Vacation is over...Thank Goodness

I can't believe how happy I actually am to be home from a vacation I spent months looking forward to and counting down the days for. Seven days in a beautiful beach front home with my wonderful family, reading books on the beach while Noah played happily in the sand. Oh wait...that is what i THOUGHT would happen. The last few days of the vacation were much like the first few days. We survived the hospital visit on Wednesday and naturally Noah woke up Thursday morning with his fever miraculously broken (had we just waited 12 more more hours to go to the hospital...) but he still clearly felt bad and was not up to par for sure. Still very cranky, not sleeping, not eating and in obvious ear pain. And then came the rash! Finally, we had an answer to this crazy high fever. We figured out it must be Roseola, or "baby measles". The poor kid. In a matter of 3 weeks he has suffered from a sinus infection, tonsilitis, bronchitis, double ear infection...and now Roseola. I am going to wrap him in bubble wrap when we get home and never leave the house with him again! Anyway, David and I did manage to go out to a nice water-front dinner that evening for our 4th Anniversary while Noah stayed at the house with my parents. Of course, we were so exhausted, drained and worried about Noah we came home hours before we had planned. Oh well, there will be more chances to celebrate. Luckily by Saturday afternoon we had our "Noah" back and he was a new kid. Just in time for the final 12 hours of our vacation! So we tried to cram everything in to one day. We took a nice walk with him to Seaside (ok, he slept the whole time and didn't get much out of it) but I got to enjoy a mimosa on the walk home...we took him swimming in the pool (first time in the pool all week, how pathetic!) and we even worked in another trip to the beach and THIS time he did not act like the experience was the worst thing that could possibly happen to him. We got some great pictures so I am so glad the vacation ended on a good note! The trip home the next day was typical for a 2 family caravan--complete with kids vomiting (this time, not MY kid), getting lost (briefly, thanks to Mapquest's mistake), huge diaper blowouts and a 2 hour traffic jam in downtown Atlanta just when we were sooooo close to home! Noah was thrilled to have his own bed back, the kitty cat to chase around again and all his favorite toys to play with. He slept the night through and so did we which was a nice change of pace! Here are some of my favorite pictures from our ONE good hour at the beach! I love the one of my 74 year old father "racing" my 8 year old niece on the beach.