The cousins come! And we go to the zoo.

So you may have noticed that I stopped putting dates on my advent activities. That is in part to conceal the fact that I got sick and it stopped being a daily thing. It didn't matter too much to the kids, though, because they were anticipating the arrival of their cousins from Wisconsin, along with Grandmacita and Grandpoppy and Uncle Matt.

The week before Christmas, we had big plans to clean the house before the cousins came on Wednesday. Until Emma started throwing up. And kept throwing up. By Tuesday afternoon, it had been over 24 hours since she had been able to keep anything down. I took her to the doctor, who told us it was just a virus and we had to ride it out. I kept the Lysol handy and kept trying ginger ale and Gatorade to no avail. The cousins arrived, and Emma was still sick, but I was sure just one more night and she would be okay. After all, we were on the third full day of being sick--stomach things don't usually last that long.

On Thursday morning, Emma kept Gatorade down for a grand total of 10 minutes or so. Then we realized that she hadn't used the bathroom in over 12 hours--a sure sign that we needed to take her to the ER. Dave was elected to the job, so we packed them up and sent them downtown to Children's.

Meanwhile, I had a houseful of kids (my own and the Wisconsin cousins) who had their heart set on the zoo. (They had been with us to the zoo the previous Thanksgiving, and according to my sister-in-law, all they wanted to do in Dallas was go back to the zoo and feed the giraffes). We had a pretty tight schedule with the rest of the family arriving, so Thursday had to be the day. Off we went. Prepare yourselves for a picture dump. :)

Kate, Rachel, and Madeline

Checking out the elephants

Feeding the giraffes 

Checking out the lions. (If you look really close you can see one above Kate's head, lying on the rocks).

Benjamin got a little hungry. 

Our Wisconsin cousins.

They had to say hello to every bronze statue they saw.

Meanwhile, Dave and Emma were at the hospital, getting two IV bags full of fluids and powerful anti-nausea medication. We finished up at the zoo, and I sent the cousins back to the house while I went to the airport to pick up Grandmacita and Matt. Shortly after we arrived home from the airport, Dave and Emma came home with instructions to give Emma 5 mL of Pedialyte every 10-15 minutes. She was a trooper. I knew she was feeling better when, later that evening, she asked when we were going to the zoo. :(