For Thanksgiving, we decided to drive home to Chicago this year. Because we can. Because we live closer. Now it's still a 13 hour drive, but the kids were off school so we thought we'd give it a try... It was an adventure to say the least. Read on...
Our first real stop (we stayed overnight in Ohio but it was just a sleep, not a real stop and spend time sort of stop) was in Indianapolis with Kristin, David, Ryan & Evan. It was nice to see them again and in their house. The last time we were there was when I was pregnant with Aaron and we were living in Madison, Wisconsin for the quarter. The kids had a blast having a fun cousins sleepover. Aaron was a bit under the weather and slept a lot of the time (like 14 hours at night and 4 hour nap kind of major sleep!), but was quite happy. The kids played, we cooked, we went to see Big Hero 6 (fabulous movie by the way) and had a great time chilling with all.
Aaron and Uncle David, "Go Bears!"
After leaving Indy, we headed to Chicago. We got to meet Papa & Kari's new puppy, Caper. She is a cute little goldendoodle. Aaron LOVED petting little Caper and did very well around him.
The kids had a blast playing with all of their cousins and playing in the snow!
After Chicago, we headed north to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving with my family. More family, food and fun for all. The kids loved sledding down Grandma's hill.
We also went to the Milwaukee Public Museum to take in the butterfly exhibit. Emily and Grandma LOVED that room. Kyle wasn't feeling great - his legs were bothering him - and Aaron was playing off of Kyle's fears and was a bit skittish around the butterflies.
Later on, they got to do their most favorite thing at Grandma's: lopping.
We had fun with the speed mode on the camera videoing Aaron cracking eggs with Grandma.
We also helped Grandma decorate her Christmas tree.
After a one night stop in Chicago, we started the drive back to Raleigh. Our first stop was Columbus, Ohio to see my Uncle John & Aunt Jody. One of my earliest Ohio memories is from when I was probably 3 or 4 years old, maybe 5, and Uncle John came over to our house after my nap to pick me up and take me to the local swimming pool. And I got to ride in his hotrod car. Anyhow, we stopped to get some Tommy's subs and stop over at Uncle John's. Jeff wasn't feeling well at all - he had strep - so he tanked at the hotel.
Emily & Aaron passed out at the hotel.
In the middle of the night, Kyle had a splitting headache that was like nothing he had had before. We were a mile down the street from the hospital that my mom worked at and that I was born at so we went to the ER. Kyle even wanted to go to the ER if that tells you how bad it was. So from 2am - 7am, we were in the ER. He got some antibiotics and we went back to the hotel to try to sleep before potentially driving the rest of the way home. The plan was to drive home from there, but given Jeff being sick and me not being rested, it was in question. We slept until about 2pm and decided it was best to just get home. So we hit the road...
About 2.5 hours into the drive, Kyle was beside himself with pain again, screaming for help. The Ohio ER had warned us that he could have meningitis and if he did, it would come on very quickly. We were 30 minutes outside of Charleston, West Virginia so we found the nearest Children's Hospital ER. Long story somewhat short, in WV he had even more tests done and was thankfully negative for meningitis and a host of other awful things, but was still having splitting head and neck pain. He got plenty of IV fluids and antibiotics in case they missed something. It was Friday when we arrived in WV and it wouldn't be until Sunday evening that Kyle would be discharged. Thankfully, Jeff had some antibiotics helping him out so he could function to take care of Emily & Aaron while I stayed with Kyle in the hospital. Em & Aaron were troopers dealing with this all. The hotel was wonderful to the kids there. When I traded with Jeff for a bit so I could shower and nap, the hotel hooked the kids up with a complimentary movie and ice cream because they knew Kyle was in the hospital and we were away from home.
We left WV at 8pm and had 5 hours of driving to get home. And we were determined to get home finally. And mercifully we did.
Back in NC, Kyle still wasn't back to 100% and his pediatrician recommended a few more tests to make sure we weren't missing anything. But we had to go to the hospital for them. So we had another ER visit here. This time, Jeff was back to work, Emily couldn't go to school because I didn't have any option for Emily after school if we weren't home (which we weren't - we were at the hospital from 10:30 - 6pm). But we all made it through the day just fine. Kyle had more tests and they all came back negative again for even more worrisome things. Thank goodness!
I realize this last part wasn't part of our Thanksgiving trip, but in some respect it was just the continuation. We were and are certainly very thankful for a nice holiday and positive outcomes from Kyle's sickness with the awful, life changing things being ruled out. He is now back to being an 8 year old boy and doing just fine.
