Of Course This Would Happen

While on our trip to Oceanside I came down with the craziest symptoms. 

After two days at the beach my fingers and toes turned beet red and felt very much like they were being burnt with a curling iron. 

I finally took myself to an urgent care. The doctor there thought I was having an allergic reaction to something. She prescribed me some cortisone cream and told me to take Benadryl. 

I tried that for a day. But didn't find much relief at all. By Wednesday night the pain was so intense I was in tears. I really tried to be strong and tolerate it. But I was just hurting too bad. So Tif took me to the Emergency Room. 

Considering the last time the kids and I were in California and our experience with Silvio ended so dramatically you can imagine how scared my kids were. Logan was a mess when I told him I needed to go to the hospital. He started bawling and I reassured him I would be okay. I just needed some painkillers. 

We left Kiersten and Kaely in charge of all the little kids. It was about 8:00 in the evening, so I was hoping they would all go to bed. 

The first hospital we tried said it was a 6 hour wait. And honestly the waiting room looked like you'd probably leave sicker then you went in just by having to wait in the same room as those people. It was bad. So we found another hospital not far away. They got me right in. After blood work was done. The doctor diagnosed me with Raynards Syndrome. The OxyContin they gave me for the pain did nothing!  I was worried I might have to live with this constant fire burning pain. Finally they gave me Valium and I was able to get relief!!

Oh man that was a painful experience!!  I'd rather break my foot any day that have to go through that burning pain again. 

While at the ER they had me soak my hands and feet in room temperature water. It felt like they were making me put my hands and feet in scolding hot water. It was crazy to thing it was just room temperature. I couldn't believe them. It was painfully hot, or at least a that's what it felt like. 

The ER Doctor wanted me to see  a rheumatologist the following day. But I couldn't get into the specialist until Friday, which was the day we were scheduled to leave California. I decided to wait until I got home to find a rheumatologist to see. We didn't get released from the hospital till about 3:30 in the morning. I am so grateful for Tif and her kind hearted personality. She was so sweet to me and even cried when I couldn't hold back the tears. 

What an experience! 

Oceanside with Cluff Cousins

So blessed to be able to call this beach house home for a week!

It was gorgeous!

It was decorated so cute!

Yes that is the waves of the ocean right outside our door!  Can't go wrong with a place like this!  All I need to figure out now is how I can arrange to come here again and again!

I love remembering what yummy food we eat on trips!  Kind of weird of me huh?

These were painting in the restaurant, Breakfast Club Diner.....

This totally made me smile!

If I could choose one life I would like to try it would be living close to the beach and getting really good at surfing!

What would a beach trip be without getting buried in the sand right?

The waves were really tumbling the kids around and they loved it!

The kids had so much fun on a trip with cousins!  We are going to have to do this again for sure!

Bryn was so brave getting buried.  Grant loved it!

Tif and I were cracking up watching these boys get tumbled around by the waves.  Just when they thought they were clear another way would come and knock them down.  It was hilarious!

Love this picture!

Grant is a little stud!

This is honestly like 10 steps out of our rental.  I could get use to this!

Wow those are some sandy kids!

Bryn wanted to go get showered off.  Ummm no head for the ocean and get washed off first!

The kids all really played so well together.  It was great!

We stayed on Oceanside Beach.  This is the boardwalk with Rudy's dinner at the end.

Hunter made quite the sand fort! 

Love the Cluff out of seashells and the drip castles. Those are our favorite castle to make on the beach now! 

Hanging with this sweet girl makes me miss my Ella!  Glad my mom offered to keep Ella as a birthday present to me. But I did miss her tons! 

Love this sister in law of mine!  She makes me happy, happy, happy! 

One afternoon we rented a couple of these beach cruisers. 

Everyone enjoyed them. Nice photo bomb Tif!

These kids LOVED spending the week together! 

Ummm hello Tif and I couldn't just let the kids have all the fun!  Burning toes and hands won't keep me from playing. 

Mr. Grant pretty much fell in love with this sweet girl, Jordon. 

Kaley brought a friend, Jordan Hancock.  Grant seriously fell in love with her!  Jordan was super fun and sweet to the kids.

I think we are pretty fun momma's! 

The pier is gorgeous. Especially with this lady!  Loved our walks down the beach! 

The crew going to see a movie.  Actually half of us saw one movie and the others watched a different movie.  We are quite the crew!  The older kids and Tif and I all went to see Paper Towns. Kiersten and I had just read the book and we were so excited to see the movie. We were sadly disappointed in the movie. It was bad. 

The parks right on the beach always prove to be fun! 

I loved that every day the kids would crash from their beach fun!  Beach vacations are the best!! So grateful we could have this time with our Cluff cousins!  They are the best!  Wish the trip did not include a trip to the ER and a bottle of Valium. But I am grateful it was for me and not one of the kids. I felt bad that Justin had to fly out and drive us home. My hands just hurt too bad to grip a steering wheel for 8 1/2 hours. He insisted on coming out and I graciously agreed it would be best. Especially considering we had to stay in Phoenixe for a night to pick up our new exchange student from Germany. 

Over all it was a fun filled trip and adventurous as ever!! 

Turning 38 Wasn't so Bad After All!

Having your kids insist on taking you out to eat for your birthday always makes it great!  Especially when they sing to you, make you wear a ginormous sombrero and give you free Carmel fried ice cream. 

Justin even got off early to join us. Yay!

The kids were so insistent on riding home with Justin and now I know why.  They stopped to get me a gift.  They gave me fun colored flowers and two balloons, with this card.  So I had to pop the balloons.  Yeah I totally sat on them to pop them.....it was pretty fun and I don't think my kids were expecting me to do that.

Sweet Target and Sephora gift cards.  Kiersten wrote the little jingle.......I loved it!

Fun Flowers!

These AMAZING girls made me a CANDY CAKE!  Yes people that is a cake COVERED in candies!  I guess it's all the rave on Pinterest?  I have never seen anything like it!

These girls made me feel so special on my birthday!  It took them 9 hours to make this and let's not even talk about how much all the candy supplies cost!!!

Yep those are all lollipops.....some of them are dum dum suckers and a few flavors were disgusting.  There was bacon flavored and cheese flavored.  Seriously I had to spit out my own saliva the taste was so bad!  I can't imagine having to swallow those flavors down......blah!!!

Look at this smorgasbord of candy.....gum balls, oreos dipped in white chocolate, sprinkles, gummy bears, jelly beans, M&M's (plain, peanut and pretzel kinds), sour straws, smarties, swedish fish, hershey's kisses, sour patch kids, skittles and lifesavers.

The girls made a whole candy river with jumping fish and everything!

This is by far the most memorable birthday cake I have EVER had!  Kind of even beats the cake I had when I turned 8 I believe, the doll dress cake.  You know the kind where there is a doll and the cake is her dress?  Up till now that would have been my most memorable cake but this Candy Cake tops it!!!

I am grateful to have such a fun sister in law!  She is one of the friendliest and kindest women I know.

We decided to celebrate the following night with swimming and have EVERYONE help devour the masterpiece!

This cake could have given me diabetes had I eaten it on my own.....hahaha!

Such a fun birthday!  And I was thinking turning 38 was going to be boring!  Thanks Kaely, Cambry and Megan for proving me wrong!  Loved my birthday and my AMAZING CANDY CAKE!!!

Love My Logie Bear

I love this kid!

The other day I was telling him something and I called him "Logie Bear." Which I haven't done regularly in a while.

He said, "Never gets old mom, never gets old!"

I wasn't even sure what he was referring to.  So I asked him and he told me, "Hearing you call me Logie Bear never gets old!"

I thought it was the cutest thing for my almost 10 year old to say!  I love Logie Bear and the fun, carefree spirit he brings to our home!

Crawfish Boil

While Justin, Kiersten, Hunter and I were in Seattle the little boys back home had some fun of their own!

Mud and crawdad catching are these boys two favorite things!

Logan and Grant had spent a couple of days fishing at Grant's pond while Grandma Boswell was watching them.  Then the Shupe girls took them crawdad fishing.  So it was a fun couple a days of fishing for these cute boys!

Apparently Logan was the only one brave enough to suck the juices out!  Sounds about right, he will do anything to impress girls of any age!

Brady and Logan

Silly Mr. Grant

Shelby and Kason

They were so nice to let these boys tag along with them.  Sounded like they all had a great time and they caught a plethora of Crawfish!

Looks like one happy Ryker!

That is quite the group and when you've caught enough crawfish to feed them all you know it was a good day.  

Stewart is so awesome and he made a whole crawfish boil for this group after they did the fun work of catching all these crawfish.

I was told that Logan had the largest pile of remains.  This boy can eat!!!

Logan love every minute of this adventure!