Eventful Weekend

We have a big family reunion every year for Labor Day. We always go camping in Northern Arizona. This year was actually the 51st year that our family has had this tradition. It's kind of fun to see our 2nd and 3rd cousins and great aunts and uncles, etc. We only get to see these people once or twice a year, so why we choose to go camping I still have not quite figured out. Camping makes you stinky and dirty and you look and feel gross because you haven't showered in 3 days. I would rather not have extended family remember me in that way all year! Oh well. . . . it's still fun to get together none the less.

So we got to the campground Friday afternoon and actually ended up driving into Payson to have dinner at a restaurant. We were celebrating 2 of my brother's birthdays and we hadn't been able to find time to get together before the campout so we had dinner in town. They picked a Mexican food restaurant that was actually really good, except the salsa had WAY too much garlic in it! We all walked out of the restaurant WAY too full and apparently smelling like garlic. Later that night at the campground one of my cousins was holding Mallory and she asked me why my daughter smelled like garlic. Lovely. . . . .hopefully we didn't all smell that way! :)

On Saturday the little kids got to go on a scavenger hunt and collect acorns, rocks, and leaves from the forest. Chase and Mallory loved it! They had a blast playing in the dirt and throwing dirt on each other. They got to throw rocks and dirt clods at trees. I always forget how easily entertained a little boy is with just a stick in hand. Chase has never been happier! I've decided that Santa Claus is going super cheap this year and will be bringing sticks and dirt clods!! It was a little bit harder to camp with Clark. He's not quite walking, but he's a busy boy and didn't want to just sit on a lap the whole time. So we let him crawl around in the dirt when he just wanted to be down and playing. That ended up being a really bad idea. He broke out with a rash all over his body. He had hives everywhere! He was probably itching like crazy! We gave him some Benadryl and it helped with the redness a little bit. If anything it helped him sleep too. He wasn't napping well. His little body was probably just so uncomfortable with his allergic reaction plus he was in a strange place. He wasn't sleeping at night either. He was screaming and we didn't want him to wake up everybody else in the campground so we finally just stuck him in bed with us. Which was also weird for Clark because he's never slept with us before. He was trying to go to sleep and he puked in my hair and all over my pillow! Gag me! Saturday night was a looooong night!

Sunday wasn't any better as far as his rash went. He was so fussy! Chase was playing on this wooden platform thing and got "spliders" (splinters) all over in his hands. I pulled over ten splinters out between both of his hands. I felt really bad for him. He screamed bloody murder while I was pulling them out. At one point I looked up at him while he was screaming and I saw a tooth in his mouth. A permanent tooth! It kind of shocked me. He's only four, I didn't think kids lost their teeth until they were older than that. Both of his lower front teeth are loose and one of them is going to fall out any day now! I brush his teeth every night and I was just surprised that I hadn't noticed before then. So that was kind of exciting! We'll have our first visit from the tooth fairy soon! It rained really, really hard for a while and we brought the kids inside the motor home to watch a movie.Later that afternoon, Chase ended up getting lost. He was playing on a wood pile and we turned around to check on him and he was gone! We went around to everyone's little camps thinking he had just gone over to play with a cousin. But he wasn't at anyone's camp. I started into panic mode and was screaming his name. Craig and my dad were screaming for him and we split up to check some different parts of the woods. It had been about 20 minutes. Every time we go camping I pray every morning that none of my kids will get lost. (It's a major fear of mine.) It had also been raining and there was a full creek nearby. Another thing to panic about. I started toward the treeline at the back of the campground screaming Chase's name and he came running out of the forest. He was crying and was screaming, "Mommy, I'm lost!" I gave him a big hug. I was relieved, but part of me wanted to yell at him! I told him he scared me and not to ever do that again!! There were three other little 4 year old boys with him and one ten year old. Apparently the ten year old was taking all of the little boys out to the forest to play hide and go seek. Three of the little boys were crying that they were lost! I had to tell the ten year old that you don't take 4 year olds out into the forest to hide them!! (I was very angry at this boy) But a huge feeling of relief washed over me that Chase was safe!! I had a good talk with Chase about only going into the woods if he has an adult with him. We had already had this talk twice before, but apparently it didn't get through to him. I think he understands now :) I took him for a nature walk in the woods and we walked over a brdge that crosses the creek. It really is a beautiful area. About 10 minutes into our walk I told Chase we had to go back to the campground because I had to go to the bathroom. (My parents had rented a motor home that we could go potty in.) Chase wasn't ready to go back yet so he tells me, "Mom, you could go pee on a tree!" Gotta love his perspective :)

We were going to stay until Monday morning, but ended up leaving Sunday night. Clark still had hives everywhere and was pretty fussy. We wanted to get him home to sleep in his own bed and to get away from whatever type of weed or pollen that was bothering him. We got home just before 11pm, bathed them, and put them to bed. They all slept so good! We had hoped Monday morning would be better for Clark's hives. When we got him up out of his crib his face was swollen! His right eye was almost swollen shut! His left eye was starting to swell and his little nose was all puffy! The pictures really don't do it justice.
I almost cried! Of course this had to happen on a holiday so the doctor's office was closed. I drove to Urgent Care and they were closed too. The only place left was the ER. Obvioulsy he was having an allergic reaction to something and it wasn't getting any better! I know with some allergic reactions airways can start to close up and his condition was getting progressively worse. I was starting to get really scared for him. I wanted to cry every time I looked at my baby! Luckily the ER was completely empty so we got right in. The ER doctor said that Clark was probably allergic to something in the dirt or some type of weed or plant or pollen or something that was up there. And chances are, we'll never find out what it was that caused the reaction. So they gave him a steroid to help the swelling go down and to make the redness in his skin go away. The doctor said he would start to get better after he had the steroid in his system. He has to take it for three more days. The swelling has gone down now and the redness in his skin is getting better. We thought maybe he got a little sunburned up camping and that that's what might have been causing some of the redness, but the doctor said if he had a sunburn his skin would feel hot - it would be burning. His skin didn't feel hot so that's how they knew it was an allergic reaction. Plus hives are a dead give away. So my poor baby! I'm glad we're moving in the right direction with him now. My boys sure were handfuls this weekend! Miss Mallory was as sweet as she could be floating around from tent to tent making friends with distant cousins. Regardless of all of my complaining about the weekend it was actually really nice to be able to spend time with extended family and to renew friendships there. We played a really fun game around the campfire on Saturday night. My sister-in-law, Natalie, won both games and out smarted everybody! I love to be in the woods and to hear the crickets all chirping in unison in the evening, to stare into the fire, and to be able to see every constellation in the sky without all the city lights. It was an enjoyable weekend. . . . eventful. . . .but enjoyable to say the least!