The Seviers: Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Well, Elliott's first Memorial Day getaway to Las Vegas, New Mexico was rough to say the least. Every year, Kyle's dad's family has a family reunion on Memorial Day weekend. It's very beautiful up in the mountains, and his family comes from all over so it's great to see everyone. However, it was rough this year. Did I already say that? Well, it was!

We left Oklahoma on Thursday afternoon and traveled to Amarillo, which is about the halfway point of our 9 hour drive. Ellie did fine on the way there. We stayed in Amarillo, had dinner, and went swimming at the indoor pool in the hotel where Des and Mike stayed. Ellie seemed extra tired and didn't seem to care about swimming. I have to admit I was a little disappointed since this would be her first time swimming since she was 3 months old (which doesn't really count). It was warm in the pool area and we had traveled all day, so I just assumed she was hot and tired.

Well, she was. But it was because she was getting sick. She woke up at 1:00 a.m. and she was on fire! She has only had fever twice, but it was nothing like this. I gave her some Tylenol and put her in bed with us. She was still hot in the morning, but we were already halfway there and Kyle's parents were riding with us, so on we went to New Mexico. She was a little cranky and wouldn't eat or drink anything, but the second half of the trip went well considering the sick one-year-old we were traveling with.

We went straight to lunch when we got there and Ellie ate a few bites. She did pretty well the rest of the afternoon because we were outside taking in the beautiful mountains and tall trees. She loves to be outside! That only lasted until bedtime. Now here is where it gets interesting: Sleeping in our one room cabin was: Rita, Randy, Des, Mike, Haven, Sadie, Kyle, me, and Ellie. That would be hard enough with a healthy baby, but Ellie was not feeling good and she hadn't eaten all day. She screamed and cried most of the night until she finally took a bottle about 5 a.m. (right before the sunshine started pouring in our curtainless windows).

I took her to a doctor in town on Saturday morning because I was afraid she had an ear infection. I knew there would be nothing I could do on Sunday or Monday, and since Ellie just got over an ear infection in April, I knew I better get her looked at soon. The doctor was said she had some fluid in her ears and her throat was red, but no ear infection. Basically, I just kept doing what I had been doing. She was still running fever that afternoon, but she's not much of a complainer so she was going about her business of playing in the dirt and collecting rocks in front of our cabin. She went down that night without much fuss and slept for a solid 3 hours before we all crept in the cabin and climbed into bed. Exactly one hour later: Ellie screaming bloody murder. My first thought was that she did have an ear infection and there would be nothing we could do for 2 days. However, she was crying so hard that I gave her some Mylecon and that seemed to do the trick after about 20 minutes. However, we had moved to the car in order to let everyone else sleep and we were afraid to go back into the cabin for fear she'd wake up crying again. So, we "slept" in the car for what seemed like eternity. Slept is in quotes, because I did not sleep. I sat there ridgidly holding Ellie in a very uncomfortable position so that she would sleep. When I finally couldn't take it anymore we went back in and crawled in bed. It had been 3 hours! We got a few hours of sleep the second night before that damn sun came up at an abnormally early hour.

By the way, have I mentioned that we're all sleeping in a one room cabin with no heat or air? And one tiny bathroom? And that it was built in the 1930s? And has no insulation? (I can tell you that a man planned this trip.)

Anyway, Ellie seemed to be better on Sunday and began to get her appetite back. But, Des was feeling so bad by then that they decided to pack up and go home, leaving Rita and me behind . . . jealous and dreading night #3 in the dusty ol' cabin. Although, I have to admit, it wasn't so bad after Ellie was feeling better. She slept all night and was much better by the time we left Monday morning (isn't that how it always goes?) and did awesome on the 9 hour drive home.

It was definitely an experience and something I'm sure I'll laugh about in the future. Until then, I am SO GLAD TO BE HOME!

The cabin