Summer Family Road Trip - Day 7

Got on the road home by 9:30am this morning. It was a pretty drive south down the middle of the Owens Valley, with the Sierra's on the west and the White Mountains on the East. The drive was pretty easy and in fact we made it home in about 4 hours and 15 minutes. That gave us enough time to unpack the van, do laundry and unwind. I also leave for a business trip tomorrow so I need to get packed as well as get caught up on my work e-mail and prepare for several presentations I have to give on Tuesday. I think Nik summed up Vacations the best today. "I love to go on vacation and explore new places and see new things. But it's also nice come back to the place we call home" Nik, I couldn't agree more! It's good to be home.

Summer Family Road Trip - Day 6

Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise over the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Mountains. I took advantage of the peace and quite to make a pot of coffee and enjoy the view from the balcony. Once Chris and the kids woke up, we got our swim suits on and took a dip in our own private hot tub. Ahhh, life is good! Breakfast was at a local place called the Breakfast Club. We had a huge meal to last us all the way to dinner. Then, we where off to explore the lakes area. We rented a pontoon boat in the morning and a canoe and Kayak in the afternoon. At one of the lakes we even saw a Mother Black Bear and her three little cubs. They were less than 150 feet away so it was quite exciting! Late in the evening, Catie and I made the drive to Devil's Postpile Nat'l Mon. which is about 30 minutes from Mammoth. It's a cool Geologic formation of Rock that looks like logs. We had a nice little hike there before it got dark. Overall the Mammoth Lakes area was awesome, and we are definitely planning on coming back in the winter to play in the snow.

Summer Family Road Trip - Day 5

The highlight of the day was our boat tour of Lake Tahoe on a 50 foot Catamaran sailboat. The scenary was beautiful. Temps were also much more comfortable with highs in the low 80's which is a huge improvement from the 100's we have been experiencing. It was very relaxing, but both Alex and Catie commented that they wished the boat had gone faster. Apparently they wanted to have waves and spray crashing over the bow! Once back at the dock we had a nice lunch at a beach side cafe with a great view of the lake. From Tahoe we drove to Mammoth Lakes where we will spend the last two nights of our vacation at Rick and Donna Herbst's skiing Condo. We arrived around 5:30pm, in time to get settled in and grab a nice meal a a local Italian Resurant.

Summer Family Road Trip - Day 4

Headed for Lake Tahoe today. Unfortunatley the only way to get there was to retrace our steps one again through the slow and twisting roads of Yosemite. On the road from the hotel at 9:30am, we didn't actually exit the park on its easter border near Mono Lake until 3:00pm! I love'd Yosemite, but I was pretty sick of the roads in and out buy the time we left. Next time we come will be in the off season (possibly Winter) and we will stay in Yosemite Village so we only have to drive in and our once. We finally arrive at our hotel in South Lake Tahoe about 5:30pm today. Got a great suite at the Holiday Inn Express. Took advantage of the space by ordering in for Pizza. After the kids relaxed in the room while Chris and I went out for a short walk through the local shops. It was kind of like a mini date, capped off with a nice relaxing stop for a cocktail. Did I mention the hotel had free Wi-Fi? That was a really nice surprise.

Summer Family Road Trip - Day 3

Our second day in Yosemite we explored the main valley. This is the most famous park of the park. Entering the valley through a mile long tunnel, you exit with the entire valley spread out before you. To the left is El Capitain to the right is Bridalveil falls, on of the largest waterfalls in the world. after a fun picnic lunch Sentinal Beach we headed off to the Yosemite village were Nik and Chris split off to do some sight seeing while Alex, Catie and I set off to do the Mist Trail hike up to Vernal Falls. The hike was amaizing, the last half mile carved into Yosemite Granite with mist from the massive water fall coming down like rain on both the trail and us. Since the daytime temps were 108 degrees, the mist was a welcome relief. Catie and Alex both did a great job on the hike, it was pretty strenuous. They really hung in there and we all had a great time. All five of us met back at Yosemite village for dinner at the lodge. from there we did some more touring of the valley via the Yosemite shuttle system before making the long drive back to Oakhurst. Did I mention that its a long slow drive in and out of the park!?

Summer Family Road Trip - Day 2

Today was our first day in Yosemite National Park. We got a little bit of a late start, but with my Shingles still raging and Catie only 48 out of the hospital, I was not about to stress out over it. The drive into the park was very beautiful. We dicided to explore the back way in, so we could see the valley from above. There where two big highlights of the day. First the view from Glacier Point. The road ends her at a point where you can see the entire eastern Yosemite valley spread out before you. The view a Half Dome was spectacular. We could also see Varnal Falls and Nevada Falls. The second highlight was the hike we took from the Sentenal Dome trail head to a geological formation called the Fisssures. From there we had an awesome view across the valley of El Capitan, the largest granite rock face in the world. Rock climbers travel to the Yosemite valley from all over the world to tackle El Capitan, a climb that can take up to a week to accomplish. The biggest challange was the swarms of mosquitos we had to battle through on the way back.

Summer Family Road Trip - Day 1

We fianally got on the road about 10:30am this morning. This would normally have been the day we drove from Three Rivers near Sequoia up to Oakhurt were we will be visiting Yosemite. We have decided to drive to Sequoia on the way so we can at least get a glimse of that park. It seemed a shame to come so close and miss it. We arrive at Sequoia about 3:00pm after a long entrance to the park. Lots of switchbacks and elevation gain. First stop was Moro rock, a huge granite monlith that rises out of the valley floor. There is a really cool hiking path that has stairs cut into the rock and metal railing for safety. We hiked out a quarter mile our so, but didn't make it to the top for lack of time. I was still pretty spectacular. From there we headed for the tunnel tree. A Giant Sequoia that has falled over. The trunk is so thick there is an actual tunnel cut through it and we were able to drive our van thru it with the roof box on and still have inches to spear! These giant trees are bigger than words can discribe, but I'll try. Catie was leaning back trying to see the top of one and almost fell over backwards. The bark on them is over 30 inches thick, with hieghts of over 250 feet with many of them over 2,000 years old. Amazing. We visited the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the park, but more importantly, the largest living thing on the planet. The kids were wow'd by these trees. After leaving Sequoia, we drove here to Oakhurst which seemed to take forever. Finally got to the hotel about 10:30pm all of us are pretty tired.

Catie's Home!

Catie is home. Thank God. She looks really good, her old spunky self. The first thing she asked for was a Big Mac, and the second was to find out when we are leaving for vacation! So, we are doing a crash packing job today. If Catie still seems to be doing well tomorrow, we will begin our road trip minus the first two days. Welcome home Catie!

Medial Update 6

Just received a call from Chris...Catie has been released from the hospital! They are on their way home and should arrive within the hour. I can't wait to get my little ray of sunshine home. She has been through alot this last week. I look forward to her quick road to recovery. I love you Catie!

Medical update 5

Well, it's now Saturday night and we still don't have our little Catie home. The boys and I spent the afternoon and evening with Catie and Chris at the hospital today. She has not had a fever since 2:00pm, her appetite is back and she has been disconnected from the IV so she is now roaming freely around her room. She really looks pretty good and we are very hopefull that she will be released from the hospital in the morning.

Medical Update 4

Catie is spending a second night in the hospital tonight. All five of us spent the afternoon and evening together in her hospital room today and Catie seems to be feeling much better. She as eaten and kept down sold food for both lunch and dinner. Her color is coming back as well. She is still on IV and will be through the night. Also still battling a fever. She is responding to Tylenal and Motrin to bring the temp down, but once that wears off the fever comes back. Menangitis has definately been eliminated as a diagnosis as well as Strep. The docs think she has a viral infection that she has struggled to shake. We are hoping to bring Catie home tomorrow. I have cancelled the hotel for the first two nights of our road trip, but we are hopeful to start the road trip with the Yosemite stage.

Medical update 3

Poor little Catie is now in the hospital. The docs sent her in after seeing her this afternoon. She still can't keep anything down and now has skin blotches on her hands and feet. At one point they thought she might have Menengitis, but that diagnosis seems to have been eliminated. They are still doing some tests, but they are really focusing on getting her fully hydrated, and pumping her full of anti-biotics. I feel so bad for my little Toonie, she hasn't eaten since Monday and can't keep even water down for more that a few minutes. She has been poked and prodded more than any 10 year old should have to be.

Chris is spending the night with her at the hospital, while I am home with the boys. Nik and Alex really made me proud yeserday. Just after Caties ambulence pulled away from the house they came up to me and said they wanted to buy her a get well present of a new TV. I suggested that she already had a TV but that she would love an iPod shuffle. They loved that suggestion and sent me off first thing this morning to pick it up on my way to work. I brought it home, we got it all charged and sync'd with her music. The boys will put it all back in the orriginal packaging and hope to give it to her tomorrow morning when we go to visit her. They really love their little sister. Chris has no idea this is all in the works, she will be equally proud of them.

We don't know for sure if Catie will be released from the hospital tomorrow, but we are hoping. Our vacation plans which are set to begin on Saturday are looking like a long shot at this point. I already told the kids we can reschedule the trip for a later time. Right now we just want out little girl back in good health.

Medical update 2

We brought Catie home from the hospital at 1:30am this morning. The chest x-ray was all clear. The chest pain and numbness was all due to anxiety and hyperventalating. She was also very dehidrated. The docs gave her a full liter of IV fluid. She slept well through the night and in fact is still sleeping now. Its day by day as to whether we are going be able to leave for vacation on time this Saturday.

My Shingles are continuing their march across my scalp. The itching and pain are not any worse, but the relentlessness of them are starting to wear on me a bit. I'm continuing to work, as the distraction is helping me deal with the discomfort.

Medical update

My Shingles are still very uncomfortable, about the same as yesterday. They seem to get slightly worse as the day goes on. I sure hope they don't get in the way of our vacation which starts on Saturday.

Catie has been fighting a case of the flu since Monday night. She woke up this morning still very naucous but also complaining of a sore throat. Chris took her into the doc and found out she has Strep Throat. Since we are leaving for vacation on Saturday we decided on the injection anti-biotic vs. the liquid. Well a few hours later about 7pm Catie started complaining of chest pains and numbness in her arms and legs. We call the doc and she suggested we call 911 so she could get to the hospital right away.

The paramedics came and they quickly determined that she was not having any cardiac problems or alergic reactions to the injection. We decided to still have her go to the hospital so that the docs could check her out. Chris just called after waiting for 2 1/2 hours the docs checkout out Catie. They think that what happened is that she was hyperventalating because she was upset over how sick she felt. This is wat caused the numbness in her arms and legs. They are going to give her an IV to rehydrate her and do a chest x-ray to see what the cause of the chest pain is. Hope to have her home in a couple of hours.

And the Doctor Says...

It's Shingles. My doc says it's not contagous unless I'm around HIV, AID patients or anyone who hasn't had Chicken Pocks. So, I'm continuing to work through this. The pain is bad sometimes but it's really just very uncomfortable. Feels like I have an 8 inch goose pimple on the left side of my scalp. I'm on Valtrex, which is an anti-viral medication. The doc says because we caught it in the first 48 hours it shouldn't spread too far.

Need to see the doctor

Woke up yesterday with a itchy bump on my head, behind my left ear. Through the day it itched, throbbed and caused tingling that radiated from my ear, up to the top of my head and down to my shoulder. I went to the pharmacy last night to get some itch cream, but the pharmacist recommented that I not treat it and see the doctor first thing this morning. Her point was that by treating it now, it would mask some of the symptoms and make it harder to diagnos. Woke up this morning, it is very uncomfortable and I now feel itch and tingle under my right ear as well, although I dont have any pain or bump on that side. I'm going to see the doctor first thing this morning and have her look at it.

Testing...1,2,3

Good Morning,

This is my first Bog entry. It's 5:20am and getting ready to go to the gym.