As I attempt to recover from a nasty stomach virus, I thought I'd fill you in on the last several weeks here at the Almengor's.
As many who know me well know, I like to go all out for our children's birthdays. This year was no exception. The boys turned 4 on August 3rd. Can you believe it? When they were 4 months old, I couldn't have imagined we'd make it to 4 years old!!! But, we did. Praise God! What a testimony to HIS faithfulness. Truly nothing short of a miracle that children have survived to 4 under my daily care.
As the boys' birthday was approaching (like back in May already because I'm a planner), I thought I would get their input on how they'd like to celebrate their birthday this year. They both replied with the same answer the several times that I asked them: "go to Grandma's park", which is what they call what the rest of the world knows as "Knoebel's Grove". They call it Grandma's park because we went twice last summer with my family as it is about an hour north of where most of my family resides (3 hours for us).
It is a really wonderful park, very family friendly, seriously minimal costs as far as amusement parks go. I would highly recommend checking out their site if you live even as far as 3 hours away as we do.
Every birthday celebration for our kids so far has included friends, and I wondered how we might maintain that tradition while going to an amusement park 3 hours from home. The brilliant (or some might say crazy) idea got into my head to make use of Knoebel's campgrounds in order to accomodate any friends who might be crazy (I mean, fun) enough to make the trip.
We had two sets of friends who were able and willing to make the trip. We think they still love us. :)
A week prior to what I dubbed "KA08" (Knoebel's Adventure 2008), we decided to take a 'test run' by taking the kids to Port Discovery in the morning and then camp in our dear friends, the Neumann's, back yard later in the day. I was so glad we had a practice run if for no other reason than to get geared up for how exhausting this birthday extravaganza was going to be. Here are some pictures from our day at Port Discovery and camping at the Neumann's:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lnalmengor/PortDiscoveryJul08
As with almost any scheduled trip out of town for our family, the boys' birthday extravangza was not without its drama. The Saturday before we were to leave, Bella started with a fever. By Sunday evening (the night before we left), her temp. had risen to 104.6 (not uncharacteristically high for her). So, on Monday morning at 8 a.m. (the time we had planned to be pulling out of Abingdon), I was sitting in the parking lot of our pediatrician praying they'd be able to see Bella promptly. Our wonderful pediatrician saw her at 8:30 a.m. when it was determined she had "Hand, Foot and Mouth disease", not a pleasant virus to contract.
Bella had sores in the back of her mouth and throat, making it very painful to eat or drink anything. She was not a happy camper, and I was ready to stay home with her while my hubby offered to try to pull off KA08 without me. But, my ever serving mother-in-law once again stepped up and offered to stay with Bella, assuring me she was comfortable with all the meds and pushing fluids. Honestly, Bella couldn't have been better cared for, even by me. I knew Mrs. Almengor would go above and beyond to ensure Bella would be well cared for. So, with confidence in my mother-in-law and in my husband's leadership, I hopped in the car and headed for Pennsylvania, only 2.5 hours behind schedule. Here are some pictures from our time:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lnalmengor/KA081
