Beach, sand, and sun...in October!

Last weekend we took a family trip down to San Diego with our Hinson cousins and friends, the Penney's. We stayed at the Navy Lodge (Thanks to Uncle Neal!) on Coronado Island and it was perfect! We were right on the beach and there was a playground with picnic tables, bbq grills, and fire pits for our night time s'mores. It was the ideal setup for coming and chilling on the beach with kids and getting to walk right back to our rooms when it was time clean up. The kids couldn't have been happier! We spent most of the time just chilling on the beach...until the last day where things got a little crazy...you'll have to get the end of the pictures to read the story.
Enjoy the pics!!




The digging begins...




I was there...usually the one taking all the pics...
One morning we did break away from the Navy base and went to the Air and Space Museum in San Diego. The kids seemed to like all the cool space stuff and airplanes. I especially thought this Apollo 9 Space capsule was pretty cool.

Did you know that the 300 lb. astronaut suit weighs 300 lbs on earth but only 30 lbs. on the moon? or something like that...:)






Back to the beach we go... with lots of sun, sand and digging, digging and more digging.


Madelyn even wanted to dig.
I think Mark was into the digging more than the kids. He worked on that huge sand pit/castle forever!

Madelyn was checking things out...ready to push over Mark's masterpiece.


Kali decided that the sand would give her better coverage than sunblock.
The final product!! It was quite the big sand castle PIT!!
My blue-eyed baby!
What more could you ask for...the weather was PERFECT and it was beautiful everyday!

Evening by the campfire! Lovin life!


Kali was pouting because she wanted a marshmallow and I told her no because she didn't eat her dinner. I know, I'm such a mean mom. Pretty sad face...poor little girl...she did get a couple graham crakers later.


Trip to the ER:
On the last day, Monday, we had plans to go to the San Diego Zoo...those plans quickly got changed when my sweet baby girl had to take a trip to the emergency room. We had quite the scare that morning in our hotel room when Madelyn had what we later found out is called a febrile seizure. She had been a little sick the past few days with a stomach virus. She hadn't had much of an appetite and she had thrown up randomly in the evening/night times on Saturday and Sunday nights and she had some nasty diapers too. Nothing major or high fevers. And as you can see from the pictures she was happy playing on the beach most of the time. Well, so Monday morning, she was a little fussy and then started having a seizure and Mark was in the room while I was in the bathroom. He started yelling for me... he saw her roll over on her side on the bed and start convulsing and he thought she was choking and not breathing. By the time I got in the room Mark was holding her and I checked her mouth but her jaw was clenched shut and she now appeared to be very lethargic and not all the way coherent. She wouldn't cry or make a sound or focus and her eyes just kept rolling and she kept trying to go to sleep which I tried my hardest to not let her do. Thank goodness she was breathing very slowly and quietly. Long story short...we called 911, made the trip to the hospital in an ambulance...by the time we got there she was focusing, crying, and seeming back to herself except that she still just wanted to sleep. Turns out the doctors think what happened was a febrile seizure...viral fever induced seizure that is benign and that she is going to be just fine. She was definitely worn out. They did a cat-scan on her brain just be sure it wasn't anything major. Results were normal and they discharged us. CRAZY morning.

I am just so glad it wasn't as bad and we may have felt it could have been if you know what I'm saying...Talk about flashes of not having my sweet baby Madelyn with us just tore my heart to pieces as we were in the scary moment! I was scared! Definitely scared. BUT now I have this overwhelming feeling of being oh so grateful to have my beautiful children in my life and the amazing joy that they bring me. Kinda brings life into perspective a little more. It's the little things in life that matter most and spending better quality time with my children is a new goal of mine. I am truly blessed in so many ways and I want my children and husband to know how much I love them and how grateful I am to my Heavenly Father for sending them to me. I am so glad and so comforted to know that we will be together forever.

Now, as for the rest of our last day of vacation...well lets just say it wasn't vacation anymore. We packed up, loaded kids in the car...Kristin and Neal decided to cut their trip a day shorter and drive home with us too. Thanks so much to Kristin and Neal for helping with Zach and Kali while we were in the hospital. Funny thing...Kali threw up all over the hotel room floor while we were dealing with Madelyn and then just went right back to watching TV with Zach, neither of them even noticing the ambulance and big scene that was going on outside out hotel room. They had no idea what had just happened. Poor Kali with no mommy taking care of her after throwing up. She was fine though... until 10 minutes into our drive home...she threw up all over herself in the car, right before we were about to pick up our much needed In'n Out burger and Coke! AHH!! So after cleaning her up, getting our In'n Out and a potty stop after that...we were on the road for our 8 hour drive home...crossing our fingers that there would be no more barfing, diareah, or seizures. Thankfully it was a smooth drive. Madelyn slept pretty much the whole way, Kali was happy and feeling better with no more barfing, Zach was very helpful and took a nice long nap, and all three kids were asleep by 8pm which made for some very nice quiet time and an uneventful drive home. Uneventful is good. Oh thank goodness for family trips and the good times that out weigh the bad! This trip will definitely be remembered.