Anyhow, we made our way down to GWL, eating a Costco pizza I had cooked beforehand and some chocolate chip cookies in the van for lunch. When we pulled into the parking place, we got our second bad omen--Faith hopped out of the van and promptly threw up on the curb. Well! We all figured she had just eaten too much in the van, so we weren't too concerned. We got settled in, everyone changed, and we headed to the waterpark. It took me longer to get down there with Verity, but when I got down there, I saw Kelly leading Faith down the steps of the big tower. She had slipped, and thrown up a little more when she fell. So . . . this must be something bigger. Sigh. She sat in a chair while Verity splashed around in the wave pool a little bit more. Verity LOVED the wave pool. She would get all excited when she heard the howling that signifies the start of the wave period. I just hoped people would focus on her smiling face, and not on all her dots all over, LOL.
We left Faith and Luke back at the hotel (Luke hadn't been feeling great either, so he also took a nap all afternoon in the other room), and the rest of us went out to eat at Golden Corral, as is our tradition--a party of over 40! It was really fun, and everyone ate a ton . . . as is our tradition, LOL. But as we drove back to GWL, Anna and Grace both said they ate too much. Back in the room, Grace threw up, and eventually so did Anna. And they both did again. And again. I decided to have them sleep on the pull-out sofa so they wouldn't bother Faith, Micah, and Drew. That turned out to be a good decision, as the girls just basically threw up all night, even though there was just nothing left in there. Worst night in a hotel ever, sigh. They stopped throwing up around 5:00. Around 6:00 I heard a commotion in the other room--and Micah threw up all over his bed, which fortunately he wasn't sharing with anyone. Ahhh . . . I was so hoping for a nice break! Alas. Jonathan and Caleb went down to the waterpark while the rest of us packed up. Eventually Bob took Drew and Verity down too, but as soon as we had everything in the van, we beat a hasty retreat. Kelly very kindly volunteered to drive Caleb and Jonathan back with her family, and we took her up on that, since they were having such a great time--even Caleb, who normally doesn't even really like waterparks! He went down a ton of water slides, which was a first for him!
We were so incredibly thankful that this tummy bug didn't spread like wildfire through Rivendell. One more kid from another family got sick, but that was pretty much it. Whew! I was especially thankful Nathan didn't get sick, since he had to go back to school. Sunday night one of his old roommates flew in, and on Monday, I drove them as well as 2 other cadets back down to school. It was a quiet drive down--freezing cold, but nice and sunny, so a beautiful day for driving. After getting everyone's stuff unloaded and up to their rooms, Nathan and I ate lunch at Subway and hit Kroger for some groceries before saying goodbye. He was ready to go back--well, maybe not to go back to classes, but to not be surrounded by so many loud, needy little people all the time! It was a really nice break, though. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time with him, and it was lovely that it was so long, too!
The drive back was really nice for me. I've always enjoyed driving (especially in the Sienna, and not the big van!), and this time I brought CDs of one of my absolute favorite books: All Creatures Great and Small. Listening to that, read by someone who could actually do all the Yorkshire accents, made the miles fly by! I cancelled Latin class so I would be free that day, and it was a good decision. It was a very nice break for me, and now I'm glad I wasn't driving in a ton of snow!
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