Ella & Christina come to visit!

 Our wonderful friends who were our neighbors in Michigan came out to visit us a week ago. For weeks the kids have been asking, "How many days until Ella comes?!" We were planning and trying to figure out what would be best to squeeze in for the few days they would be here, and we just couldn't wait. One of the kids favorite things they would do in MI together was get dollar store nets and go catch butterflies, or bugs or whatever. So we made sure everyone had one in hand when they arrived in hopes to catch a lizard. 

They arrived Tuesday afternoon and we just hung out for a bit and let the kids play, then decided to hit up the pool.

 They quickly decided trying to catch a fish in the lakes with their nets was more fun.

 We then took them to Tanque Verde Ranch to see all the horses, and then got them an Eegees on the way home. One of those must do things when in Tucson.

 Well that evening before going to bed my stomach started to not feel so hot. I figured it was just the Eegees and too much sugar because sometimes that happens with certain things. We went to bed, and I wake up at 11:30pm and had to race to the toilet barfing. It continued on until about 3am. Well Gaines was sleeping on the couch in our bedroom and he woke up maybe about 1am and he started throwing up as well! His continued on throughout the night too about every half hour. Thank heavens for Dave because I felt just awful and he took complete care of Gaines. The most amazing part was Gaines was screaming, and I mean screaming, every time he had to throw up, just in pain, and Grant sleeps in our closet and Gaines was screaming just right outside the closet door and Grant never woke up. Tender mercy right there!! I really do not know how he didn't wake up. Between the screaming, and barfing and, flushing the toilet and using the faucet. Seriously lucky. We probably finally got some sleep about 4am. and then about 7am I hear someone start coughing. It's one of those coughs that only a mom knows - a "I'm about to throw up cough". I say to Dave, "Who is that?! Is that Bella or Tinley? I think someone is about to throwup." Dave hardly budged as I said that because he was exhausted from the night and I was still feeling just awful so I didn't end up getting up just hoping maybe it was just a "cough". Well I look at my phone and my friend Christina texted saying, "Bella just threw up." I couldn't believe it! So first thing in the morning we are just down for the count. Bella and Gaines were just lying there not wanting to budge.

 I still felt horrible but when you have people who come a long way to visit you try your best to put on a happy face and do something. Since Tinley was still feeling fine, we went to McDonald park and played at the park and took a walk around trying to catch something. We didn't stay long. I really didn't feel well so right when we got home I had to go lie down. 

By the afternoon I was feeling a little better so we decided to take Ella and Tinley to the pool. Poor Ella, she would ask Bella, "Want to go play outside?" Bella would say no. Then she'd ask Gaines, "Gaines want to go play?" No. Then Tinley, "Want to go play?" Sure! So off they'd go. Well as we are going to the pool I see our neighbor friends and ask them if they want to go to the pool, thinking someone else that Ella could swim with. They couldn't. We get to the pool and Tinley says, "My tummy doesn't feel good." I'm hoping it just from not eating her lunch. I ask her if she thinks she's going to throw up and she says no. Phew! So she just takes a seat on the chair while Ella went to get in the pool. Then a few minutes later Tinley stands up, starts coughing and throws up! She was pretty sad so I just have her sit back down, gave her my phone to play on because I was not about to say to our friends, "Ok we need to go home" after we just got there. I do not know where this sickness came from but it sure spread like WILDFIRE!! About 5-10 minutes later Tinley stands up and I say, "Are you going to throw up??" She says yes, so I grab her and race to the bathroom which is right there, but it's locked and she just starts losing it throwing up. Thank HEAVENS she didn't eat her lunch and it was just basically water. There was a gentleman sitting in a chair reading the paper and he was so polite and never turned around once grossed out as I probably would have haha, and he just nonchalantly sat like nothing was going on. I apologized and he was so nice and acted like he didn't care one bit. Clearly he has children! I then had to say to Christina, "I'm really sorry but we need to go home." She of course understood. I took all the water I had and washed the throw up off the ground and off we went. Poor Ella was like, "Tinley was the last person I had to play with and now there is no one." It was so sad. How in the world do we get sick when the one time our friends choose the visit?! I was just praying they wouldn't get sick as well!! So we just took it easy the rest of the day.

 A whole lot of this was going on. I'm so glad Ella and Christina could come to watch so many cartoons and movies with us! Ugh.

 Bella would muster up enough energy to do some things like paint or sit outside looking for lizards. But it wouldn't last long. I wanted them to just rest all day so hopefully we could feel better to go to Sabino Canyon the next day.

 Everyone got a great nights rest, and by a miracle, everyone was feeling pretty good the next morning. So we got ready and headed off to Sabino Canyon.

 We took the bus up to stop 8 and the kids all had a blast! It was such a pretty day and the mountains looked beautiful.

 The water was chilly but it was refreshing from the heat.

 The fish and minnow hunters. Tinley really surprised me and had a lot of fun and loved going in the water this time. The past few times we have gone she hasn't really enjoyed it.

 There was tiny little waterfall, but it was kind of deep for the kids to go over there.

 If you climbed up the rocks there were little pools to play in

 Climbing with 2 little ones can be a little tricky. I did a lot of carrying those two! My arms were spent by the end!

 Gaines caught this tiny little fish and wanted us to take a picture so he could show his dad. He then asked if we could cook it and eat it.

I was so so thankful everyone felt good so we could at least do one fun thing with our friends. 

On the bus ride back to our car both Tinley and Grant fell asleep and since Tinley was sitting in front of us, Christina had to hold Tinley's head so she wouldn't fall over. She fell asleep hard! As did Grant. He continued to sleep as we got off the bus, and got to our car, got lunch, and I was still able to transfer him to his bed. Being in the sun and water sure wore him out!

Bella was dying to go back to Tanque Verde Ranch for when they release the horses at dinner time at 4:30. We were all pretty spent but decided to anyway. On the drive out there Ella says how her tummy wasn't feeling good! We get there, it's hot, we were tired, Bella was the only one wanting to be there, and then it really hits Ella and she feels like throwing up. Christina takes her to the bathroom, but she doesn't end up throwing up. We head back home and she does eventually throw up. Ugh. What a disaster!! They were planning on flying home the next day. They were just going to play it by ear when the morning rolled around. Ella then had a fever in the morning, and then Christina had diarrhea, but after a little medicine they were doing a bit better. Such a busted trip! I'm pretty sure they will never come back :) 

Despite the sickness, we still had fun catching up and I was so glad they came! I'm just bummed we had to send them away with a going away present!