More fun!

We went to the beach again today with my friend Jenna and her daughter Nissa. I didn't get any good pictures of all the kids playing, but hopefully I will next time! :) Harry playing Emma loving the waves! These are a few more cute pictures from our NH trip- Thanks Steph!!! :) The 4 of us Jenn and Jay Mommy and Emma- I love how blue her eyes are in this picture! The Butterfield clan!
I took this of Harry at about 9:30 last night. He was whining that his ears hurt (again!) and that he was scratchy (from the hives still). I gave him some Tylenol and he pronounced that he was "All Fixed!"

Fun in I. Falls

Emma and her Great-Gramma Gerry Emma got an oreo! Harry and Grampa playing hockey! I heart Rainy Lake! Ems and Auntie Katie Harry and Grampa

Curious Harry Goes to the Hospital

So.... last week Harry kept telling me that his ear hurt. The last time he told me that, his eardrum had burst, so I figured I'd better get him in to see somebody. After over an hour of trying to convince the AF secretary that I was NOT going to drive to Grand Forks, she gave me an approval to go to Urgent Care and get him checked out. Sure enough, the kid has an ear infection. They put him on antibiotics, we go to Minneapolis for the weekend, end of story.
Except not. Tuesday night, he got a fever, which I managed to break, and then repeated the process all through Wednesday. When it got up to 102.5, I called it quits and headed back for the ER. We spent 4 hours there that night for them to tell us that he has a "viral infection." Code speak for: we don't know what's wrong with your kid, but we don't think it's a big deal.
Thurs: No fever, kid has attitude and zest for life. We went to Katie's softball game and Harry comes over to me, lifts up his shirt, and says: Look Mommy, I have spots like a zebra. (We'll deal with the zebra part later....) So, I call my two aunts who've raised 4 kids btw them and have them take a look thinking that its chicken pox. Of course, it isn't that simple as they've spread up his neck and down his legs during the drive over there. So, back to the damn ER we go. Another 4 hours and they diagnose my kid with HIVES. Harry says that he has pies, again, we'll explain that to him later! They gave him a dose of a steroid, gave me several prescriptions to fill this morning, and sent us home. All in all, Harry's body decided on day 9 of his antibiotics that it would be allergic to them. Great. Thanks. Awesome.
I miss my husband.

More pics from the weekend...

I finally got the rest of my pictures uploaded. Again, I HATE the internet connection at my dad's.... It literally involves a 20 minute process of simply unplugging cords and restarting things to get the thing hooked up and then another 15 minutes of convincing his modem that it likes my computer, which it normally does not. Anyways, UGH. So, more pictures and hopefully I'll get some more sooner for next time. Lo siento.
So, we're about halfway through the trip. Feels like longer, but it's still almost 3 weeks until we're home again. Harry is absolutely LOVING having time with his Ga-ga and his Auntie Katie. Grandpa is doing hockey school this week, so we swung by to pick him up for lunch and watched a little of the "hockey guys." Harry just loves it. Now, I just have to convince the Air Force to keep moving us to places that have hockey... I guess my dreams of Hickam (Hawaii!) are out, right?
Harry on the turtle at the Como Zoo
Harry in the butterfly garden- this was his favorite part!
Emmers in the butterfly garden
The beautiful conservatory at Como
Harry and his suitcase traveled through ALL of the gardens... :)
Harry and Amy on the giant walleye in Kabetogama
This is my daughter. I really don't have any words for this picture. :) Just know that whatever gray hairs I end up with are going to because of this child.

WE MET DORA!!!!

So, they turned Camp Snoopy into Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America. Not a big deal, you say? It is to a little boy who has adored Dora the Explorer for the past year and a half. We watch at least one episode a day and refer to her many many more times throughout the day, as those of you who have spent any time with Harry already know! :) Today was the big day that we finally got there. Amy and I drove the monkeys back down to Minneapolis and we spent the day at "Dowa-world." They had rides for all of his favorite shows: Blue's Clues, Wonder Pets, Diego, and, of course, Dora. Lisa was kind enough to meet up with us as well, and thank God she did, as we definatley needed the extra hands! Needless to say, we had a GREAT and exhausting day, but it was well worth it and Harry loved every single second of it. We asked him what his favorite part was and he said: LOTS of it!
DORA!!
Giving Dora a hug!
Harry and Amy on the balloons
Emma and Lisa- SO cute!
We also went to Underwater World at the Mall. They had some great fish- including huge sharks and Nemo and Dorie from the Finding Nemo movie. They had an amazing tunnel that had a moving walkway that moved through the tank- It was an incredible view of the fish!

Harry when he saw the HUGE shark!
Emma watching the fish swim overhead.
Dorie and Memo
We tricked Lisa into riding the fast cars with Harry!

Swimming

Harry swimming in the pool at Ga-ga's house
Ems checking it out!
Harry at the beach- Rainy Lake
Emma helping Grampa read the newspaper- can you see how hilarious she is??

Pictures... :)

Auntie Julie and Ems
Mom, Emma, Ga-ga, and Flim Buster
Harry and Ga-ga and the Dugga John-Johns
Harry didn't last long during the fireworkds... :)
Harry, Auntie, and Emma-doodle
Emma can cruise now!
Harry and Auntie looking for "chickamongas" at Sha-Sha
He's trying SO hard to be patient!!

In MN....

Okay. We're here. In MN. Yup, it was a LONG drive, but we got it done in 2 1/2 days. Both kids did better than we expected- Emma was fussy in the mornings and Harry let us know when it was time to stop for the day. Other than a small diarrhea incident (okay, it was a LARGE incident!) that involved stopping at a laundromat AND a car-wash in Dickinson, ND, I'm very impressed with how well the kids did.
We had a great fourth of July with lots of family, friends, fireworks, fried bread, and choo-choo rides downtown. :) We even managed to hit the beach for a few hours. I think this was part of the reason Harry only saw about 5 minutes of the fireworks- he fell asleep on Amy's lap! Emma enjoyed them though... :)
I'll post more later and some pictures. The internet at Grandpa's house is not the best... that's an understatement, but I'm trying to not to use swear words on my blog... :P
-Jenn