All Better! (A more cheerful update...)

The plague has passed! Thank you all for your help, prayers, and encouragement -- it meant a lot to us when we were feeling pretty rotten. After a grand total of 2 trips to the E.R., 2 trips to Urgent Care, 9 stops at Walgreens, 4 boxes of Kleenex, and 1 round of antibiotics, we are all sleeping and breathing much easier. To our friends at NI, we're profoundly sorry if the last two weeks at our house are the reason that your insurance premiums to go up next year.

All of this stress makes the next item an even happier one -- we are leaving in 1 week and 2 days for vacation!!! R&R for all of us. We'll spend a few days in Minneapolis and then leave John with Nana and Granddaddy so that we can enjoy a relaxing vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Ah ... sun, sand, and Corona. We'll miss you, Bug, but Mama and Daddy are very excited!

Now that we're better, we've made a couple of attempts at re-establishing ourselves in the outside world. Today we met up with Dawn and Victor for a swim, where we quickly learned that Elizabeth Milburn pool offers Tot Time in the mornings for a reason. We were not at Tot Time today. We were at Over-Caffeinated Pre-Teen Splash Time. But it was still fun, and the boys enjoyed the cool water. I think Victor's grown nearly a foot since we saw him last!

And, an update to everyone who has been wondering -- John is not walking. Yet. He took exactly one step, and has flatly refused to take another. We are now coaching him each night, in fear that he will decide to start walking while we're gone.

We did manage to celebrate Father's Day on Sunday, although it was a quiet and sniffly celebration. (We'll make up for it this weekend.) Our big outing was to Costco to procure tires for our cars. Nothing says "I love you, Daddy" quite like two new sets of Michelins. That brings us to three sets of tires in three months. My favorite part was when they wanted to sell me tires for the Explorer with a 90K mile warranty. We passed. :-) And we sent lots of Father's Day love to Papa in Houston, Grandpa in Katy, Granddaddy in Minneapolis, Po in (whatever exotic location he's in this month), Grandpa Sanders in Grapevine, and Grandpa Connell right here in Austin.

One last note -- a big Happy 5th Anniversary to Aunt April and Uncle Justin (6/23) and to Graeme and Karla (6/24). Happy 1st Anniversary to Kristin and Brandon (6/25)! All lovely June weddings that we were thrilled to be a part of. (And a Happy (belated) 2nd Anniversary to Natalie and Brent (6/12), who are enjoying a Caribbean cruise right now :-))

John hits 14 months on Tuesday -- stay tuned this weekend for an update on all his latest tricks and favorites!