Thursday, July 31, 2014

Sorrento

The first Saturday in July, we went on a day trip to Sorrento, BC to visit Dan's dad. Although his Dad lives in Alberta, he was in Sorrento for a special family camp. Since its only four hours from our place, we've made it a tradition to visit him yearly (much better than the 10-12 hours to Alberta)

The boys are FANTASTIC travelers. In the four hour trip up, they played with a doodle for five minutes, and read books for five minutes. That's it! The rest of the time they were looking out the windows spotting waterfalls and mountains (Micah) or trains and their ding-dingers (Joel).  We did stop multiple times for pee breaks (not to self: no Blue Moose smoothies on the trip or Joel will have to pee 3 times before Merritt!) But every stop was quick, and we made it there faster than we expected!

On the four hour trip home, Micah fell asleep about 10 minutes into the trip, mid sentence since neither boy had napped all day long. Joel took almost an hour, but was happy to look out the window at the trains. They only cried for less than five minutes, when Dan and I stopped at the old toll booth to use the bathroom. And that is only because the light in the van comes on and it was "too bright." As soon as we were on the road, silence ensued. 

We had a great time visiting Papa, Grammie and Uncle Eli. The weather was expected to be in the high thirties, but seemed much cooler due to the shade and lower than expected temperatures. (Yippee!) We did have one brief rain shower, but it only lasted through dinner time and allowed our bustling family, time to snuggle under a small tarp to enjoy our dinner together. We surprised the family with fresh blueberry pie complete with whipping cream! Needless to say, other than Joel's small sliver, none of the kids like blueberries, so the adults had to sacrifice themselves and eat a quarter of the pie each! (We were NOT taking that home with us! I don't think the men minded!)

We stayed an hour and half later than expected because we wanted to watch Eli do his hip-hop dance performance. It was well worth the wait. Plus the drumming beforehand had Joel and Micah in a trance. We enjoyed our time together. Its always neat to see the boys interact with Papa and Grammie. They certainly have a soft spot in their hearts for them, even though we rarely see them.

My favorite part of the day was sitting on the beach. Joel walks up to Papa, Dan and myself and says, "Maaamma....Daada, Ma, Da, no......PAPA!!! I want to walk in the water!" Papa jumps up and takes his opportunity to spend time with this grandson, walking along the shore listening to Joel chat about everything and anything. Such a sweet moment!

Our day ended when we pulled into our driveway, just before midnight. It was a long day, but so worth every second!

Papa, Grammie, Uncle Eli, we love you!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Good-bye Diclectin!

Hello allergies.

I am super excited that I am now finished with Diclectin!  About four weeks ago, I started slowing downing how many pills I took in a day. I got it down to five fairly quickly (from seven), and slowly over a couple days dropped more and more. I was on four for over a week, but eventually just forgot to take one. I did okay. I puked only once, but I realized that its my prenatal vitamins that cause it. Literally, within twenty minutes of taking one, it comes back out. Needless to say, I've stopped taking my prenatals (oops!). Before our vacation, I got it down to two pills a day. (Considering I didn't have enough to last me the entire trip if I took any more and I refused to buy more.) Plus, I was starting to feel better and know that somewhere between 14 and 16 weeks, the nausea subsides (aka, the start (14) and end (16 weeks) of our trip.)


The first couple days of our trip I forgot to take a pill. I felt fine. Just a bit nauseaus late at night (but maybe perhaps it had more to do with lack of food for hours than actual sickness). Within 3-4 days of the beginning of our two week trip, I had stopped taking Diclectin all together. A bit of nausea at times, but nothing that I couldn't handle. (haha..it was less nausea than I felt during those rough days of seven pills a day!)


But, what I did notice is my allergies started acting up. Oh wait! Could it be that Diceletin is one part anti-histamine??? Oh yes! Yes it is. So, needless to say, I've stopped one expensive pill for a slightly less expensive pill (oh allergy meds...how I loathe you and love you!)


But I'm not complaining. I think my allergies are bad because our vacation house is older and dustier than our place at home. I'll take a few sneezes over puking any day!