On Tuesday, after Jason finished speech, my mom and I packed up the boys (and what seemed like enough gear for a week) and head to Atlantic City for an overnight trip. I hadn't been feeling well for a couple weeks due to my Crohn's (which had acted up, landing me back on Cipro and Flagyl antibiotics...consequently leaving me with no appetite). Anyway, I thought now that the severe heat had passed I could tolerate a day at the beach. The boys loved our hotel room at Bally's, especially the view. We got to see a blimp go right by!
We got changed into our bathing suits and head right to the beach. Luckily the boardwalk was a little closer to the ocean here, so my mom was able to park her scooter and join us in the sand. The boys had a blast playing in the water, mostly searchign for and watching coquina (small clams like this) dig into the sand.
After heading back to the room for baths and a clothing change we walked a distance on the boardwalk to The French Quarter at Showboat for a buffet dinner. What is always a treat turned out to not be so much fun for me. I still could barely eat and felt sick the entire time. The boys ate their fare share too...until Jason's belly started hurting. Poor guy.
After dinner we rode some rides. Tyler was having a blast but poor Jason's belly continued to hurt (I think I blame dairy) and he was quite tired. I was feeling pretty weak and nauseous too, so we decided to call in quits and head back to the hotel. We stopped at the dollar store for some snacks when Jason had blowout diahrea...good times. However we got back to the room, cleaned him up, and both boys went to bed fairly well (Jason in his pack and play). I was still feeling pretty sick and went to bed pretty early myself.
Wednesday, after a fairly restful night in the hotel, I woke up feeling dizzy, weak, and nauseous. My pain wasn't horrendous but felt so out of it that i readily agreed to go to the hospital. After calling my doctor my mom did most of the packing and we checked out of the hotel. I got to visit the new Virtua Hospital in Voorhees, which from what I remember, was very nice. The pretty much immediately ran blood work and hooked me up to IV fluids. I had to give a stool and urine sample (fun stuff) and basically napped for a couple hours. My blood sample came back showing typical irregularities that would be common with Crohn's disease, and due to the fact that I wasn't having significant pain, they discharged me with instructions to follow up with GI. Honestly I felt 75% better just having sat in the peace and quiet of the hospital (as sad as that sounds) but I think the fluids were what really helped. Apparently I was quite dehydrated.
Meanwhile my mom had brought the boys home. I realized, about an hour before the appointment time, that Jason was due at the pediatrician's for an appointment due to his tummy issues. So my mom opted to bring him. She left with a script for a GI appointment as well as the PT evaluation the neurologist had recommended.
Thursday Jason's OT helped me out by entertaining both boys during Jason's session. I was still pretty out of it. After some recovery time, my parents helped me take the boys to Bob Meyer park for some pizza and playtime before Tyler had to go to karate.
Friday Jason had a make-up speech session. That night, when the rest of Medford Lakes was at beach 1 for "Mardi Gras" I enjoyed a relaxing evening at beach 3 with the boys. Jason got to hang out with his duck friend while Tyler repeatedly jumped off the dock.
On Saturday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather (at the moment) and Bob and I took the boys miniature golfing in Maple Shade. It was Jason's first time and I believe the first time for Tyler since the night before Jason was born. Tyler really enjoyed it and took it fairly seriously. Jason, as expected, was more interested in placing the balls through tunnels and chutes and such. It's safe to say that golf is not his sport. And the sun wore him out quickly, but he had fun.
After our miniature golfing experience Jason and I needed to cool off, so we all head back to Bob's to relax a bit. The boys had fun playing with matchbox cars and wrestling men that Bob had had stored away in his attic from when his son was little. They played a bit in the baby pool (proving to be too small for Ty), played a little soccer, and to my disgust, searched for locust (or perhaps cicada) moltings/carcasses. I don't know...they found it interesting.
Saturday night was the big night that everyone in Medford Lakes waits for. The annual canoe carnival...80th canoe carnival, to be exact. We normally watch the carnival from parties at people's houses who live on the lake. This year Jim had settlement and moved off canoe carnival lake just a week before canoe carnival, so we were left without a carnival viewing home. So my mom bought us tickets for the lake and she and Chris went earlier in the day to set up our chairs. The weather was very iffy, but my parents, myself, the boys, and bob went to the beach, expecting to be fighting major crowds. Either the weather or some other factor kept the crowds very low this year (that's not to say there weren't crowds though). We had a bit of rain, but the canoe carnival went on. Unfortunately there was apparently enough wind to give them a lot of trouble. We watched a few floats crash into the docks and have to be towed back out into the lake to complete their trek around the lake (making them therefore inelligible to win the competition). However the boys had a blast, weather was cool, and it was a nice night.
Just to give you an idea, these are photos of some of the floats that were featured this year. These are not my photos, but stolen from the Medford Lakes facebook page....
On Sunday, after playing outside a little while with Alex, Alex's dad invited Tyler to join their family for a little fishing expedition at the local footbridge. I did check in on him a couple times. No luck with fish but we saw a HUGE snapper turtle (I believe that was the kind). I can assure you that I will NEVER put even my foot in the water there after having seen that sucker!
