Back from vacation

Beautiful Anchorage. This is a view from the Coastal Trail, right near where David and I got engaged. I thought I'd start you off with a beautiful picture before I get into the absolute madness that defined summer vacation 2010.

Actually, before I get into the vacation recap, here is the 18 week belly shot. I'm not going to do a pregnancy update here - too much going on elsewhere! But that will come shortly. The short version: everything is great and I am getting huge!
Please excuse the messy room. This is our room at my parents condo and we don't keep house while on vacation : )
Off to the OKC airport we go! Paige was happy and ready for a relaxing trip! We took off around 4, flew to Denver, then from there, went on to Anchorage. The Denver to Anchorage leg of our trip was a 5 hour flight. We (wrongly) assumed that Paige would sleep. It wasn't so bad, though. We were exhausted, but got in just fine and Paige adjusted to the time change pretty quickly.

One of our first nights here we spotted some precious baby Moose. We knew their momma wasn't far off, as they really don't let their young out of their sight.

And there she was!
We had some great first few days. Golfing, walks, food, and fun!

Okay. So Friday is when things started to go south. Our plan for the day was: I go for a spa treatment and mani/pedi in the morning, then I watch Paige in the afternoon and David, mom, and dad golf in the afternoon. Perfect! My spa morning was heaven. I had pretty bad allergies while I was there and the steam treatment really helped. My body scrub and massage were amazing, and I always love getting my nails done!

But when I got home, David didn't feel well. I figured he would be fine, just needed some rest...so mom and I went out shopping before their tee time. When we got home, David said he was too sick to play. I knew something was up if he didn't want to go play golf. Long story short, he vomited non-stop from 1PM to 7PM. He couldn't lift his head, keep any water down, and started barely responding to me. I am TERRIFIED of dehydration, especially in the dry climate of Alaska. Off to the ER we went. They gave him 2 bags of fluids, anti-nausea meds through his IV, and some pain meds to help relax him a bit...plus his kidneys hurt so much from the dehydration. After 3 hours or so, we went home and he felt okay. The official word was just a severe stomach bug.

Well of course we were afraid that we would all get it.

The next day, while David felt better, Paige started throwing up. Uggggh. However, she seemed to be okay after a few hours. But really, looking back, she was never really herself after that.

But we pressed on.

Our last day was actually one of the best I have had in a while! David and my mom decided to play golf, so dad and I took Paige on a nice walk along the Coastal Trail downtown.

Beautiful.
Downtown Anchorage has the most amazing flowers in the summer. I love flowers. I have 74 pictures of all the flowers, but I am pretty sure I am the only one who enjoys those : )
My little toddler! Walking everywhere!! She hardly even crawls now - she is getting so good at walking.
The Visitor's Center is really nice.
We stopped at my dad's favorite reindeer sausage place and let Papa treat us to a snack!


My favorite restaurant downtown.
Big hill to get up to Nordstrom! But it was worth it!! I got some flip flops and a few things for the bug.
Fun little park downtown.




The most amazing place. I really love it there.

So back to Paige. I knew she wasn't feeling like herself, but I thought she would be okay. Just a little out of her element.

Please excuse how I look. This was after the red eye from Anchorage to Houston. David and I didn't sleep at all. But Paige slept, so we were happy.

I was so tired on the flight from Houston to OKC...thank goodness it was only an hour!

Paige did really well. Besides not wanting to eat anything.

Is she not the cutest thing? I love that little girl so much.

With daddy on the tram at Houston International. Man, that is a big ole' airport!!!

End of story?

I wish. We have a sick little girl on our hands. She hasn't wanted to play since we got home. She just wants to lay on my chest, and when she threw up again, I called the pedi. She told me to stop even trying to feed her and keep pushing the fluids, which we have. She had a wet diaper this afternoon, so that made me happy. We are going in in the morning no matter what, but I sure hope a night in her own crib helps.

This is so hard for me. This is the first time Paige has been sick. I keep bursting into tears. I cried to the pedi, my mom, my grandmother, and David about 20 times. I can't even talk about it without my voice starting to shake.

I love her so much and I just so badly want to take this pain and yucky feeling away from her.

I think it is not worry so much - as I know that she is going to be okay...it is just this complete feeling of helplessness that being a mom can sometimes bring.

So anyway - yes, we did have a nice vacation. At times. But right now, I just want my baby to feel better.