Disneyland or BUST!

One year of preparations. making plans for meals and activities. plotting out a route at Disneyland to make sure and get to all the best rides in one day. dreaming of seeing dear family members again. anticipating the joys of cousins playing together. That year culminated on Saturday, April 9th...in a frazzled escape from Canada, and a panicked rush through Bellingham Airport to board our Angel of the Skies, that would land us in paradise, Palm Springs. The trip had been lovingly put together by the patriarch and matriarch of our family...and I'm pretty sure they were even more excited than the kids! With good reason!
Now I know what you're thinking - Frazzled? Panicked? That doesn't sound like the calm and organized Sarah we know?!
I'll explain myself as briefly as possible:
Rewind 7 days from this event...Sarah hit by evil mono-like illness.
Forward to Tuesday...Mekaia gets it and misses rest of school-week.
Forward to Friday night...Tomasi gets it and declares himself unfit to sleep alone in his crib.
Saturday a.m. at 6:00...Time to leave. Sarah, having just packed late the night before due to extreme difficulty getting anything done all week, forgets something. Turn around and go back.
One hour later...Arrive at airport and gigantic lineup, which we navigate while listening to two elderly couples directly behind us discussing the merits of roadtrips, the spoiled young parents of today who can take their children on flights, and the absolute shame of young families staying at resorts with said children. Very entertaining. Survived security in time to race to the plane just in time.
Thankfully the flight went very well...until the descent when Matalena threw up all over herself...ummm, excuse me flight attendant sir, but you may want to have a look at seat 9C before reloading the plane...


My dear Dad, our chauffeur for the week, picked us up from what must be the most beautiful airport parking lot in the world.
It was warm and luscious, and even though the sign said 'alm prings' I had a feeling that all would be well now. Of course feelings can be very deceptive!





Our resort was gorgeous: quiet and peaceful out in the desert, with only the sounds of chirping birds, the whack of golf clubs hitting the balls, and the strange and ominous sound of the desert cow on the occasional night (Right, Susan?). We were surrounded by pools, hot tubs, fountains, beautiful landscaping and palms. There was wildlife to enjoy: hares and rabbits, grouse and roadrunners (no coyotes though). We enjoyed swimming in the pool, relaxing in the tubes along the lazy river and roasting in the hot tub. Mom and Dad also let us have a double date night with my sister and hubby, and we had an epic table tennis (or if you're a normal person: ping pong) tournament. It brought me back to all the games I played growing up in our basement...mostly with Sue or Dad, occasionlly with Mom. I think I may have scared some people with my moves, probably definitely the ones that hit the ceiling. It's all in the strategy, yo.
We had a lot of great family time all together which I will always remember fondly.
Whenever we're all together, the ladies (my Mom, Sue and I) get together for a lunch or tea. We did this at Shield's Dates, an awesome retro date producer and store, and a must stop for anyone travelling in this area! The store looks like it's frozen in the 1950s, and it serves a mean date shake. We had it with lunch but we actually could have had it for lunch instead. Plus, dates are filled with so much nutrition (in my opinion) that you can even convince yourself it is a health food (if you could taste how sweet these are, you would be laughing at me right now).


So now that I've awed you by all the wonderful parts of our trip, I will share the sordid details that were glossed over.
Shortly after we arrived, my illness became more evil. It added sinus troubles and cough to it's list of tortures. All of the children, one by one, became sick and sicker. There was a chorus of coughing every night and little T slept reasonably well only 2 of the nights we were away. Because of this Matalena did not swim in the pool until the last day we were there, and Mekaia swam only two of the days we were there. It was so sad for me to see them missing out. I spent a lot of time (as did others) stuck indoors, supervising the child(ren) laying on the couch. The two youngest got bad enough that we called our travel insurance to have our info sent to a clinic. This is when we realized that our medical coverage had a colossal deductible - 300$ per child. After some time, we decided that the illness was severe enough to go anyway. And we were glad we did.
We went to a clinic that was recommended by the resort, one town away. It was GORGEOUS. It looked like a hotel lobby, and everyone was so wonderful. Matalena was seen first. Fever of 104, double ear infection, lethargic and low oxygen. Scary. They recommended that we give her the antibiotic injection for 117$, but said we could also get oral antibiotics from the pharmacy next door, for FREE. I'll let you guess which one we picked. Then the doctor looked at Tomasi and said she would like to see him if we would allow. I agreed that his condition was similar to Matalena's, and she examined him. He had a fever of 103, and a single ear infection. The doctor said she was close to wanting to see him in the ER because of his age. I could not believe this was happening, but was grateful that we'd decided to check them out, regardless the cost. More free antibiotics for him, and the bill was delivered...a total of 366$ for the doctor to see my two children and prescribe medication. Wowza! I would like to thank our private donor who made this trip to the doctor possible and preserved the health and safety of little M and T. Boy does it feel nice to come home to Canadian health care...not as glitzy, but I'll take the exchange.

The diagnosis was Wednesday, and our brilliant plan was to go to Disney on Thursday. We were pretty much forced into it, since Friday was our last day and we didn't want to go then unless we had to. All in all, it worked out fine. My older two kids had an absolute blast! I didn't get to see all of it, since I was with the little ones a lot, but I've heard that it was a dream come true. Favorite rides were: Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise (L. is convinced the animals were real), Thunder Mtn Railroad, It's a Small World, Toad's Wild Ride, Winnie the Pooh (Matalena) and Autopia. It was a little disappointing that Splash Mtn and Alice in Wonderland were closed, since those are 2 of my favorites. We missed Peter Pan too, since the lineups were horrendous!







We rented an extra stroller for our tired little girl, and that was a great idea. She was so exhausted. She was involved in the low point of the day - lunch. Dad had picked a great restaurant...outdoor seating, view of the water, great band. But he didn't count on being interuppted by ear infection symptoms. My food had just arrived when she started coughing...and coughing, and coughing, and puking, and some more puking. This apparently got the attention of the server (as well as all 400 people within eyeshot) who said she would send out a nurse. Several minutes later, 2 nurses accompanied by wheelchair, several security guards in big hats, a paramedic team and a perimeter of waiters visited us. After some 'splaining...like why we were at Disney one day after beginning antibiotics for double ear infection, they kindly left us, with a list of local hospitals.



There were many memories made on this trip...some good, some bad, which will eventually become funny I'm sure. Thanks Mom and Dad for planning such a wonderful time for all of us. You're the best! I feel incredibly blessed to be your daughter.
All's well that ends well, and I am glad to be home, with all of the family starting to recover...although, I think Nu is coming down with something now!