Strep Strikes

On Monday afternoon, the kids were out running errands with Nana and Grandma (i.e. buying half the toys, movies, and pool floats at Walmart) and Chris and I grabbed a bite to eat together.  We had a great lunch, and got back to the condo about the same time as the kids, so we all took big naps together.  Even Chris.  Which is strange because I can count on one hand the number of naps Chris has taken in the 14 years we’ve been together.  He does not have my napping skills.

Then, when he woke up several hours later, he had a raging fever all of a sudden. He had chills and body aches and a sore throat, and on top of it all he was feeling nauseous. He slept through the night, but it was rough. I was getting worried about him because his fever was so incredibly high. I’d never seen him like this. We kept him locked in our bedroom away from everyone else in the house, which ended up being a good thing because he slept for HOURS and HOURS and HOURS. Finally, we took him to an urgent care clinic this morning and discovered that he had strep throat. Awwwwwwesome. The only good news is that since it is strep, they were able to give him a prescription instead of him having to just wait something out. We’re hoping he feels better in the next day or so.

While Chris has been quarantined, I feel bad saying that we’ve been having a heck of a good time! This morning while we were at urgent care, my mom and Grandma took the kids to the beach for the first time. I haven’t seen pictures yet, but my mom says the kids had a blast! After that, we took naps and headed straight down to the pool the instant we woke up.

After the pool, we changed into clothes and caught the beach shuttle up to one of my favorite bar and grills for dinner. That’s one of the great parts about having kids. If we didn’t have kids with us, we probably would have just driven up to the restaurant. But the kids had been seeing the beach trolleys driving around, and so we thought, “Why not???” And it turns out, it was a ton of fun!

The kids started squealing the minute they saw the trolley coming down the road to our stop, and didn’t stop until we got out at the restaurant. I think their favorite part was that they didn’t have to sit in car seats or use seat belts. (Side note: Why is it that kids always find the things that make the parents the MOST nervous the MOST fun????)

We had a long wait for our table at the restaurant, but we didn’t mind. It was a beautiful night, and it finally – FINALLY – felt like we were on vacation!

Dinner was great, and the ride home on the trolley was just as fun as the ride out. I loved today, even though we spent the morning in urgent care. I loved it because I finally let the school year go. I left the worries of every day life at home. I threw the rule book out, and felt the stress leave my body.

Vacation is like that for me. I have to have time to unwind and let it all go before I can really start enjoying myself. And I’m so glad I did because look how much I have to enjoy!