Bearing Germs We Traverse Afar

One week ago things were moving along rather smoothly. We were excited and almost completely prepared for our trip. We ate one last quick dinner at McD's, bathed the children, put them to bed and finished our last minute packing. Little did we know trouble was brewing...

We woke up once during the night with Hannah, Queen of Stomach Issues, complaining of stomach pain. She used the toilet and went right back to sleep. The alarm was set for 4 AM, but we didn't quite make it. At 3 AM, Hannah lost it all over our bed. She had a bath, we washed the sheets and everyone was up for the day. We knew it would be a long day, we just didn't know how long. Sarah slept until just before the taxi arrived. I woke her up and dressed her. While we were loading into the taxi, Sarah coughed and threw up just a little bit, but I was sure that she had just choked. On the plane to London at 7 AM, Sarah decided to challenge Hannah for her crown. She began throwing up on that plane. She threw up during the three hour lay over in London consisting of 2 1/2 hours of security checks and lines and continued to throw up during the 9 hour flight from London to Dallas. It was very unpleasant. We realize that it could have been much, much worse. Hannah managed to keep everything down for the rest of the day and seemed to feel just fine. Nathan never had any issues. After many, many hours of travel, we finally arrived safely in Dallas. We were able to get all of our luggage, but the airlines have somehow misplaced our new stroller that we and our friends worked very hard to get just in time for our trip. We have heard rumor that it is on its way here now, but we'll believe it when we see it.

Daddy and Mommy have managed to avoid the dreaded virus. A miracle considering Mommy spent the entire flight completely covered in the breast milk and water that would only stay down for a few minutes. We felt badly for all of the other passengers on the plane, but what could we do? Most of them probably weren't even aware. They probably just thought we were odd letting our 11 month old go around shirtless and maybe that her Mommy was either a really messy eater or had wet her pants.

We worried about our family getting the bug, but it didn't seem to be too bad. We had a wonderful dinner and visit with family on Saturday. Little did we know the phone calls would start pouring in on Monday. We managed to infect almost every person in our family. We are so terribly sorry! We only meant to bring back delicious Belgian chocolate not yucky Belgian tummy viruses. We hope that all of our family members still come visit us and that we are welcomed back next year. We didn't mean it. If you have any doubt, just see the faces above. We are so happy to be home and it has been wonderful to see you all! Merry Christmas and Happy 2008!