A great visit so far with the girls

The girls arrived on 7/13 and we lost about 6 days due to flu. As soon as we could we jumped into doing stuff with the whole family.

One of the first things we did as soon as Kaitlyn felt better was to go to the Sparks Farmers Market on Victorian Square. It happens to be right outside The Nugget where I work, so we thought it would be fun to take them. Kaitlyn and Gillian had never been to a farmers market, so they enjoyed it. However, the little guys were pretty restless and we couldn't stay long. I was glad they got a glimpse of how fun it is to try the fruit samples, so the booths and entertainment that makes the farmers market really fun.

Weekend with Grandma

Library

West Street Market/Truckee River

Kings Beach Tahoe

New wii game

Cooking together

Geocaching/hiking

Sparks Farmers Market

Ben Giggling with Gillian

Gillian and Ben play in the living room. The giggles are so precious that I had to post it. It will be cherished by us for a lifetime.

Recent July Videos - Gillian plays with the boys

This is just so cool to watch Gillian interact with her brothers. She's so great with them. Kaitlyn is too, but in more subtle ways. It gives me great joy to see the bond between the boys and the girls. Unlike was said by "experts", they ARE close.

Really? Influenza A? Swine Flu??? You've got to be kidding!

We were so excited because the girls would be spending 5 weeks with us for their summer visit. It was a little scary and yet exciting to have the family together for a good amount of time. Both girls flew in on 7/13. Kaitlyn had called me earlier that day and said she wasn't feeling well. I asked her if she was nervous or if she ate something that didn't agree with her. She said no. I told her to rest, lay down and hopefully it would be better later in the day. So I went to get the girls at the airport. Kaitlyn and Gillian walked out of security and I gave them both huge hugs. It had been over a month since they had been to Reno, so I was really happy to see them. Kaitlyn just looked awful. Pale and she said she definitely didn't feel good. I stopped at Trader Joes and Longs on the way home because it was near the airport. Kaitlyn stayed in the car and was pretty lethargic. It just didn't seem right. We got home and I took her temp and it was 102. I started freaking out. Then came all of the other stuff that goes with flu. The poor kid was miserable. She made it through the night and the next day she said her throat hurt. I thought maybe she had strep throat so I wanted to get that taken care of right away if she was going to be sick with something contagious.

We head to the doctor that afternoon. Kaitlyn was still so under the weather. Seeing the doctor was an afternoon ordeal. She was not poked, but boy they swabbed her throat and her nose twice! Poor kids. Turns out that Kaitlyn didn't have strep, but did have Influenza A flu. The next bit of news was that it could possibly be the same strain as Swine Flu. WONDERFUL! So the doctor said since it could be swine flu, we ALL as in all 8 of us needed to take Tamiflu just in case it is swine flu. So she wrote us 8 prescriptions. I couldn't believe it was happening. OMG. The girls had just arrived the night before! I was beyond angry that the time was being eaten with illness rather than family time. Kaitlyn was really great about not touching the boys when she arrived. She herself said she wasn't feeling good and didn't want to pass on any germs. So along with illness, we waited at the pharmacy for 2 hours to get all of the medicine. The copay bill came to $307.oo. That was with our insurance. Kaitlyn and I headed home after that...now 7 p.m. in the evening. She's feeling crappy and I've simply had enough. All of us did our job and did the Tamiflu. The boys had liquid and apparently it didn't taste good. Quite the chore to get it into them. A few days later we did learn it was swine flu. Wow. I certainly had quite a bit of anger towards her dad because he had been sick a few days prior.