The Flu and Spring Fever

Early last Wednesday morning, Colt came out of his room throwing up with a fever.  And things have gone down hil from there.  He just. can't. kick it. Still. To this day.  He has had everything with this illness.  Fever, fever, fever, sore throat, diarrhea, throw ups, cough, sore muscles, headaches, runny nose, goopy eyes, nose bleeds, cracked lips, cold sores and complete and total exhaustion.  On Saturday, the other two boys started showing signs of the same sickness and soon they were running fevers as well.  We have had kids draped all over the house.  They sleep on our floor, in the hall, on the couch, in our bed, in the chair and just about anywhere but their own beds.  And I'm administering so much medicine I feel like a need a lab coat and a name tag.  Since we're still in the middle of it all, this story is to be continued...

On a much brighter note, literally, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous.  The last few days have been in the low 60s with lots of beautiful sunshine.  I'm just selfish enough to refuse to miss out on the weather despite the kids' sickness, so we've bundled them up in blankets and stuffed them into strollers and gone out on several walks anyway.  Fresh air can't hurt, right?

This last weekend we were lucky enough to have a visit from Brady and Angie.  Even though the boys coughed on everything and occasionally puked on everything, I think we all had a good time.  Before Sport and Dash came down with the flu, Brandan them and the rest of the crew to the Animal Sanctuary to see the animals and walk in the sunshine.  Lucky.

Angie and the boys at the Sanctuary

More Basketball...I know, right?

The week of State basketball was another busy one.  Brandan left for Casper on Wednesday afternoon and the boys and I headed out Thursday morning.  We drove straight to the Casper Events Center and watched the team play their first game (it was a narrow loss, dang it).  I had to do some fast talking to convince the boys to put off going swimming in the hotel pool as soon as the game was over so that instead we could meet Dan and Jill and their kids at the Casper College for the Burns game.  After the game, everyone came over to our hotel to swim and spend time annoying other guests by cannoning balling into the hot tubs.

Friday, we watched Upton win a game, spent more time swimming and then watched more basketball with the team and the Clayson family.  Saturday, we headed over to watch Upton play in the Consolation Championship game.  The boys cheered as loud as they could (they know all the players names and numbers and occasionally give them advice when they see them in the hotel hallways), but Upton just lost at the very end.  It was disappointing, but Colt had bigger problems on his mind.  After saying goodbye to Boe and Kamber, he couldn't stop crying and loudly exclaimed that "Boe and Kamber broke my heart!"

The boys had watched as much basketball as they could stand so we headed out and took Dani Booth home with us while Brandan and the team stayed to watch one final game.  It was nice to chat with Dani on the way home and it was a relatively uneventful drive except that I accidentally tried to steal gas from a station in a tiny little town in Nowhere, Wyoming and was chased down 5 miles later by the gas station cashier.  In my defense, it was their fault.  I swiped my card and they okayed it even though it didn't actually go through originally.  When the gas zeros out and then turns on, what is a girl to do, but assume she paid and drive away? 

During the few days between basketball trips the boys relaxed in front of the heaters, just like their Momma taught them.