Since the cousins were in town, we booked tickets on the Nickel plate railroad, a historic steam train ride. It was an ice cream train experience, so we all got ice cream and hopped on the train for a fun historic ride. We got to walk from car to car where they had tables set up and souvenir shops, and snack shops. It was a unique and fun experience for all of us!
The Fourth of July was eventful this year. We hosted over 40 people this time. Most of Mike and Kim‘s family was there, Beth and Abe, Christin and Sophie, Melissa and John with Jace, Maddy and Stephanie, Nick and Carissa and there four kiddos, Stacy and Chad came with Marcus, Grandma And Grandpa were there, and they invited Mary Ann Wolfe, grandpa’s aunt and cousin. With our family of eight and Elene, I’ve lost count of the number of people at our house! Jared brought his girlfriend from Seattle to meet everybody. Since we install a deck on the back of our house, it’s added a lot to our home for these types of gatherings. It was a beautiful day, hot and humid, but beautiful. Kids and adults swim and played in the water. Others mingled and eight less food. It was a beautiful barbecue to celebrate the fourth.
That evening, we took the big van with Nick and Grace‘s family and our family and Elene To the Fort wayne FC, Fourth of July soccer match. It was a huge American celebration. Nathan was a ball kid for the game and they needed helpers on the field to pull out the giant American flag for the national anthem. All the big kids and big cousins got to help with that, and that was pretty incredible! You can’t get more American than that!
Following the match were fireworks. They started out a little wimpy, and I was worried because their competition is the 10 caps fireworks, but the show got pretty darn big and was a huge success by the end! Had to have cost thousands and thousands of dollars for a show that great! Happy Fourth of July!!!
We went up to the lake house when Nick and Carissa and their family came to visit. We spent the day up there out on the boat, tubing, and playing in the water. We had pizza and snacks, watched Michael Jackson music videos, And just spent a beautiful day together. Elene also enjoyed the lake life. Though she was not allowed to go tubing. She still had a great time out on the boat.
As The day, after the kids came in off the boat from the sun, Dawson had bright red welt like rashes in circles all over his legs. It was super weird! We suddenly all got pretty concerned pretty quick and our research showed that it looked like limes, disease symptoms. The kids pediatrician office closed in one hour, so Dawson and I gathered our things and left to the family in a hustle to make it down to the pediatrician walk-in clinic. He was diagnosed with Lyme disease because his series of symptoms and timeline fit that diagnosis to a T. He had been at Boy Scout camp for one whole week. He never found a tick and checked himself for ticks every day or so. It could have latched on in the night and he scratched it off without realizing it.About four or five days after camp he spiked a fever for three full days. He had a headache, chills, bodyaches, stiff neck, but no respiratory symptoms. He was extremely tired and had no energy. The fourth day his fever went away, but his energy was still down and his neck was still stiff. We had called a Teladoc and she told us that there really wasn’t anything we could do until after five days of fever. That was on Monday. Dawson said he noticed the rash on his legs, but he thought it was poison ivy and he did not think anything of it. Thursday, when we were up in the sun at the lake house, the rash showed up bright and clear. So he had had the rash for several days. The pediatrician looked at the timeline and all the symptoms and agreed that it was Lyme disease. She prescribed a specific antibiotic to attack it so he is on a 10 day antibiotic. His rash disappeared in a couple of days, thankfully, and I’m glad we caught it sooner than later. Of all the things to catch, I never thought we’d have Lyme disease!
