I can't believe it's already the 18th of January. Where is the time going? I also can't believe it's been so long since I posted on this thing... I think it may be because I was tagged and I am still trying to come up with things to write... Thanks again for that, Amy! - I guess that is my excuse, at least.
Last weekend James' brother, Eric, was in Columbus for a convention. He hasn't ever been out here to visit us before so he got his boss to let him stay through Monday and fly out of Cleveland. The convention ended on Sunday and we decided it would be a nice little mini-vacation to go down Saturday and go swimming. After hanging out in the hotel for a little bit we found our way to a Target to pick up a swimsuit. While we were there the kids found a Diego scooter on clearence. Between them they had enough to buy it... It was cute to see them all go in on something like that together. It's a bit small for the older kids, but they were good sports and decided to enjoy it (partly for Josh's sake) and that they'd all save up more for a bigger kid scooter. Cute. We got it together and they rode around the hotel parking lot for a while.
In the evening, after getting Eric and having pizza delivered we took the kids to the pool. We will definately be going back to that hotel soon. The pool was great! No life guard meant they could use their noodles and Ben could sit in his seat (we normally get told we can't when there is a guard). The water was SO nice, and the hotel was pretty empty. The pool had great hours and the staff were so nice. We all enjoyed swimming.
Caleb is a little fish.
Belly Flop - over and over to get a good shot - poor guy
What a good sister.
Fun with Eric... they loved this!
The water was so nice Ben had no problem just hanging out.
After swimming for a couple of hours the kids crashed.
Sunday morning we had until noon to check out and until 6pm before Eric was going to be done. We decided to swim until we had to check out. Kids were fed, suits were on, and suddenly James doubled over in agony. He kept running in the bathroom and throwing up. We called our "ask-a-nurse" through our insurance and they said we should go in to the ER. Great... Next we had to find an ER in Columbus that took our insurance and get him there while he was puking non stop. Well, we did, and almost immediately the great nurses and docs said it was kidney stones. I had no idea they were that painful! Poor guy.
Here's James in the ER room right after they saw him.
Luckily, after they moved us to a room the kids were this good the whole time. They played their games and watched cartoons and we didn't hear a peep out of them (we were there for almost 4 hours).
James felt a lot better after they shot him up with some pain drugs - though he doesn't remember any of it.
After we got out of the hospital we weren't sure what we were going to do. We were getting Eric in about 5 hours and James was in agony still. Finally we took them to the Galleria mall (really nice place) on the north side and they played for a couple of hours while James slept in the car outside - very fitfully, waking up to puke because of the pain.
The time finally came to get Eric - he even was able to finish a little before we thought - and we made the drive home fine. The kids loved having him here... even if it was only for a day.Couldn't wait to show him all the Transformers.
Guitar Hero with Uncle Eric - Caleb actually did pretty well.
Taking in the sites of Cleveland.
Can't go downtown without seeing the giant LeBron.
Going to see the lake at Voinovich park.
Looking out over Lake Erie.
We are big Calvin & Hobbs fans... this is the Dino in the comicstrips when Calvin visited the Museum of Natural History (Bill Watterson is from here, so Calvin got to go to our sites).
Calvin and Hobbes - Augest 10, 1989
Another view of Lake Erie and Huntingon Beach.
The guitars are a cool site to see in Cleveland.
Eric leaving on Monday night.
We really enjoyed having Eric here... if only we could get them to move out to our area of the country (I know you guys will see this... hint, hint!) :)
Now, almost a week later, James is finally better... Thank goodness!
Today was a wonderful day in the Dorman household. Just under one year ago (Feb 22, 2007) James and I gave Caleb the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the time he was 8 years old and baptized. That gave him 21 months to do this. To our surprise he finished today (only about 10 months before he will be baptized). We are SO proud of him! He wants to read it again by the time he gets baptized in 10 months . Caleb is awesome!
