The family reunion

Almost every year my side of the family does a 'reunion' in the ever so family friendly town of Laughlin, Nevada. There is nothing that screams family more than a smokey casino and the ching ching ching of money that people are trying to win rather than earn. That being said, it is more family friendly than some places because it has cheap rooms.

We left last week on Thursday. Of course we didn't get out before 9am like we had hoped and instead left about 45 minutes later. Things were looking good for the first maybe 30 minutes. Then the indicator came on and tattled that I had forgotten to get the oil changed the day before. Dang it.

About an hour and a half later we had the opportunity to chill on the highway that had since turned into a parking lot. They closed the freeway shortly after we arrived. We could see a semi sideways ahead that was blocking the entire freeway. . Luckily the DVD player still worked and the kids watched a couple of shows. An hour and 40 minutes later we were on our way. It appeared that no one was hurt. While sitting in the parking lot/freeway I realized I hadn't packed any underwear for myself. Oops. I told DH I needed to take a picture of it and grabbed the camera and the batteries. Hmm... it's too dang bad that I forgot the memory card in the computer.

We cruised along until we hit a bigger town and I went and bought myself the missing goods. I managed to pack underwear for 5 other people as well as a pack of diapers and forgot the things for myself.

We hit Vegas right after 5 pm. That would be prime rush hour time. Eventually, 11 hours after leaving we arrived.

We were thrilled that they could get us adjoining rooms. The four older kids were in one room and we were in the other with the baby.

The next morning the kids got up at about 5:45. DH left in search of a market because they were all starving. He came back with some overripe bananas, some juice, and some sweets. He said he couldn't believe there wasn't a real grocery store in that town and that he should have crossed the border and just gone into Arizona. The kids didn't care. They got to eat crappy junk food and loved it all.

Then things got even better. T started feeling sick and his throwing up returned. He threw up several times. My mom called maybe an hour and a half later to invite us to breakfast and I told her that a. the kids had eaten much earlier and would soon be ready for lunch and b. T was starting the sick thing again. DH took them down to seen family in the hotel and let them play a bit (all but T and the baby who ended up going down for a nap). DH and I switched jobs when he brought the other three back and I took them down to the river to play and he stayed in the hotel room.

Much later T woke up and felt like eating and they went to a casino arches restaurant. He was fine for the rest of the day. His color returned and he ate like he was hungry. So DH called me and I picked him and the kids up so they could join us at the river. T felt like jet skiing and playing.

Then of course the next morning he started looking white at breakfast. He ran for me and said he was feeling sick and he started throwing up the little bit of watermelon he had eaten. Luckily, most of it was down the front of him. I hauled him back up to the hotel room and had him take a shower. And then he felt pretty fine and wanted to go jet skiing again.

We played at the river for a while and then said our good byes. Oh, did I mention that my aunt lent me her FABULOUS Canon Rebel camera. I took it to Sam's to have a cd made of the pics I took. When I got home I realized they only put the single picture that I wanted printed out on the disk. Luckily, my aunt still has the card and hasn't erased it yet. I fell in love with that camera. I didn't even try her even better Canon because I didn't want to love something even nicer.

We got out of there about 30 minutes later than we had hoped. And somehow, we managed to miss an accident (that was the good part for certain) but managed to find ourselves on a highway that had once again turned into a parking lot. Luckily, this was only about a 20 minute delay. Someone wasn't as lucky in this wreck and had to be life flighted out. Maybe it's good that we were as late as we were both times. Maybe we would have been in the wrecks too.

Poor little C was really cranky on the way home. She cried for most of the last half of the trip. When we got home at almost 11 pm we were just thrilled to be able to put them all in their own beds.

Then next morning we got started with getting ready for church nice and early. We still managed to arrive late. After a few minutes I held C and looked at her hands. They had spots and little blisters all over. I had DH look at them and then sent them home thinking she had chicken pox. After more of an examination we now know that it's hand foot and mouth and not chicken pox. As soon as our first meeting was over I took all of the kids home. There's no point in potentially spreading that at church. It's no wonder she was cranky on the way home. She really had a reason other than being sick of the car. Poor kid.

T is home again today. He threw up this morning and is having other digestive issues. S has spots on her feet and face now. D is still on a roll. He was in time out last night until he told the truth and it took him two hours. This morning he tripped the baby on purpose.

And that's where we are at. The good news is that hand foot and mouth isn't itchy, just really catchy. I cancelled a preschool appointment for S and will be cancelling violin lessons. I'm hoping this HFM thing is passed because we have playgroup at our house on Friday.

Still, it was fun seeing family. It's just always crazy how things fall together.