This post should have been a happy account of our child-free vacation to San Francisco that we had been looking forward to for weeks. In its place, here's a re-cap of the past two weeks in the life of the Reid family:
Tuesday 1/10: Frances gets the stomach flu. This is the first time she has EVER vomited. Everyone loses sleep for a couple of days, but it's over with fairly quickly.
Thursday 1/12: As Frances recovers, Hugh contracts the flu and begins his three-day vomit and diarrhea fest.
Saturday 1/14: Jan & Maggie arrive to watch the kids while we go on our trip. Hugh is recovering.
Sunday 1/15: Mike and I take off for San Francisco. After a slight delay from Denver to SF, we arrive just in time to check into our hotel, meet up with our friends, and enjoy a fabulous dinner at Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak. Mike is feeling a little "uneasy," but we proceed with dinner. The minute we get back from dinner, Mike is in the throes of his own hellish stomach flu.
Monday 1/16 & Tuesday 1/17: Mike mostly stays in the hotel room, but we venture out to the Fancy Food Show on Monday and a wine tasting and lunch on Tuesday, all while Mike is feeling awful. We spend our nights in the hotel. Meanwhile back in Jackson with the kids, Maggie and Jan aren't feeling well, and Maggie actually gets sick.
Wednesday 1/18: We return halfway home, getting stuck in Denver because the first blizzard of the year is starting to hit Jackson. Maggie is supposed to fly back to Chicago today before we get back, and feels strong enough to make the trip, but her flight is cancelled due to said blizzard.
Thursday 1/19: Maggie tries again to get out of Jackson, but flights are still cancelled, so she resigns to spending yet another bonus night at our house. Mike and I can't fly to Jackson, but get on a flight to Idaho Falls, where we rent an SUV and drive to Jackson. We pick up two women who were on our flight and needed a ride. We make fast friends with Julie and Marsha from Floyd Knobs, IN during the white-knuckle 2-hour drive home. *HIGHLIGHT* We get to tuck our kids into bed for the first time in four days, and we get an unanticipated extra night visiting with Maggie :)
Friday 1/20: The saga continues, as Maggie finally gets to fly out of Jackson, but gets stuck in Salt Lake City because the second leg of her flight is cancelled due to the snow storm that has just hit Chicago.
Saturday 1/21: Jan is scheduled to fly back to Chicago today. As of this moment, her flight is delayed by about 2 hours :)
So.... Our gratitude for Jan and Maggie's help with the kids is beyond description, but we fear that neither of them will ever return to Jackson outside of June, July and August! And it looks like we're going to need a vacation to recover from this particular one. Did I mention that upon our return, both kids had developed an awful, rattling chest-cough? Awesome.