The Behrends Infirmary

It hasn't been our best week ever. Miranda came down with a fever on Monday, and started throwing up. Today, she finally went to the pool again, so she must be feeling better. Yesterday, Sonya started with the same symptoms, and today it was Olivia, although she hasn't thrown up yet. I guess I should be grateful that this didn't happen while we were on vacation! And I'm also grateful that, so far, Paul, Aaron and I are all doing fine.
***Update***Paul has "it" now. "It" has turned out to be: Herpangina is caused by Coxsackie virus, typically Coxsackie group A viruses. Herpangina is characterized by mouth ulcers, but a high fever, sore throat, and headache may precede the appearance of the sores.
The sores are generally ulcers with a white to whitish-gray base and a red border -- usually on the roof of the mouth and in the throat. The ulcers may be very painful. Generally, there are only a few sores.
The number of cases of herpangina is unknown, but it is a common childhood infection. Cases of herpangina at school or in the neighborhood increase the chances your child will develop the illness.

I'm sure you wanted to know all of that. :-) I took Miranda and Paul to the Dr. today, so that's how I know. Sonya is doing really well, but Olivia is still under the weather, and now that I know what to look for, I can see the sores on her tonsils, as well as Paul's. Paul's fever got as high as 103.9 last night, so that was a little scary. But hopefully they'll all be ok in a few days. It's created a lot of family togetherness this week :-)

If you look closely, you'll see Smokey

Smokey isn't sick, but I thought this picture pretty much captured the essence of what's going on at our house right now--lots of sleep--which isn't always a bad thing!

I wish I were a cat...

 

Sleep 'n Slide

No, that wasn't a typo. Sonya calls it the "Sleep" 'n Slide. Paul actually won it yesterday at Harvest Fest. I entered all 4 kids' names into the drawing, and he won! He was like, "I didn't even know I entered." Anyway, it was good entertainment for his sisters this afternoon.
 
 
 
 

Hills Alive 2008

Ok, I'm just gonna say that Hills Alive was very awesome this year. I highly recommend it, and it's FREE, so that's the best part. Here are pics from day one:
Superchick

TobyMac (we didn't go to very much of day one, we were too busy doing the waterslides)

Day 2: Tree63

Building 429

Miranda got "TobyMac" "tatooed" on her face

Matthew West--I wasn't very familiar with him, but he was great!

Mandisa (of American Idol fame)

Paul ran out of steam on day 2

And Aaron always has a book along, just in case...

there were a few dull moments in-between acts, so I had to do something

With a guy from Switchfoot (a friend from Chadron had extra backstage passes for day 2, so he gave them to us)

another Switchfoot guy....it was all very confusing figuring out who was who...I just know he was from Switchfoot, that's all :-)

Autographs

Building 429

Mandisa (she wanted me to go on the road with her to be her backup singer, but I had to decline; what would my piano students do, not to mention my kids?!? :-)

With a Switchfoot guy

And another one...they were running around all over the place

One more...

Switchfoot

Another one of Switchfoot

Here are a few pictures from our Black Hills trip. A HUGE thank-you to my folks for keeping Olivia and Sonya for us.
We went to a waterslide park--it was AWESOME!


At a place called the Cosmos....a little hard to explain, but basically it's a place in the Black Hills where they do some cool "tricks" that seem to defy gravity. For example, balls seem to roll uphill, etc....

Look....they're touching....and actually smiling about it! Actually, they were called on to demonstrate something at the Cosmos.

Miranda's Superman imitation

and mine

At Crystal Caverns

a view of some of the many steep steps we had to climb...it was a workout!

formation in a cave wall

Aaron and his good friend, John Quincy Adams. Downtown Rapid City has statues of all of the presidents....we really wanted to find Bill Clinton, but our legs were tired. :-)

Family Picture

We took this picture with my mom's camera (using her timer and a tripod, I might add) while we were at Ft. Rob. I think it turned out pretty well, considering we were trying to photograph 14 people, 7 of whom are 10 and under!

Vacation, part 1

On Sunday we drove to Fort Robinson to spend a few days with my brothers and their kids. My parents got us all a huge house to share--enough beds for 14 people! The house had been for lieutenants in the 1800s and beyond. It was awesome--fully restored and beautiful. It was so fun to just hang out and let the kids play together. There were many more activities we could have taken part in, but with 5 kids under the age of 5 (yep, Paul and Miranda are the old ones), you can only do so much without driving the parents insane. After my brothers left, we headed to Chadron. We stopped at Toadstool Park on the way, and took a 1-mile hike around the park (in 90 degree heat, I might add; but it was fun).

Stay tuned for more pictures from this coming weekend, as the Behrends family (minus Livvy and Sonya) heads to the Black Hills.

Olivia's painting

Olivia has never really been one to sit down and color pictures. And when she has, she's usually just scribbled for about 10 seconds and said, "done!" A couple of weeks ago she painted this, very carefully, and rather slowly. She was pretty proud of herself!

4th of July Fun!