Vacation!!!!

Mari and I took our first all-by-ourselves vacation last week. It was SO much fun. Mari had lots of "firsts" along the way and I got to sit back and revel in her squeals and giggles.

We drove to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and spent the afternoon at the Sesame Street Forest of Fun. There was hardly anyone there and we could literally walk on to any ride we wanted that she wouldn't freak out on. The characters were out and walking around, playing games with the kids, posing for pix... Mari loved being close to the characters as long as she didn't have to touch them; she blew them kisses, talked to them, yelled "hey" at them, and even high-fived a couple. She told Grover about her fish named Super Grover and he immediately struck a "Super Grover Pose" for her. Wish I had caught that face on camera. She splashed in the waterpark that doubles as a castle for shows and danced to the music and basically was in pure Sesame Street heaven.

After that, we drove on to Virginia Beach, arriving just in time for sunset. I waited until we got up to our room and could look out from the balcony to show Mari the ocean. I didn't have my camera ready, so the pix of her seeing the beach for the first time were delayed by a few seconds as I ran back in the room to get my camera....I really did not expect the reaction she gave me. I've NEVER seen her that excited about something. I'll never forget that face and that squeal of pure delight!

We quickly scarfed some fast food (our first meal of the day because someone was too excited to eat until then) and then hit the beach just to get our feet wet. Then back to the room for bed, she didn't settle down until almost 10pm and was back up by 4am. She woke up feverish and croupy but she was feeling well enough to jump up and down in the bed and beg to go to the beach. I kept her quiet until 6:30, we hit the breakfast bar, then got ready for the beach. Not too many people on the beach at 7:30 in the morning. We spent the morning on the beach, did some shopping, ate lunch and then headed back to the beach. She got a lot braver as the day went on and I had to put the camera away to keep her from being swept out to sea. She loved being knocked down by the waves and really gave the people around us some good laughing moments. We finally got some supper, slowed down on the beachfront playground and then back to the room.

Mari started getting croupy and feverish before bed, so I gave her some motrin and tucked her in while I worked on packing. I had just finished up and was going to sit down and eat a candy apple when Mari made a funny noise. I looked over to see her shivering but by the time I got to her to tuck her in more, she was having a seizure. I won't go into the whole story of my freakout...except to say that I totally freaked out. By the time I even figured out where my phone was to call 911 (forgot about the hotel phone 5 inches away!), she had stopped. After some major freaking out and a couple phone calls. I decided to pack Mari up and come home. We had planned to leave first thing in the morning anyway and I knew there was no way I would sleep all night, so I thought it was better to just leave. I didn't want to risk her getting sicker, I figured that even if we had to stop at a strange hospital along the way, I'd like to be as close to home as possible. So we drove home in the dark, 80 mph, reading directions by a flashlight, me grabbing Mari's foot every few minutes to make sure she would react enough to pull it away. (Super smart and safe, huh?) We made it home a little after 1am. We both slept the rest of the night. A trip to the pediatrician on Sunday resulted in a shot of steroids for her croup and an conjecture by the pediatrician that she probably had the febrile seizure because her threshold was so low due to pure exhaustion, etc.

And I never got to eat my candy apple, I left it in the fridge in the hotel. So sad! But I was so glad to be home. Vacation was awesome, I'd never trade those great moments for anything, but I'm not sure I'll be up to travelling alone again for a very long time.

Enjoy the video. We had a blast. Even if the ending was a little premature.....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com