Second week of vacation

The second half of our vacation wasn't as restful as we would have liked. We did have some fun, and Claire really enjoyed hanging out with her grandparents, but it was a little stressful too. I got a cold early in the week that I am still feeling a few lingering effects from. Alann got a cold too, but seems to be over it.
Tuesday night, we left Claire with Grandma and Grandpa and drove to Columbia. That is the town we met in and we still like to visit when we can. We say we may move back there someday, though whether it is that specific town or one like it is undetermined at this point. The plan was to pick up our favorite pizza and drive around some and look at the development and such and then get some dessert. We showed up at the pizza place at 5:30, they opened at 4. Only, they forgot to open or something. The lights were on, but nobody was home. It was very disappointing. We looked around town a bit and came back by. Still nothing. So we went and ate at a second runner-up restaurant. It was ok, just not what we were looking forward to. We drove around town some more. It was really more interesting than it sounds, at least to us. Then we decided to go to my absolute favorite frozen custard place. I noticed that the location downtown had closed, which was odd because it opened my senior year, so not too long ago, and it was a prime location. So we went out to the other location. They were also closed. After I talked to some friends of mine, I discovered that they had gone out of business. It made me very sad. So we struck out twice in one night. It was really disappointing. We came home and Grandma and Grandpa said Claire had been good and had eaten well and she was sleeping when we got there, which is always a relief.
We went to bed at 11 and Claire woke up at 1. She was up pretty much every hour until 5. I went in to check on her at 5 when she started crying. (She was in our room, but in the large walk-in closet, so she had her own mini-room.) She was covered in throw-up. We cleaned her up as best we could, and we all went to bed in our bed because hers was wet. She did good for about an hour, and we dozed, but then all of a sudden she threw up again. This time, she got Daddy too, because she was snuggling with him. So everybody got up and they took a shower and I cleaned up the bed and started some laundry. Alann was good enough to get up with her and I got a few hours of sleep. She was fine the rest of the day, and most of the next day. That was New Year's Eve. We were driving out to go to a party with some of Alann's parents' friends. They are good people. We've chatted with them a few times. We stopped at Jack in the Box for some "real" food before being subjected to snacks all night. Just as we were getting ready to leave, she threw up again. This time, it was all over herself, her car seat, and my back seat. Needless to say, we went home. We washed up, got everything as clean as possible, and decided to go back out. We went to the party and she was fine the whole time. She really liked the balloons, and was chasing them and bringing them to us. She was also enthralled with all the kids and had fun watching them do whatever they were doing. She stayed up until about 9, then we put her down in one of the bedrooms. She slept (with a few screaming wake-ups when kids ran in the room) until the kids started getting out the noisemakers at 1145. She was stunned by the noise, but otherwise really good with her first New Years. (I can't decide if that needs an apostrophe or not, so forgive me.) The next day was filled with cleaning- cleaning the car seat, the car, clothes. It was not fun trying to clean the car seat. It still smelled. Unfortunately, the cover isn't machine washable. I'm going to check the company website and see what they recommend.
We were planning on leaving Sunday, so Saturday would be our packing day. Unfortunately, I woke up several times Friday night/ Saturday morning to be sick. It was not pleasant. I spent the whole day lounging. Thank Heavens for grandparents! They took care of Claire most of the day, and took her with them on a few errands. Alann got sick later that day too. I think Claire must have given us whatever bug she picked up. Sunday we felt marginally better, and decided we should pack up our stuff and try to leave Monday morning. We did end up leaving, and made it as far as Boonville before more trouble. (That's about 2 hours from the parent's house.) Claire threw up, again. Luckily, I was interacting with her because she was fussing, so I was able to catch it in a burp cloth, mostly. She still needed a new shirt and her seat is a little more stinky, but it wasn't as bad as the first one. She slept most of the rest of the day. We stayed the night in Limon CO and then finished the drive on Tuesday. We didn't hit any bad weather, thankfully, and Claire didn't have any more problems. (Other than a little throw up at Subway during lunch, but she was choking on a chip and I think it was just a reaction to that.) We made sure to keep her water warm for her formula and a cup nearby to catch anything. We think maybe the water was too cold and it upset her stomach, but we really don't know. Well, okay, my real assumption is that she had a bug the first two times, then either got over it really slowly, or it was aggravated by too cold of formula. We tried to think of any common factors, but the only one was that she had been given formula beforehand and it may not have been as warm as it usually is. It wasn't every meal that upset her, just a few times. She has been fine since we got home. The doctor said not to worry about it unless she ended up dehydrated or kept doing it.
We are slowly recovering from our two-week long vacation. It was definitely a lot of fun to be gone for that long. I'm glad we had the dogsitter and could be dog-free for a few weeks. Now we are just trying to readjust to real life. I finally conquered the massive dust elephants in the corners today. I told the sitter she would probably have to/ want to vacuum at least once, but it didn't seem like she did. I guess it didn't bother her that much. I had to vacuum the bedroom before we went to bed the night we got home, as well as the main pockets of dog hair in the rest of the house. If you have dogs, you know what I mean. It just seems to collect in the dead-air spaces of your house. I've been slowly vacuuming and sweeping and cleaning the rest of the rooms. I think I am finally done. The main problem is Tanner. I brushed him yesterday- 10 minutes and 15 brushes FULL of dog hair later, I quit because he was biting at me. I don't know why he is shedding like it is spring. It certainly hasn't felt like it. It has barely been warm enough to melt the snow. They do shed when stressed though, so maybe that was just it. I brushed him again today and got another 5 brushes full. (I also handed his collar to baby to hold, and she tried to put it on herself, which was really funny.)
I still have to get my moonroof fixed. I am just kind of stumped as to what to do. I can take it to my regular mechanic, who is less than a mile from the house. It will take a few hours to fix, so I don't want to sit there. I could walk home, but I am pregnant and clumsy and it's icy out and did I mention it is cold? So that doesn't seem good. I could maybe get someone to watch Claire for me long enough to drop it off. Then Alann could pick me up and I could get Claire from whoever. We can take neighborhood streets all the way home from the mechanic, so we could probably drive with Claire in the truck not in her seat, but she hates the seat enough as it is, I hate to show her that not sitting in it is an option at all. I could maybe get the seat installed in the truck, but then I wouldn't have anywhere to sit. It has a jump seat in the back, but did I mention I'm pregnant? I don't fit back there in my regular clothes, let alone maternity. So I don't know. Maybe Monday while she is napping I will take the baby monitor to the neighbor and run it down there. Depends on when Alann decides to leave for school. At least it isn't supposed to rain or snow until late next week. I will figure it out before then.