Spring Break- dreadful day 3

Day Three aka Wednesday.
First let me tell you what was SUPPOSED to happen.
Tuesday night was our last night in hotel. We planned to check out Wed morning, load up the car and just drive to all our destinations.
We were going to go to the Children's Discovery Museum first. Then have lunch. Then go down to the river and see the fountains and take some pictures on the pretty staircases. Then maybe grab a snack and take a stroll along the river watching the ferry. We were even debating on going on the Ferry! Then heading back home around 6-7pm. That way we would be home for bedtime!
Well that didn't happen. None of it.

Instead.

I woke up Wednesday morning, before everyone else again, and started to pack up and clean up the room. Check out wasn't until 12 but we planned to leave out earlier than that to hit up museum.
While piddling around Aaliyah woke up. She got out of bed and said, "Mommy I don't feel so BLAHHHH" Yep throw up. Spewing out of her mouth. As we ran to the bathroom. She continued to throw up for the next 30 minutes. And then the poopies came too. Same time as the throw up. You know what that means?? Only one of them made it into the potty.
To much info?? Sorry. But it's the truth. And while I don't have to blog about it to remember, as it is something I will probably NEVER forget, I am. Just in case. lol
Once she was pretty much done and cleaned up. She got back in bed. She was on fire! Fever of 102. She went back to sleep and by then everyone else was up.

I debated on just staying in the car with her while Michael went to museum with girls. But museum is a play thing, and both Maggie and Madison would require more than 2 hands to keep up with them.
Plus I was starting to feel yucky. I couldn't decide if it was reaction to Aaliyah, or in fact if I didn't feel good or not. Michael too felt crappy. His stomach was starting to hurt him too.
We decided in was probably food poisoning or a virus that hit us. And most likely would be affecting everyone soon. We made the apparent choice to pack it up and head it home! :(
It really sucked for Abigail bc she was feeling just fine and wanted to go to the museum. But you know these things happen. We promised them one Saturday we would just drive up to go do a day of things and the museum.

In the middle of packing Madison started acting funny. And yep, you guessed it, in the matter of seconds she was in the bathroom too! Once she was done I plopped her in the 'sick' bed while we finished up packing quickly as possible!!
I was starting to get very nervous about our 2 hour ride home! In my aunts car!!

(lol Abby and Maggie staying away from the sicklings!)

(Here are few pictures I tried to get of M&M in my favorite shirts of theirs, they didn't cooperate very well, shocker, I know)

We loaded up our rack and were ready to go when I woke up Aaliyah. She got out of bed and I told her to move around a little and make sure she wasn't going to get sick again. She took about 4 steps then ran to the bathroom! Michael took the girls out while I cleaned her all up, again. Once she was all done, I opened a diaper and put it inside her panties just in case on the ride home, and we got her a plastic bag to hold on to too. She looked just miserable. I felt SO bad for my little baby!!

As we walked down hall I warned the cleaning crew about our bathroom. I cleaned up as much as I possibly could. But it was still a little disastrous.

Before we knew it we were checked out and loaded up in the van!
*OOOH yeah, and our room ended up being $50 cheaper than we were quoted! SWEET!*
On the way to the highway we stopped by the visitor center so the girls could use some of their money on souvenirs. Plus I had a few people to buy something for too!
We also stopped by the store for some Gatorade and saltines!
I drove us home and 1/2 way down the road Madison started up again :(
Luckily Michael caught it all, and it wasn't too messy.
Aaliyah slept the whole way home, and never got sick again.
The drive was much better than we expected! Whew.
We got home about 2:30-3pm. And that's about the exact time it hit Michael and I.
I started feeling really tired, and my stomach hurt. I literally couldn't get off the couch.
Michael was the same way.
My living room was very interesting. Michael and I were on the sectional, Aaliyah on the loveseat. All completely dazed. Abigail turned into Nurse Abby. She took care of us all! Madison was pretty cuddly and tired too. But that didn't stop her or Maggie from completely destroying the house. Abby did her best to keep them out of everything.
That night I had to call my mother to come bring us some Gatorade and more children's Tylenol. Michael, myself, Aaliyah, and Madison ALL had fevers.
Eventually I got sick. But that was it.
Wed night through Thursday night was torture.
On and off again fevers with stomach pains and migraines are never fun.
Since Abby and Aaliyah were fine they spent the night at my moms house Friday night. That gave Abigail a little break from being our maid/nurse. lol
.
By Friday we started feeling a little like ourselves again. Aaliyah was already much better, Madison too. But the headache and tiredness took an extra day to wear off of Michael and I.
But we survived it. By the weekend we were back to 100% and ready to clean up the house that M&M had destroyed ;)
I do not wish that bug on anyone. I pray it will never find a way back into my house again. Ever.
We have named it, The Chattanoogan.
While I wish we had had more time to do some more stuff with the girls, sickness is something that you can never plan on. Everything happens for a reason, and I am sure there was a 'good' one in there somewhere ;)

I do look forward to taking girls back up one Saturday to go to the museum! It looks like alot of fun!

Its become tradition to have a full weeks schedule for Spring Break for the girls, this year it didn't quite work out the way I hoped. But they still had a lot of fun!! (Next year I'm def thinking BEACH)
Aquarium was awesome! And I am thankful to have had so much family time that week.
Even if we were all sick as dogs, we were sick together. And that is all that matters!

Spring Break day 2- Aquarium

After a night of almost NO rest, the sun so sweetly woke me up at 9:30! Everyone was still snoozing away, so I went ahead and got up to start getting ready before I had to get everyone else up!
One thing I love about vacation is there is NO schedule. No one has to wake up at a certain time, be home at a certain time, nothing. It is awesome. Everyone was pretty much awake by 10-10:15.
By the time everyone was dressed and beautified, and had breakfast, we were out the door about 11:45 to head to the Aquarium!  (check out the adorable shirts I found for M&M!!!)

I was kind of scared leaving the room. I was afraid of running into angry people who were awakened by Madison crying all night. Luckily I think they all left early bc we didn't see anyone, at all!
The Sheraton has a Starbucks downstairs, and included in our deal they gave us a $10 credit there! BONUS. Obviously we NEEDED coffee desperately!
Photo opportunity as we waited for our coffee!!

Outside the hotel there is a free shuttle that runs all the way down to the Aquarium. We def wanted to hop aboard! It was HOT outside. I imagined us walking that morning at like 9:30, so I figured we would all be good in capri's and jeans. HA. It was like 12:30 before we made it outside and I was ready for air conditioning immediately!
We waited at the first stop. And after 3 shuttles passed us FULL we decided to walk a little further down to another stop. While waiting I was snapping some pictures. Out of the blue this random stranger stopped and offered to take a family photo for us!! SO sweet!!

After walking a little further, we finally hitched a ride on the shuttle! It was a nice little ride too! All 5 min of it!
Aquarium was not nearly as busy as I thought it would be. I guess the time we arrived was actually perfect! Michael went in to exchange our passes from hotel into tickets, we waited outside and learned from more random strangers that Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop was doing a FREE ice cream cone day, all day! Um, I love the word FREE, and I hearing it ALOT on this trip!! Love it!!
I took mental note to go there after lunch!
There are two parts to the Aquarium, River Journey and Ocean Journey. We chose Ocean first. Great choice!!
I could go through each part of everything, however it's an aquarium. We saw fish, and stuff. lol. I have alot of pictures, so I will share the best of the best, and maybe a story or two.

Here we go!!

Sting Rays-

Butterflies- (thought this was weird in an 'aquarium' but it was cool, and they were pretty!)

 Maggie was the lucky one chose to hold one!!

Penguins!!-

Another very nice stranger offered to take our picture together behind the bars! I like people in Chattanooga. Very nice. In return we took their family picture for them too!!

Jelly fish and Crab tank-

 kids inside the aquarium!! I love Maggies face here!

 They had fun with this!!

 Best seat in the house!

Yeah yeah I know, NO flash photography. But its hard getting good pictures in the dark!

 Awesomeness.

Made it just in time for a bird show!!

 Baby turtle on its mommas back!!

Bye- Bye fish's!

*Aquarium pictures!!

 Hello LUNCH!! Michael and I didn't get any breakfast in, and we were starved!!!

Hello DESSERT! FREE dessert!

 Hello mess. Don't judge me, but this was like M&M's 2nd time with an ice cream cone!
They are SO messy, I usually opt for the bowl or dish. But seeing how much fun they had with this, we will have do so ice cream cones more often!! Maybe bribery for taking good pictures? ;)

Aquarium, lunch, and ice cream was pretty exhausting. But included in our hotel package were also Imax 3D tickets. These had to be used same day as Aquarium tickets. SO up next was a movie!!
We really wanted to see Born to be Wild (narrated by Morgan Freeman!) BUT the times weren't matching up for our schedule, SO we had to see Tornado Alley. At first I was like, ugh, can we skip it?? BUT I'm glad we didn't because it was actually really good!! And within the first 5 min, Maggie and Madison were snoozing!! That gave then a good 30 min nap to rejuvenate themselves ;)

 We decided to walk back to the hotel. Madison was still 1/2 asleep, and I didn't want to keep getting her in and out of stroller!

Once back in the hotel we SAT DOWN! Whew. Exhausting day but SO MUCH FUN!
Kids all behaved like angels. It was so rewarding for Michael and I to see them SO happy and really having a good time ;)
While I had fun swimming the night before. I was so tired and I knew M&M were too, we skipped the pool night. Michael got ready and took Abigail and Aaliyah down to the pool, while I took Maggie and Madison to get the van and go pick up dinner!
Before we left I asked for 2 cribs to be brought up to the room. In hopes they would help M&M sleep better!!! After the very nice ladies got those set up for me, we were off to pick up dinner!

When we got back we walked past the pool to grab everyone and head up to the room to eat!

Bedtime wasn't so horrible this time around. They both had a little nap so they weren't super exhausted. Everyone was up till about 10:30-11pm. We put M&M in the new cribs to sleep in. Maggie had NO issue at all! Madison got up crying a couple times. But slept for the most part ;)
Woot Woot!! A good nights sleep!! Just what we needed. BTW- Sheraton beds and pillows are seriously the best EVER!!

The next day wasn't so much fun. Little did we know what we would be waking up to....