Our family vacation to Idaho

Tyler, Brooke, and I flew up to Idaho early Saturday morning. When we got to the airport I called my mom

and she said Aunt Jolene and Grandpa Steadman would be picking us up because they lost the wheel on the suburban, but that's a whole other story! Anyway, we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Steadman so that was nice. From their house we went to the Hale Reunion and saw Grandma and Grandpa Fisher. Emily, Terah, and Kyden were with mom and dad so we took 4 generation pictures with each set of great grandparents. Sunday everyone was at the house and so we just hung out and had a lot of fun. Brooke and Kyden are so cute together and are both growing so fast!!

Our plan on Monday was to go to Lagoon since mom and dad had planned the Raft River Sod Lagoon Day since Tyler has never been. Brooke had other plans for the day though!

She woke up that morning about 5 and was cold because we were in the basement and she kicked her blankets off her. So I laid her in the bed and fed her. After she was halfway done eating she started to arch her back and scream. At first I thought she was having reflux and that it would go away if I held her up. She continued screaming so we took her upstairs and outside because being outside usually calms her down. She screamed like we have never heard her scream before, but we finally were able to get her calmed down enough to lay her in the crib. I was in the room watching her when all of a sudden she started to throw up. Over a half hour she threw up six times, was pale, and was shivering. We took her temperature and it was normal but we decided to go into Urgent Care in Pocatello.

Dad was gone taking the suburban in to get it fixed from the fun time it had on Saturday, so we stopped by Todd and Wendy's and the guys gave her a blessing. We went over to the Urgent Care and the doctor said she doesn't have strep and she's not running a fever so she probably just has a virus and that it will go away but we need to keep her hydrated with a little Pedialyte every 15 minutes. He told us that we would be ok to go to Lagoon, we just needed to keep her cool and hydrated. He said though, that if she was still throwing up that night we were to take her to the ER. So we started giving her Pedialyte and she kept throwing it up. She was so lethargic that she wouldn't even hold her head up and just slept. We decided not to go to Lagoon so we got something to eat and then ran some errands. We were in the store about 4 hrs after taking her to Urgent Care and she threw up the last bit that we had fed her, although it was yellow and not clear like the drink. We decided we weren't going to wait any longer and took her to the ER. Luckily there wasn't a wait and they were able to get her right in. The doctor came in to see her and basically said the same thing, that we just needed to continue to give her Pedialyte. Tyler insisted that he do some blood work and give her an IV because she hadn't kept anything down since 9 pm the night before. They came in and put an IV in her hand. It was sad because she was all crying and then would just fall asleep. As we were sitting there waiting for the blood work to come back (which it did show that she was dehydrated) I felt her fill her pants. I looked down at her diaper and it was all red. I told Wendy to hurry and get the nurse. She came in and looked at it and then got the doctor. The Pediatrician on call happened to be down there at that time and he came in also. Anyway, long story short, the Pediatrician came in and talked to us, told us that because of the symptoms of bloody, filmy stool, being lethargic, and throwing up he suspected that she had a condition called Intussusception where the intestines telescope in on themselves. The part of the intestine that is inside the other doesn't get blood flow and it can start to die if it is not treated. He told us that the way to diagnose it as well as treat it is to do an air enema that pushes air up through her bum and pushes the intestines back out to where they should be. They do this while they are watching it on the x-ray. So, we took her down and she had that done. I got to be in the room and it was crazy to see it. I could just see the air going from one part to the next and the intestines straigtening back out. They had a hard time getting it all repaired and said that it was the worse case they have seen. There were 3 pediatricians there because they wanted to see it, they said they will only see about 2-3 cases a year so it's pretty rare. They told us that there is not a known cause in someone Brooke's age, that it just happens spontaneously and that it must have happened that morning and that's why she was screaming and then started throwing up and such. The chances of it happening again is only about 10%, and most of those are within 3-4 hours after it is fixed with the enema. Because of that, they kept her overnight in the hospital to monitor her. It was so hard because she couldn't eat anything until the doctor saw her in the morning so she cried most of the night. I stayed there and Tyler went back to Todd and Wendy's. They had to come in and draw her blood in the middle of the night and poked her 4 times. By the next day she was starting to act like herself, and now she is back to being our little sweetheart!

Needless to say, we won't be forgetting our 2 year Anniversary or Brooke's 6 month birthday!!

Luckily we were able to continue with our vacation as planned. The next day we went up to Island Park and stayed in a cabin. We had so much fun floating down the river, riding quads, fishing, driving through Yellowstone, playing games, and just spending time with our family.

Todd and Wendy and their kids Kaylee, Troy and Toby came up and stayed the whole time. Kyle and his girlfriend Emmy and Emily, Terah, and Kyden all got to come up at some point and spend some time with us. It was just the vacation we needed!

Troy is so proud of this fish he caught. What you can't see is him shivering because he was in water up to his chest!

When we got back to mom and dad's on Saturday the slide was up so Tyler got his first experience on the famous 400' Steadman waterslide and zipline. He also took Brooke down the waterslide and she loved it!