Virginia Vacation

Vacation was: CRAZY, EXHAUSTING, AMAZING, AND WELL WORTH IT.
It was not at all what we were expecting. We have been to the Shenandoah Valley before, to the same resort, and we loved every minute of it. Here's the low down on our 2010 Virginia Vacation.
The drive there took about 11 hours, way too long, way, way too long to ride in a car. Jalen was not feeling great, he has been really tired for the past week, and started coughing a few days ago. He slept most of the ride down.
We arrived and settled into our really great condo! (It's awesome). Justin took the kids to the pool, and I went to get groceries for the week (which I must say, I did a great job of calculating how much we needed for the week, so we didn't have to eat out!) That night, Jalen left his very favorite beach towel (his doggy towel) at the pool, never to be seen again.
Monday morning, our first full day of vacation begins. I make some yummy carrot juice (carrot, cucumber, apple, lemon, etc.) All five of us sit down for a little talk and prayer together. The kids had cereal for breakfast, but because Jalen was fighting a cold of some sort, I gave him a glass of carrot juice to drink also. It was only like 6 oz, and so he sipped on it as we had our little meeting. Justin talked about the book, "The 4:8 Principle", which is about Phil. 4:8 (thinking on the right stuff), we were all pumped to start off the day... Justin and Cameron headed out to go mountain biking, and Jalen, Miah, and I were going to get ready to head to the pool, when Jalen told me he had some itchy mosquito bites. I was doing the dishes, and thought, I am sure it's not that bad, but I stopped what I was doing to go check out these mosquito bites. (SEE WEIRD PHOTO ABOVE). He was covered with hives, his belly, legs, from his chest to his knees! I panicked for 1 minute, ran out the door to stop Justin from leaving with Cameron to go mountain biking. The next 2 hours were intense, trying to figure out what was wrong with Jalen, getting pictures to my sister so she could diagnose his condition, and we were very relieved that it was just an allergic reaction to something, not the chicken pox or strep. So Then I was off to locate some Benadryl. His hives went away, we thought we were through with that, little did we now it was only just beginning!!!!!!!! Jalen slept like all day. Hives kept coming back. Jalen slept all day Tuesday and Wednesday as well. We postponed the Waterpark till Friday, hoping that Jalen would feel better. Hives kept coming back worse than before, finally he needed drugs. Justin drove an hour away Wednesday night to a 24 hour pharmacy to get what Jalen needed. He got back at midnight, we gave Jalen the drugs, and he woke up a different person. Thursday and Friday we actually did stuff together as a family. Went to the pools, went shopping, arcade, waterpark all day Friday (so fun!) But, by Friday night, Jalen was so exhausted and worn out, he rested 1/2 of Saturday, he would have slept the whole day, but it was our last day and so we carried him along to do some stuff.
I must say my favorite parts of the vacation were when all five of us were doing stuff together, so as you can see that didn't happen very much. I tried not to be bummed, I felt so bad for Jalen. None of my kids have been sick in like 3 years, so this was so strange and frustrating. We still don't know what hit him! He had a great attitude through it all, I hated hearing him crying saying, "I just want to be home" or "I'm allergic to Virginia" or "I hate this".
I was happy for Justin. He was able to mountain bike and hike a lot. He enjoyed that immensely. The weather was totally perfect, not too hot, nice breeze, not cold at all, seriously perfect. I was able to go hiking or running four different times. Miah and I hiked a two-mile trek together on Saturday, on the very top of the mountain, through some very rocky terrain. She loved it and so did I. We also got to have some great conversations, she is such a joy to be with, I also got to carry her on my back for much of the last mile, so I got a bonus work-out in. I learned that Miah really likes to pose for photos. She was hillarious! I would get out the camera and she would begin posing in front of a rock or something, too funny!
Cameron was frustrated with all the up-hill biking at first, but he started getting used to it. He really enjoyed the hiking/running through the trails. He is so strong and agile. He wants to live in Virginia some day. He had a great vacation, but I could tell, and he would often say, "I wish Jalen wasn't sick, so he could do this with us" (He missed having the real Jalen around).
I will blog more about our Virginia Adventures soon. I posted most of my favorite pictures.
The last thing I will say, even though Jalen was sick, we still all want to go back. We made the best of the week, and I think even Jalen had a good time (which really is amazing!)