Izabel's First Vacation

We took our first family vacation to Vermont this past week to visit Noah's parents and a bunch of his relatives and friends. We had a great time despite illness and injury! Here's the daily info as well as a bunch of pictures. This is gonna be a long one!!!

July 4th: We left at about 2:00pm on the 4th of July. This was not exactly how I wanted to spend our holiday but since Noah cannot take the day off of work it was the only way to do it. Izabel was pretty grumpy at first since it was nap time and she didn't want to be in her car seat. She finally fell asleep though and was pretty good the rest of the time. We stopped for dinner and she had fun "talking" to the other kids in Burger King and then she stayed awake for another couple hours until we stopped at a rest area. She was so happy to be out of her seat she just stretched and smiled. Then she went right to sleep for the night when we put her back in. We saw fireworks from the interstate in New York and pulled into Noah's house in Vermont at 1:00am.

July 5th: We settled in and got ready for Papa's 50th Birthday party! (see next entry)

Trying out the games for the party!

Kisses from Daddy

Who needs toys anyway? Making "music" with Mimi
July 6th: We spent pretty much all of Sunday hanging out by the pool. It was another beautiful day but the water was still cold! I guess it never really gets too warm in Vermont. Noah left to go to Montreal for the night with his Dad. We had lots of leftovers for lunch and enjoyed spending time with Mimi, Papa, Gigi, Auntie Ann and Auntie Theresa. For dinner we went over to Cindy and Tim's place to swim and hang out. We had a really nice time and Izabel enjoyed playing with them.

Walking with Mimi (she got really good at this while we were there!) Playing in the pool at Tim and Cindy's

Picture with Mama!

July 7th: Monday morning we got up and had breakfast and then Mimi took Izabel for a walk like she had been doing. I cleaned up and went outside and before I could sit down she was back and said Izabel was sick. She had thrown up everywhere! We started cleaning her up and she got sick again. I decided to call the doctor and while I was on the phone she got sick again! Because of her history of UTIs the doctor suggested we take her to urgent care so they could test her for an infection and put her on antibiotics if that was the reason she was sick. Well the urgent care in Vermont couldn't do the test so we ended up in the emergency room! They were really great though and got us in right away. The only thing that took a while was waiting for Izabel to pee. She didn't really have anything left in her! Anyway they said they only found traces of bacteria but not enough to make her sick or treat so they gave us some diet instructions and sent us home. Izabel was a perfect happy baby the whole time we were there and didn't get sick again until we got home. Go figure! She pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping or being held. What else do you do when you're sick? We had more pool time and enjoyed each other's company some more! (There aren't a lot of pictures since we spent most this day in the ER!)

Quiet time with Papa!

July 8th: Izabel is 9 months old! I can't believe the first year is almost over! Izabel was seeming to be better on Tuesday although we were still be very careful with her diet. We thought maybe the well water was not agreeing with her so we switched to bottled water and pedialyte. Noah was home and again we hung out at the pool. It was much warmer (although still cold by our standards) and we had a really good day until I went to hang Izabel's bathing suit out on the line and tripped going down the steps. I ended up with a pretty bad sprained ankle and spent the rest of the day with my foot in the air and an ice pack around it. Izabel and I make quite a pair I guess! That was enough excitement for one day so we pretty much hung around the house while I learned how to use crutches!

Playing in the little boat with Daddy

Family swim! July 9th: Noah actually had to get out of bed on Wednesday and help with Izabel since I couldn't carry her and use the crutches. Can't say that I minded making him get up though! Mimi had to work so Noah took Izabel for her morning walk. We had planned on doing some outings but there was nothing I could go do on the crutches so we ended up hanging around the house again. Izabel was much better and started back on some regular foods. For dinner we all went out to a pizza place and had some great antipasta, nachos and pizza. Izabel did pretty well but she did make sure everyone in the place knew she was there! When is she going to grasp the concept of inside voices???

Eating dinner!Izzy and Mimi
July 10th: Mimi and Papa were both back at work and I was moving around a lot more on Thursday. Noah's Dad and sister came down to visit for a little bit. Izabel has only met them one other time at Christmas and she was so small that she doesn't remember. She played around them but didn't seem to want to go to them. I did manage to get one picture of her with her Grandpa before she wanted us again. Then Grandpa left and Noah's sister Maria stayed with us and we all went to the Harley store to get Papa his birthday present and to the mall. Izabel was screaming by the time we got to the mall. I had totally lost track of time and it was way past lunch! The poor thing was starving so we sat down in the food court and fed her before we did a little shopping. My arms were killing me from the crutches so I ended up sitting a lot while everyone else shopped. We ended up not staying very long and headed back home. It was a lot chillier out so there was no pool today but we hung out inside and watched a movie and then had dinner at home. After dinner Theresa stayed to babysit Izabel with two of her friends and the rest of us met Barry's sisters, Mom and some of his friends at the grand opening of Dan's place in town. We all had a great time celebrating Barry's birthday and it was really nice to have a grown-up night out! While we were sitting there they started talking about a surprise party for Joan on Saturday. We were planning on leaving Friday night but since we wanted to be there for the party we decided to stay another night and leave Saturday!

Saying hello to Grandpa

Izzy and Aunt MariaOkay I'm done!

Aunt Liz, Mimi, Aunt Suzi, Grandma Elaine and Mommy at Dan's PlaceMimi, Daddy and Mommy
Tim thinks he's on the cool bike, maybe he should have another martini!
Check out the crutches!
July 11th: When I woke up Noah brought Izabel down for me but then went straight back to bed. Evidently he had been up sick all night. I had no idea but his mom confirmed it and asked me how much he had to drink! That would normally be the obvious question but in this case he really didn't have too much. We hung around the house and Izabel went for a long walk with Mimi. Theresa and I watched some movies. Noah finally got up around 2 and said he was starting to feel better. We decided to go out to dinner and a movie since Mimi and Papa said they would love to babysit. We went to Longhorn and had a great dinner and then we saw Hancock. We used to go to the movies all the time but we don't get to do it much anymore. We had a good time but neither one of us felt very good. I ended up getting sick on the way home from the movie. I woke up sick again in the middle of the night and found Theresa sick as well.

I'm all better and I can eat again!

Waving to Mimi!

July 12th: We were both a mess on Saturday and pretty miserable. A bunch of people came over to cook out and play games to celebrate Joan's birthday and Theresa and I tried to rest for the ride home. We left at about 6:30pm to head home. Izabel went to sleep almost immediately which was a blessing. I figured she would probably cry for a while before she fell asleep. Theresa and I did fine on the ride home which was a blessing as well. We stopped at Wawa once we hit Deleware and got something to eat and some gas. Izabel was happy to get out for a little bit. I ended up driving the rest of the way home which wasn't a great idea for my ankle but Noah was really tired from playing in the sun all day!

Izzy and cousin Megan

Reading with Aunt Deb
Time to go home!
So peaceful!

July 13th: We got home about 5:30 in the morning on Sunday and tried to go straight to sleep but of course Izabel wasn't having it. Noah ended up playing with her for a while so I could get some sleep and then my parents came to get her for the day so we could get some rest. They did it to help us out but they also couldn't wait to see her. They picked her up in time for Sunday school and then she stayed at their house until dinner time. We all went out to TGI Friday's for dinner and had a great time. Then it was early to bed for all of us and back to our normal schedule!

Even though it sounds like a lot went wrong we actually had a fantastic time! We love hanging out with everyone and it was nice to catch up and meet all of the new additions to the family. Mimi and Papa loved getting to spend so much time with Izabel! We can't wait to visit with them again!