Minnesota PART 2

We had a great time at my parents for a few days. The kids had swim lessons with Auntie Alli all week and it is always great to see how much they can learn. Charlie loves to swim and says soups soups soups for his scoops...SO CUTE!! Braeden amazes me every year. He is doing a great job and loves to swim! He has definitely grown up a ton. He is such a sweet boy and loves his brother and sister so much. Emma is doing a great job too. She has come a long way and will continue to do well as soon as she can get over some fears. She is scared of the deeper water right now. We will get through it.

We headed to the lake Friday afternoon. The kids were so excited to go out and see Dean and Mary. Zak, Susan, Lydia and Helena also got to the lake Friday night. It was fun to see everyone!! Friday night Braeden woke up at midnight with stomach pains. He was up and down the rest of the night with stomach pains. The poor kid was miserable Saturday and actually got sick. He just laid in bed Saturday. He couldn't eat or drink anything without getting sick. His stomach was really sore to even touch. He missed the fireworks on the lake Saturday so we knew he was really sick. He was so excited to see them this year but couldn't even get out of bed to look out the window. Poor boy!!!

Saturday night I slept with Braeden and he was up and down all night long. We both didn't get much sleep at all!! Sunday morning came early!! I ran in the Freedom Fun Run in St. Peter with Graham. It was an 8K and I was hoping to just finish it since I only had about 2 hours of sleep!! It was very muggy and hot. The course was up hill most of the way. I don't train up hill so I need to start doing that. It really kicked my butt. I was able to finish though in 48 minutes!! Wahoo!! 5 miles in under 50 minutes is great for me, especially with the tough course. I can only better that time next year ;) Charlie, Nick, Alli, Patsy and her boys were all waiting at the finish line. It was perfect. We got home and Braeden was still really sick. He was sleeping so I let him just rest. I woke him up at 1pm and gave him a bath. He was in so much pain and had a low grade temp. We decided to bring him to the ER. Nick took him and I stayed with the other two kids. What a trip!! Nick sat in the waiting room for 2 hours. I came to sit with them at 4:30 and we finally got Braeden back to a room. They start labs and everything right away. He had to have an IV put in because he was so dehydrated. He had popsicles at first to see if that would help but he threw them up. Poor boy!! He had a CAT Scan...what an experience for him. They are trying to rule out appendicitis. He was admitted with a white blood cell count of 22. The normal count is 11. He had some swollen lymph nodes around his appendix but they thought it looked normal. He was monitored all night and they are hopeful it is just a GI bug that is causing all the pain. We will know more after the blood work from this morning comes back.

What a trip home!! Please just say some prayers that everything is fine and we can be discharged this afternoon. We were suppose to be driving back to Kansas today but that has been pushed off for now. We need to get our Braeden healthy!!!