Spring Training 2009 - Dad, Ella, Craig, Julie, Nolan, and Mom
My parents drive to Mesa, Arizona, every year for Cubs spring training. It's no secret that my mom is a die-hard Cubs fanatic! Craig and I flew out there to catch some Ranger and Cubs baseball pre-Nolan. This year, we were invited to make the road trip with my parents. We had quite the adventure! The kids did fantastic in the car; we couldn't have asked for more well-behaved children on an 18-hour car ride. We were all quite impressed! Thank goodness for portable DVD players.
Almost to our first destination, Tucson, Arizona, where my aunt and uncle live during the winter months, Ella spiked a 104.6 fever. Tylenol and Motrin weren't bringing it down, so in an attempt to bring her fever down, we ended up giving her a cool bath in the gas station sink. (Gross, I know. But what else was there to do?)
Once we got to my aunt and uncle's house, Mom, Aunt Joanne, and I took Ella to an Urgent Care place. After waiting for four hours to be seen on a Friday night, she was diagnosed with a left ear infection and conjunctivitis - pink eye. (Remember, Ella has ear tubes and should be free of ear infections!)
She was prescribed some antibiotics for the ear infection and some eye drops for the conjunctivitis.
She didn't sleep all that well that night so neither did Craig and I. The next day, we headed for our final destination, Mesa, Arizona, home of the Cubs spring training.
That evening, we went to Organ Stop Pizza. This is such a neat place! The whole building was built around this gigantic organ and many other instruments. I posted a video. It's not the best lighting, but you get the idea. (Don't forget to pause the music on my sidebar so you can hear the video.)
Nolan loved it!
There's so much to look at! This is not the place to take your young kids if you want them to eat a full meal.
That night as we were trying to get the kids ready for bed, Ella began screaming constantly, which is very out of character for our very flexible, easy-going child. After about three hours of her crying and appearing to be in some kind of pain, we decided to take her to the local ER in Mesa.
They ran a ton of tests on her, including bloodwork, urine culture, X-rays, and a sonogram. They determined she was mildly dehydrated and therefore decided to give her an IV and start her on some fluids. After beginning the IV and all the other tests, she was exhausted to say the least.
She was found to not have the ear infection that the previous Urgent Care doctor diagnosed her with 24 hours earlier and said that the antibiotics were compounding a gastro-intestinal virus. She was still found to have conjunctivitis and was given yet a different eye medication. Bottom line was that she's got an intestinal virus and needs to somehow rid herself of the large amounts of gas that was causing her a great deal of pain.
The followig day, we had tickets to go to a Texas Rangers spring training game. Since Ella was acting much better than the night before, we decided to head to the game.
Nolan's our little Ranger fan!
Nolan was pumped to see some baseball! (His Daddy was, too!)
We had seats right behind home plate thanks to Kasey Terrell's brother, Kelly. We had a fantastic view of the game, and one of the best things was we were in the shade for most of the game, which was great for the kids!
I didn't get a picture of it, but a foul ball headed right for me and Dad. After it dropped in front of us, Dad fell to his knees to grab it. (We'll know why he needs a double knee replacement in the future.) Nolan was the recipient of the retreived foul ball, and Papa was proud to hand it to him! Yea Papa!
After the game, we visited my mom's oldest friend from junior high, Jenny. Her and her husband live just outside of Surprise, Arizona, and they had us over for dinner. They have an orange and tangerine tree, and Nolan got lessons on picking the fruit from the trees.
Tuesday morning, which was two days after our last ER visit, I took Ella back in because her eye was swollen shut and was looking more inflamed. To make matters worse, Craig woke up that morning with the stomach flu and my dad later came down with it, too. We unfortunately had to miss the second Ranger game we were supposed to see that afternoon.
The ER doctor determined her conjunctivitis had turned into periorbital cellulitis, which is an infection in the orbital tissue. He put her back on the antibiotics the first doctor prescribed for her misdiagnosed ear infection and said that the medicine should clear it up. In addition, he told me to continue using the eye drops and to follow up with our doctor when we got home. (All is well now!)
This was later that same afternoon. She was such a trooper! Although we hung out by the pool, I didn't take her swimming for fear that her eye infection could spread to other people.
This picture was taken two days later when both Craig and Ella were feeling much better. We enjoyed some family time since we were on the road to recovery.
Daddy and his water babies.
Nolan even took a nap poolside one of the days we were there!
We even found some time to have fun at a park that was very close to the hotel we were staying at. The kids enjoyed themselves!
Look at how much better her eye was after being on the antibiotics for only two days.
We saw Cubs games on Wednesday and Friday. Luckily, everyone was feeling better and able to make both games. We took some official major league baseballs with us in the event we were able to get some autographs. On Wednesday, Craig was able to get autographs from Fergie Jenkins and Rollie Fingers.
On Friday, we packed up the car, checked out of the hotel and went to our final spring training baseball game. We got to the game early enough to enjoy some of the pregame festivities. Nolan enjoyed practicing his pitching arm.
We also had a chance to see some batting practice.
Mimi and Nolan love baseball!
Papa took Nolan down to the visiting team's dugout, and one of the Giants' players tossed him the ball. The crowd near us cheered for him. When Dad told Nolan to show everyone the ball, Nolan thought he told him to throw the ball. As he was winding up to throw the ball into the crowd, we were able to stop him and the crowd cheered even more!
Nolan was excited to show Mimi the ball!
I got a quick video of Nolan cheering for the Cubs.
Here we are with the Hohokam field behind us at one of the Cubs games.
The kids did fantastic on the drive home, too. They were exhausted from our busy and fun vacation!
Thanks, Mimi!
Thanks, Papa! We enjoyed our family vacation with you!
After riding in the car 18 hours over two days, the kids were wound up once we got home. Nolan, of course, had to play some baseball with his Daddy before bathtime and bedtime. What a sweet baseball fanatic we have!
This is the African violet I gave my grandmother on Mother's Day in 2001.
