After a great Thursday, I woke up Friday to the sound of Declan crying. Generally not a good sign. I laid in bed trying to convince myself that one of his sisters had annoyed him, but my gut was telling me differently. So I got up, walked downstairs, and found D crying on the couch with Coop trying to make him feel better. He looked at me and said "I'm both too hot and too cold." Yeah, definitely not a good sign! So he and I removed ourselves from the rest of the group and retreated to the master bedroom upstairs.
[The house was so big that we weren't even using the master. We had left it open as a catch all room or for kids to play in. But - it also provided a great isolation room, complete with bed, couch, tv, and bathroom!]
Thankfully, he did not have a fever but clearly something was up. Soon enough, I figured out it was his tummy - and he threw up several times that morning. Each time he threw up, he felt better. Around lunch time, he threw up (for what would be the last time) and then came out of the bathroom asking for cinnamon toast. By early afternoon, he was mostly back to himself (minus low energy because of all the puking). We have no idea what it was, but since no one else got sick (and it was pretty short lived), we suspect it was either something he ate that disagreed with him - or a reaction to the well water in the jacuzzi bath tub the night before. After the fact, we realized that water was incredibly gross.
While Dec and I holed up trying to figure out what was going on with his tummy and not infect the other eight people in the house, Mike, Brad, and Cheryl took the kids down to the house's private beach on Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and the wind had finally died down. I hear tales of epic sandcastle building and more sets of wet shoes! If I have one regret from the trip, it is that we didn't get back down to the beach for an extended time during the day so Dec could build sandcastles. He was pretty disappointed.
By the time the rest of the gang finished lunch, D had a little sparkle and color back. So we decided to join everyone for the afternoon activity - hiking Whitefish Dunes State Park, conveniently located right next to the end of our driveway. First up, climbing "Old Baldy" - the tallest sand dune in the park. It was decidedly underwhelming to people from Minnesota. Apparently a big sand dune doesn't impress us!
After Old Baldy, we continued on the trails in the park. There was a pit stop where we thought we heard a deer, but now think it was probably a squirrel. It was highly entertaining to watch 5 silent, awestruck children wishing for a deer ... and one bored and annoyed Fiona. When we got to the end of the Red Trail, the gang decided to carry on to the Nature Center (where they arrived at 3:10 - and it closed at 3pm) while Dec and I turned back. I didn't want to push him too hard although he was really hanging in there well. When the rest of the group returned, Brad told me they had gone a total of 4 miles walking, giving me great confidence that turning back had been the right choice.
The hikers were wiped out when they returned, so we watched
Raya and the Last Dragon and the kids played a lot of playdoh. There were many "baking" and decorating competitions with playdoh and I suspect that may have been the favorite activity of the vacation for several kids. Between the weird morning and the late nights, attitudes were dicey at best. Cheryl and I declared an early bedtime and all kids were tucked into bed by 8pm without a single complaint. That's when you know it was necessary!
Mike, Brad, and I watched the U of M/UMD hockey game and then had a good natured argument about what to watch. Brad wanted a dumb horror movie (I'm not insulting it. It was legit a dumb one). I did not (not a horror fan). We compromised on Baywatch. And then discussed how we remember Baywatch not being as terrible as it was. Entertaining. But terrible.
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