Family Ties

Our long weekend in Washington is a time we will not soon forget - for so many reasons. We flew with both kids for the first time and it went so well we flew back home. We attended Cousin Leah's beautiful wedding, we got to go crabbing with Uncle Mike Wade, pick blueberries, jump in a lake with Eric and Uncle Jon Jon, and we got to experience the zenith of family bonding that is having the stomach flu while all staying in a house with one bathroom.

Here we are right before we left for Terry and Leah's wedding on Saturday. Don't we look so not like we are going to spend the night taking turns running to the bathroom?

Again - would anyone suspect such an assault on the family was mere hours away?


I was the first to go down. We had made it through the ceremony (well, Owen and I made it through the ceremony in the tent where the reception was held because he decided he was hungry at the EXACT moment the ceremony started), and we made it through most of the reception. We had spied some fireworks in the garage before the wedding and figured there may be a show after the sun went down - which happens later than you'd think in Washington. But somewhere around 9:30pm I told Eric that I really needed to get home SOON. So we left - fast. We weren't too far away from where we were staying so it was a pretty quick trip home. I almost didn't make it in the house. As soon as we got home I went straight to the bathroom. I'll spare you all anymore details, but about 10 minutes later I was feeling better - if you know what I mean. Then I started to feel worse and spent a couple of hours trying to escape the nausea and headache in sleep. I woke up to unmistakable sounds coming from the bathroom and realized it was poor Eric. He'd gotten it too. Then another wave hit me - ugg, I'm starting to feel bad just writing this. We got through the night, and in the morning Eric was able to go with Jon, Kelly, Caleb and his mom to Uncle Mike B's house and have a nice visit with some serious berry picking. I was able to sleep a bit more. Then it was poor Caleb's turn. I think the poor little guy went through four outfits in a couple of hours.

I wouldn't say we were 100%, but by the time Eric and the boys and I had to leave for the airport that afternoon we were feeling semi-human and more than a little relieved that the worst was mostly likely behind us and we wouldn't have feel so ill on an airplane. When we got home we found out that Jon and Kelly got it too. Andrew got it on Monday - he spent most of the day at home. It just spread like a wildfire!

Betwixt the illness, we had a really great time and wished that we were able to stay much longer. Grandma was able to get in some good baby time.



The boys got in some badminton - Jon was in on the game too.

The boys met their Great Grandparents and roamed around their farm. Andrew got to drive Uncle Glen's boat on our crabbing trip - which was a lot like "The Deadliest Catch" minus the dark, freezing cold weather and 30 foot swell. We got to hang out at Mike and Tindy's cliff top bay house and enjoy the incredible weather and the view. I feel like we fit in a week's worth of fun in just three days. I can't wait until we go back.