So Totaly Bummed

This is what I wrote last night, but didn't publish:

Yesterday morning, Marisa's legs started getting red splotches all over them. By afternoon a few had worked their way to her torso.

Today her body was a sea of red welts, her fingers were fat sausages that hurt her greatly. Anywhere there is a crease (ie, wrist, armpits, knee pits, ankles) it's swollen and bruised.

I'm worried.

All yesterday I was convinced it was chicken pox, despite having received the vaccination.

Today I'm not so sure. None of the bumps have blistered yet (although I don't remember getting the blisters when I had the chicken pox) The swelling and bruising has me the most concerned it's very strange. I'm a little worried that she's allergic to something. But chicken pox is still on my radar and I'm treating it as such. She really liked her oatmeal bath and it helped a little.

She tries so hard not to scratch. She says "I'm going to scratch my hair" "I'm going to scratch my dolly" and I caught her just scratching the couch to death.  She was also rubbing her face on the floor like a cat.

Poor girl.

This is today:

Last night Marisa woke up at 10:35 crying because "it hurt" Shane turned on the light and one look at her face and we were off to the emergency room. Her eyes were swelling shut and she didn't even look like herself.

UGGGG!!!!!

I drove to Provo, and there were people sitting outside it was so full. I didn't even get out of the car. We just drove to Payson. There was only three people in their waiting room but it was still 4 hours before we came home.

Luckily she wasn't having any trouble breathing and was happy and singing the whole time. We just didn't want to risk waiting till morning and having a real problem on our hands.

We can't think of anything that she would have touched or eaten that she hasn't been in contact with before but she definately had an allergic reaction to something.

Now, she is on two types of antihistamines around the clock. Her skin looks almost normal and her eyes are nearly back to their big and beautiful. :)

Hopefully it was a fluke thing and it's not some sudden onset allergy to strawberries. She would die!

So, life is back to normal...kind of. I tried running today and just couldn't get my legs to move. I ended up walking almost half of the time. Something about loosing 5 hours of sleep in the night.

Funny thing. The doctor walked in and immediately I thought, "I've seen this person before." But, it was also 2:00 a.m. and the room was starting to spin (I know, that makes me sound old). I didn't say anything, but when she came back to give us instructions, she said "I think I know you."  We tossed around ideas of how we would know each other and came to the conclusion that we just saw each other in the Richards Building at BYU a lot. But then she said "do you play an instrument?" YES! (well, I did anyway) Turns out, we were stand partners for a semester in the little come as you are orchestra at BYU.  Now THAT makes me feel old, because doctors are supposed to be older than me. Instead they are my very same age and spent Tuesday nights with me in the basement of the music building on campus playing the violin.

Oh well, here's to Benedryl and a little more sleep tonight.

I didn't take any pictures. I probably should have, it was a little scary.

And Finally... the deer park

I *think* this will be my final post about our trip.

We went to a place called the Pymatuming Deer Park. It's basically a little zoo where you can feed almost all of the animals. You can't feed the Tigers or Lions obviously, or the Zebra's because they bite, but other than that, there were a ton of animals to feed. It made the idea of a zoo so much more fun I think.

Ezra thought feeding the animals was a riot.

I coudln't help but take a ton of pictures of him feeding the animals because it was just so cute.

Roman got to hold a duck. He thought that was awesome.

Who are you lookin' at?

Marisa hid in the stroller the whole time, but I forced her (yes I'm a mean mommy) to ride the pony. After the last disaster, I had to remind her that it is fun and she was going to be fine. She wanted off so bad, but I said no and she survived it. She talks about it all the time now. Funny girl. She loved looking at the rabbits though. I mean, who could be afraid of a rabbit?

Erie, PA

This time, since I wasn't the sole nutritional source for anyone, I insisted that we take at least a day and get away from the kids.

We decided to explore Erie, PA. It was close, but somewhere we hadn't been and there was just enough to pack into a day and feel like we had done it all. ;) There really isn't a whole lot to do in Erie but the point was to have a night free of kids and it was accomplished.

There is a state park that is a little sandbar island in Lake Erie called Presque Isle. This was our first stop. It was grey and raining and WINDY but it's just a little park and it was free so we drove around the island and saw what there was to see. We ended up going back the next morning for some better pictures.

We visited downtown which is horrible for driving because it's one of those old down towns with the one way streets everywhere. It was quite the adventure trying to get out of there.

We stayed in a nice hotel suite with a horribly uncomfortable but very large bed just out of town. I went shoe shopping but was less than sucessfull. It turns out, taking Shane shoe shopping is just about as affective as taking all three kids. He WASN'T interested, and whined about how long I was taking. HA!

The next morning we went back to Presque Isle. We stopped at the environmental center where they have a lookout and we gathered up some prizes for the kids. They had a magnet in their gift shop that said "what happens in Erie, stays in Erie"...." but nothing ever happens here".  he he he... so true.

Down town Erie from across the bay.

We saw a few lighthouses.

Lake Erie.

Gathering shells for the kids to see.

Before leaving town we went to Waldameer park which was a little amusement park just outside the entrance to the State park.

They had a wooden roller coaster that went over the road and looked pretty fun so we bought enough tickets to ride it. WOW! It was FAST! Fun, but a lot faster than it looked. I think in a couple years we will take the kids there for some fun. It was a little more up to date than Conneaut Lake Park and really only 1.5 hours from Grandma and Grandpas house. But definitely geared for slightly older kids.

Before we knew it, we were back again.

It was so nice to get in and out of the car in seconds rather than minutes. To sleep until I didn't want to sleep anymore (even though I was still up by 7). To eat breakfast with only me to worry about. To hold Shane's hand instead of Marisa's. :) It was a long overdue break. I kind of wish it had been longer. But I couldn't help but worry about my kids and I was happy to see them again.

A morning at the school

One morning, while in Ohio, I had to run some intervals. So, we all went to the school Grandma teaches at so I could run on the track while the kids played on the playground.

The kids really enjoyed the playground and we ended up staying about two hours even though I only had to run about two miles.

Marisa was especially brave (for her anyway) and climbed the rock wall.

Ezra was climbing the tallest ladder and going down the tallest slide all by himself, he's not a chicken (that's probably why he's constantly falling off of things).

Then  he found a ball and he spent a lot of time just chasing that around.

Well hello sweet thing.

Shane gave the kids rides around the parking lot in the "red orange" car.  And we all got a little more tan.

Then Grandma took the kids home and Shane and I went for a drive. It was a fun morning.

The Great Outdoors in Ohio

I will be the first to admit that my kids are deprived when it comes to outdoor play. It's very difficult as we don't have a fenced yard creating at least a boundary or containment for Ezra, Marisa refuses to enjoy it, and either it's freezing, or boiling. It's rarely just nice.

Well, we go to Ohio and they have tons of space, a huge yard, lots to do and nice weather 70% of the time. This is the reason I seriously didn't talk to Roman much more than the occasional, "Are you hungry?" or "It's time for bed". He was just too busy having fun outside.

Marisa begged to stay inside for days on end. By the last few days she was enjoying rides on the four wheeler and swings in the swings but even now that we are home, she spent "weeding time" curled up in a lawn chair yesterday asking when we could go inside.

Anyway, here's just a little flavor of the things we did outside.

A little fire for a hot dog roast

Marisa enjoying herself doing absolutely nothing and safely off the ground.

 The trampoline.

These silly kids played all sorts of games for hours on the trampoline. They came in smelling like wet puppies from all the sweat and humidity.

Of course there were four wheelers and mini bikes.

And Ezra enjoyed the swing.

He liked going for four wheeler rides too but I somehow didn't get a picture of it.  And yes, I was there. I was always behind the camera.