Lice Fever and Other Stuff...

What a week, what a week it's been! As Zach-O-Man was quick to point out our first day back home, "I guess the vacation is OVER" (sigh). Indeed it is! But before we get to the juicy stuff, let's recap some of our happier memories, before my world changed forever (to be dramatic).

 Our first week back from vacation it rained, and rained, and rained some more. It was a very fitting North Carolina welcome back, so Saturday we wanted to get out of the house, but were stuck looking for something to do indoors! We decided to visit the Airborne & Special Ops museum in Fayetteville.

 

 Jon and I had both heard it was a must-see, and I'd have to agree. It's done by the Smithsonian, so a lot of money and information has gone into the different exhibits. It basically tells the story of how the Special Forces came to be, starting with the paratroopers in WWII. The exhibits were all very life-like, so you began by walking through a village in France on D-Day, just like a paratrooper who had been dropped in.

 You then continue on through the Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and all of the current War on Terrorism stuff the Special Forces guys are doing now, here at Fort Bragg. It was definitely a cool museum, and it was free, so it ended up being the perfect outing for a rainy afternoon. 

 Earlier this week I was telling Jon how some friends of ours who frequent the gym had found lice in their kids' hair, and how there was a sign posted in the Kids Center that it was going around. I jokingly said, "Our kids will never get lice because I won't let them!" Well, never tempt fate because those were my famous last words! I checked Leah's hair Wednesday night because I'd seen some weird brown spots while washing it earlier that morning, and sure enough she and Lucy both had heads full of nits and lice! I was understandably horrified, and immediately sent Jon out to get the medicated shampoo, which we used on everyone (minus Jon who's head is shaved), myself included since Lucy always uses my hair brush. 

 Then the "nit-picking" began (this experience certainly sheds new light on where that expression came from), which is quite possibly the most meticulous, frustrating, insane process in the whole world. You can see from the picture just how microscopic they are. When each lice can lay up to 300 eggs in its lifetime, you can imagine just how filled with nits Lucy's thick, coarse hair was. It was not an experience I'd ever wish on anyone! We finally got the kids to bed by 11:30 p.m. that night.

 Here is about a 1/3 of the mountain of laundry I had to work my way through the last few days. I think my washer and dryer ran for about 48 hours straight. We pretty much left the hair alone Thursday (according to the medicated shampoo directions which says it has residual effects for 48 hours), but by Friday morning I really wanted to wash my own hair and check for bugs. I started flat ironing my hair at like 500 degrees (they hate high heat) and I had THREE suicide jumpers fall onto my shirt in the first couple of minutes. Live ones! (Shudder) So pretty much the $25 shampoo we bought was just junk and although it killed some of the lice, some were obviously resistant to it. I don't recommend using it! 

 Zach's beautiful blonde locks had stayed lice free as well up until this point (we also washed his hair with the medicated shampoo), but by Friday afternoon he had nits, and I LOST it!! We decided to shave his head, since Jon and I already had three full heads of hair to pick through. I wanted to pull out my hair (another expression that must have originated from lice)! I think Zach and I both cried when we shaved it. We spent probably 5-6 hours on Friday evening soaking everyone's hair in coconut oil (like mayonnaise it supposedly suffocates them and makes the nits easier to comb out), washing, nit-picking, meticulously blow drying, and then flat ironing just to be sure. Phew. 

 We had planned Lucy's celebratory Harry Potter party for Friday night (she finished "HP and The Goblet of Fire" a few weeks ago), had invited some of her friends over, made all of the treats, but I couldn't in good conscience expose them to the lice since I didn't feel like we had it under control just yet, and she was devastated. We decided to just do a family party instead and make the best of it since we had all the treats! Here we are enjoying some delicious butter beer! Cheers!

 So in between picking nits and killing lice we dined on chocolate frogs!

 Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Cauldron Cakes (pictured), Pumpkin Pasties, and pizza.

Saturday morning I was in desperate need of a break. Jon will be working late this coming Monday night, leaving this Wednesday until Saturday night, then leaving next Monday morning again until next Wednesday night, then working late next Thursday-- so if you're counting (which I am), that's me left ALONE to wage war on the lice for 9 days. Heaven help me! That called for the beach.  

 You can't tell from the picture, but about 5 minutes after we got to the beach it started POURING rain! And I mean raining cats and dogs-- for about 20 minutes. We just stood under the umbrella and I wondered when we were going to catch a break! Thankfully the cloud burst moved on and we got some pretty good sunshine for the rest of the afternoon.

 I'd checked Lucy and Leah first thing that morning and hadn't found a single live lice, just a couple of dead nits, and Jon hadn't found anything on mine (my hair is a dried out, flat-ironed, chemical WRECK, but I don't care!), so I felt pretty confident the sun, sand, and salt water would only do us good!

 I'm alive!! But barely!! If anything I'm only more OCD than ever, driving Jon nuts with all my boiling, disinfecting, and cleaning, but I need some peace of mind. And every time my head itches I feel like it HAS to be lice, even though it's more likely a really, really dry scalp. I've been traumatized.

 I figure this will be our last day at the beach for 2014, so we tried to make the most of it and play in the warm water and sand as long as possible. The kids loved it!

 We finished the day off with dinner at Five Guys, and some power shopping at the Outlet Malls. As of this morning, again NO lice, and even fewer nits and egg casings, so I'm hoping the tide has turned in our favor on the battlefield...but I'll keep you posted. Lice are NOT nice. 

Walkin' In Washington!

After our stay in Boise we continued further west to Eastern Washington to visit Jon's family for the duration of our trip. The kids were so excited to see their Grandma and Grandpa Cardon, as well as their cousins Sophie and Isaac!

 Auntie Kylene was good enough to extend her vacation a little longer so could see them before they headed back to Colorado. Little Sophie and Isaac had grown so much since we'd seen them last summer! Sophie was sure a cutie pie! 

Zach is definitely outnumbered with all the girl cousins in his life so he is SO happy Isaac came along to help even things out. I'm sure when Isaac gets a little older they will have a blast getting into all sorts of trouble together, but for now Zach just likes to make him laugh. 

Our first day in town we got lunch at Miner's, home of the Big Miner burger and some killer onion rings. The kids had fun buying all sorts of 25 cent vending machine toys--one of which was this hilarious stick-on-mustache. Silly Leah! 

Friday we decided to get the kids out of the house to go burn some energy riding Go-Carts and Bumper Boats at Meadowbrook in Yakima. Zach of course loved the race track and wanted Jon to go as fast as possible.

Next up were the Bumper Boats, which Lucy was old enough to drive by herself. I opted out of this one luckily, so I didn't have to get wet! Watch out!

Jonathan had an old score to settle with Auntie Kylene from last summer when she trapped them in a corner and thoroughly soaked them all.  

 Nice and cooled off on a wonderfully hot day. We love the weather in Washington as it is a nice, dry heat compared to the wicked humidity of the South! They dried in no time.

 That night we got dinner at one my favorite places in Selah, "El Caporal" for some seriously authentic Mexican food. Zach is definitely a Grandma's boy and loves to tease her by wiping off all the "mesitos" (besitos) she gives. Secretly he likes them!

Nothing like a big huge platter of Mexican food with the real deal beans and rice! We miss this food all year long. We've yet to find any good Mexican food here on the East Coast.

 Saturday it was time to let the kids play on Grandpa's boat! We headed over to "Desert Aire" which was about an hour away and immediately got the boat in the water and the kids ready to go!

Leah couldn't wait to get on the boat and enjoy some sun and water and didn't mind wearing her life jacket in the slightest!

Cheese! The kids loved going fast.

 Once we got settled out on the water, Grandpa started giving the kids rides in the tube. Zach was a TOTAL daredevil and you could hear him whooping and hollering over all the bumps and yelling to go faster (he even went by himself a couple of times), while Lucy was a bit more timid and would only go with her Dad. Even Leah took a turn!

 After the kids got their fix, we headed back to the beach for a picnic lunch. The kids couldn't wait to get their feet in the water and swim out into the shallow part for a little while.

 We finished up our picnic and loaded everybody and everything back onto the boat and gave the kids all one more ride before heading back to Selah to see Grandma who was waiting for us at home.

That night Jon and I got to go on a hot date while Grandma and Grandpa watched our kids! While the others played outside, had a BBQ, and roasted s'mores, Jon and I went to see "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" at the movie theater and get dinner. It was awesome especially since we didn't have to pay a babysitter!

All the kiddos ready for bed in their jammies and washed for Sunday! We attended church in Jon's parent's ward the next day, and relaxed all afternoon before Kylene and the cousins flew out the next morning from TriCities. It was sad to say goodbye, but at least we'll get to see them again soon when we meet them in Orlando this October!

 Monday afternoon Jon and I decided to quickly visit the little TreeTop Visitor's store located right next to the factory in Selah. I think it's pretty cool all of the TreeTop products say Selah, WA on them, because otherwise most people have no idea where it is!

 We had Grandma give all of the kids haircuts before we left, since she does the best job of anyone. After seeing Zach and Lucy get the royal hair treatment from Grandma, Leah decided she wanted a little trim too!

 Thanks Grandma! For Jon and I, that was our last night in Selah. The next morning we planned on driving to Seattle to spend the afternoon and evening kid-free! Jon also had a meeting set for Wednesday afternoon to meet with an AFTCO representative and loan officer to talk about the possibility of buying a practice in Western Washington. 

 We started our day of freedom off by heading straight to Pike's Market in downtown Seattle. Our first stop was to the Piroshky stand in honor of my sister Whitney and her Russian roots. We shared a delicious nutella piroshky, then snacked on some homemade Beecher's cheese. Yum!

 It was a gorgeous blue sky day in Seattle and we had a blast walking all over the market and looking at the fish, the flowers, the farmer's stands with all the produce, the spices, and all the yummy treats! I could spend forever walking around there.

 Selfie in front of the famous fish stand in Pike's Market!

 Yikes! Monk fish are seriously freaky looking and HUGE.

 Before heading away from the market we bought half a dozen maple bacon donuts from the Daily Dozen Donut Co, and they were sooooo good! My personal fav.

 Despite that there were some serious wackos wandering around the park near the market, it was so awesome to be able to spend one on one time with my significant other. You can almost see Mt. Ranier in the background-- it was so beautiful and clear!

 Next up was the Space Needle. I'd never paid to go up to the top and neither had Jon, so we decided that when in Rome, take advantage of doing something you normally wouldn't, despite the pretty penny it cost for tickets!

 We both ended up being really glad we paid to go up to the top. It was a beautiful panoramic view and we got some great pics of Puget Sound and Mt. Ranier. 

We decided we'd better get some Indian food for dinner since again, it's a little harder to find here in the South, so we googled it and found "A Taste of India" which had really great reviews. Even though the GPS said it was only 4 miles away, the problem was you had to get across a bridge in order to get there, and oh my goodness! Seattle traffic is NO joke at rush hour. An hour later we found the restaurant, got seated, and had no problem devouring our chicken tikka masala!

 They brought us out our naan and it was literally bigger than both our dinner plates! It was HUGE and delicious! It was definitely worth the crazy stressful drive getting there.

 Thankfully the rush hour traffic had died down by the time we'd finished dinner, so we had no problem making our way to the freeway to find the original REI-- Jon's mothership for all things camping, hiking, and backpacking! He was in heaven with three stories of gear to look at!

 Wednesday we spent in Bellevue for Jon's dental meeting where the next 2 1/2 hours we were schooled on the dental market in Washington. I spent the time mostly silent and just listening, and my head was spinning afterwards, but I was glad I got to go. We have some seriously big decisions to make in the next 6 months, so a little gelatto at the Bellevue mall was just the thing to tone things down a bit!

Jon's parents met us with the kids at the mall for a last supper at the Cheesecake Factory (I think it's kind of becoming a tradition) before we all headed back to the hotel. I am SO grateful to them for watching our kids so we could have that little kid-free breather before we all headed back down South! It was just what the doctor ordered and more. After some delicious cheesecake, a dip in the hotel pool, we were ready to pack up and head to bed for an early 6:40 a.m. flight back to Raleigh.

Although the kids were all sad to leave they did really, really well on the plane. Leah spent most of the first flight napping, Lucy read her Harry Potter book, Zach watched movies and played the iPad, and Jon napped on his row all alone away from the kids, ha, ha. I am so glad we took the time and spent the money to vacation back West this summer. We had so much fun, the kids were lathered with some much needed attention, and we made some great memories. The magic of "Grandma and Grandpa's house" (both respectively) lives on, and it still ranks number one on our kids' vacation destination list!