Spring Break Sickies

For Spring Break we went to Las Vegas for a couple of days.  Monday we drove straight to the Natural History Museum where we checked out all of the exhibits and then checked into the Hotel.  We stayed in a nice big quite at Homewood Suites.  There were two king beds in separate rooms, a roomy master bathroom with a jetted tub and nice-sized shower, and a big living room with a full table and chairs, two couches (couch bed) and big screen TV's in each room.   We said that we needed to sleep nine people and so they carted in three roll-away beds for the last three kids.  We loved that fact that breakfast AND dinner came with the hotel stay.  The pool was really nice too and we all went swimming after dinner.  

The only problem with our little get-away?  Everyone was SICK!!  A few of us had been suffering flu-like symptoms a few days before the trip and then in the middle of the night Monday night, the coughing began -- first one child, then another, and then another.  Rick was ready to pack up and head home the next morning.  I figured that they would feel better once they got up though and didn't want them to miss out on the Childrens' Museum.  It really was awesome.  None of us had ever been there before and there were a ton of cool activities to do. The kids were really cute -- each of the older kids picked a younger sibling to take around and they had as much fun as their younger partner.  There were some interesting little shows and tons of cool science tricks.   All of the kids seemed to be feeling fine -- except for Jenna.  She was still pretty out of it from her rough night, but then the medicine started to kick in and she got excited about all the neat sights and was able to enjoy the visit.  After the museum Rick put Jenna down for a nap (she never naps at home -- except when she is sick) and I walked the kids across the busy street to a Jack-in-the-Box for lunch. 

Janika and the kids headed to the pool (more to tan than to swim).  We took it easy that night since no one was feeling very well -- coughing, fever, lethargy.  A nice movie would have been nice but the cable left much to be desired and they were charging $17.99 just to watch one of their "pay-per-view" movies.  Ridiculous!  Rick and I took most of the kids to a conference room for an "Uno Tournament."  Jase creamed us all.  Josh is now totally enthralled with the game and wanders around looking for someone to play it with him.  Wednesday we were planning on visiting Ethel M's Chocolate Factory and then going to Chuck-E-Cheese's for pizza but everyone's flu symptoms seemed even worse.  We get a lot of looks anyway walking around with so many kids, but when at least half of them are coughing all over the place -- that is just down right embarrassing.  I shooed them out of the breakfast area and sent them to our room to eat.  We decided that dragging a bunch of contagious kids to two more public places was not a good idea and headed home -- in spite of their complaints and protests.  Oh well.  We did still have fun -- and it could have been worse I suppose.  But it is kind of a bummer over Spring Break to have this gorgeous Spring weather and instead of being outside enjoying it, we have listless kids feeling miserable and camping out in front to the TV all day!  Most of them seemed a little better today though so I think tomorrow they will be well enough to head out to the park and enjoy some sunshine!