn't have an infection even though he said she didn't. We did follow up Monday with our GI doc at the Cleveland clinic and she reassured me that everything looked fine. No infection! Yeah! She explained that the tissue that we are seeing is called granulation tissue which means the body is trying to fill the hole where the tube is in her stomach but since the tube is in the way it is unable to. It made sense after she explained everything. So Lily is still on for her switch from G-tube to button on August 11th. We can't wait!

Day Seven: This was our last full day in Indiana so we just basically relaxed and didn't do a whole lot. We did manage to get out on the boat for a short ride so that Gwynny could try her hand at fishing with a hook. She was so excited. With a lot of waiting, patience, and some help from Uncle Kelly she caught a fish and immediately wanted to pet it. Yuck! Oh well she's almost 4! After a tasty lunch made by Aunt Traci we hopped in the car and headed for home. We again made two stops, one for the bathroom and gas, and then one at Bob Evan's for dinner. We arrived in our driveway at approximately 10pm. All the pics are from the trip. It was a vacation that we definitely needed as a family and we really had a very nice time.