Thursday, April 4, 2013

Vacation Anecdotes

Patrick started his vacation from work on Friday, and we had the opportunity to take a spontaneous vacation to the Lake of the Ozarks.  Friday afternoon he received a call from work with the wonderful news that he had received the promotion he'd been waiting for!  What a great way to start vacation!

We headed out early on Saturday, and although Levi hadn't had a good day on Friday, the drive wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  We settled ourselves into the condo (which couldn't have been more clean and gorgeous!) and since it was raining we just took a lazy day and relaxed.  As the afternoon wore on, Levi's crankiness increased.  He tried to sleep but kept waking up.  I knew he was in some kind of pain, but not sure what was causing it.  I figured it was a combination of teething and tummy issues.  After I gave him a bath, I noticed that the skin around his button was swollen a bit on one side.  I decided to change the button.  I didn't think that's what the issue was, but it couldn't hurt to try it anyway.  Lo and behold, I think that actually was the problem!  After I changed it, I took him to snuggle with Mom.  He fell right to sleep and slept soundly the entire night. I was so relieved!



Easter Sunday he woke up with big grins and was back to his happy self.  We checked out everything from Easter Bunny and headed out to breakfast at On the Rise restaurant.  The atmosphere was awesome, and I just can't say enough about the food!  I had Vanilla Bean French Toast.  I think it was maybe the most delicious I've ever had!  We all left stuffed and happy, and headed to Ha Ha Tonka state park in Osage Beach to view the ruins of a castle built in the early 1900's.  Anyone who knows me knows that's right up my alley!  It was an amazing sight.  We decided to trek down the mountain (200 feet down and 325 steps!) which was not too bad going down, but not fun coming back up!  The view from the bottom was totally worth it though, and the exercise was good for us.  It was a gorgeous warm, sunny day, and we soaked it up!  The rest of the afternoon was spent resting.





Some of the steps we walked down.


View from top of bluffs at the castle.


View of same area from the bottom.


Monday we went to the local outlet mall.  It was cold again, down into the 30's and 40's, and Levi was not feeling well again.  He doesn't like cold weather, he didn't want to sit in the stroller, but he did alright and we shopped through about three quarters of the stores.  We took him back to the condo and relaxed for the afternoon, then Moga was sweet enough to stay with Levi while Patrick and I went out to dinner at JJ Twiggs.  It was a rustic restaurant with interesting decor.  There were antler chandeliers and light fixtures, a stuffed raccoon holding a jar of peanut butter.  The food was excellent!




Tuesday we headed to the Amish/Mennonite community for yet more shopping and eating.  (Who can get enough of that, right??)  We visited a market that was stocked full of dry goods, frozen homemade pies, popcorn, and so much more.  One of the girls was making homemade peanut butter that smelled heavenly.  I bought some loose tea, apple butter, blackberry butter; Patrick got bread and butter and hot pickles, spices, root beer extract to make homemade root beer, popcorn; Moga got homemade pretzels, sunflower seeds, and more.  The next stop was a fabric store.  I didn't quite know what to expect, but it was hand's down the best fabric shop I've ever been to!  The prices were from reasonable to dirt cheap, the selection was excellent and refreshingly different from the mainstream fabric stores, and I think I could have spent a week there.  Needless to say, we walked out of there with shopping bags bulging.  Mom bought Levi a little Amish hat, and I would have gotten him a suit but they were all too small.  Patrick and Levi lounged on a couch while we shopped. After visiting another market and a quilt shop with the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen, we headed to Lehman's, a Mennonite restaurant.  The food was simple but delicious.  All in all the people of the community were friendly. We had several looks due to Levi's feeding tube, but no more than any other day. I was surprised to see that most of the women wore colorful calico dresses since the Mennonite women we see at Cardinal Glennon wear solid neutral colors.   It was a terrific day, and Levi felt pretty good all day.

Stewart's Restaurant, where the cinnamon rolls were bigger than Levi's head!






Amish country road.  You can see the wagon wheel marks in the road, and a carriage in the distance.


Wednesday Levi woke up with huge grins.  We toured Bridal Cave and drove all over Lake of the Ozarks State Park looking for Swinging Bridges, which were pretty neat.  I'm not fond of suspension bridges, but these were not very high and perched over small creeks.  I hopped out of the car to take pictures.  By this time the weather was getting warmer.  We went back to the outlet mall to check out the stores we missed, and Levi began to feel sick.  I had to run out of the Carter's store with him so he didn't vomit inside the store, and ended up wearing it myself.  The poor little guy was feeling awful.  We took him back to the condo, and after vomiting three times I gave him Zofran and he was able to fall asleep.  We attempted to take him out to dinner at Jake Culpeeper's Steak House and thankfully he slept through dinner, which was delicious.  Just before we were ready to leave, he got sick again and Moga took off outside with him but didn't make it before he vomited, and so she wore  it this time.  That must have made him feel better because by the time we reached the condo he was smiling again.  I stripped him down to give him a bath and found that he had a full POOPY DIAPER!!!  Besides the two small bowel movements he had last week, this is the first normal stool he's had without a suppository in over two months!!!  This has got to be a sign of his bowels waking up.  Praise God!!!








Swinging Bridges.  The gaps between some of the boards were almost the width of my feet!



We left Lake of the Ozarks this morning and are now enjoying being home again. It's warm and sunny outside, and we are looking forward to lovely Spring weather and getting out of the house for walks and trips to the park. We've already started Erythromycin again, hoping for great results.  He's only had it for 2 1/2 days a couple weeks ago; I stopped it because his belly was grumbling a lot and the doctor said we could wait until after vacation.  I am crediting it with the recent poopy diapers, so I'm praying that he will tolerate it well and it will return his bowels to working order.


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