It's Probably Not the Flu

Our first taste of adventure in the Saucon Valley High School Marching Band trip to Baltimore came Friday afternoon when the nurse at Nick's school called and said he was sick. We knew on Friday that everyone but me were sick, and Nick was sent to school with a cough. Apparently, though, the nurse said he had a fever and was wheezing. Fearing the flu, she asked us to pick him up.

My parents picked him up from school early since Jenn was working and had the car, and I had no way of getting home and was really busy finishing up some stuff at work. Jenn was able to rush home right after school and took Nick over to urgent care since our own doctor was booked up. While he no longer had a fever, he was still wheezing.

At urgent care, Nick was given a mask to wear in the waiting room. He was not at all happy about this (if I was his age, I probably would have though it was cool). The doctor at the urgent care said it was "probably not the flu", but had to do a swap to check anyway. Nick did not at all like this process, which required the doctor to put a swab way up his nostril. Nick flailed and wrested with the doctor, and both Jenn and Kai compared it to Egyptian mummification practices.

He was given a prescription for TamiFlu and told us not to give it to him until we heard back on Saturday morning. Now we had a dilemma. Should we all go to Baltimore without him, even though he is sick? Should we leave him with his grandparents if he had the flu? I decided that since Grammy and Pop-Pop were already exposed anyway, it didn't matter.

Meanwhile, Kai was waiting at band practice for her uniform and food. Jenn picked me up at a local McDonald's, where I got Kai her food, but by the time we got over to her, it was too late to eat. We dropped off her uniform and went home to regroup. We decided to drop me off at the game, and Jenn would take Nick around to get his medication and stuff he wanted for the night over at my parents apartment.

I wanted about 3 quarters of the game in really nice weather, which was great since it rained and poured last week. When I got this, Saucon was leading 14 - 13. At half time, the band put on their West Side story show. They still have 2 songs to finish for their show, but this was the best I had seen them perform the first 4 songs.

By the end of the game (which Saucon lost, by the way), Jenn had finished with getting Nick his TamiFlu and us some drugs for the trip to Baltimore, but hadn't done any other shopping since she had to go to THREE different pharmacies before finding his medication. We went to the grocery store to stock up on other things, and went home because we still had to pack. When it was all said and done, I think we were all in bed by 1AM, and would have to get up at 6 the next morning. Sigh.

Saucon 13, Bangor 12

Friday was the first football game of the 2009 football season. It was an away game in Bangor, about half an hour north. We hadn't been to a game here before, so it was a bit tricky finding our way to the stadium. This was also the marching band's first time to perform their show-in-progress to a crown besides their parents.

We don't like away games. When you play a game away, you never quite know what you are in for. What if we get lost? How is the parking? What kind of food will be available?

We had Faith and Juli with us, and Juli was showing signs of having a stomach bug. We got to the game with plenty of time, which used to be a problem when Nick had football practice on Fridays last year. We got to see the band put on their West Side Story show, although they faced the home side of the stadium. Faith did a great job staying quiet and was enthralled with the game the whole time.

Saucon had the ball first and drove down the field to Bangor 28 yard line, but ended up giving the ball up on downs. This was the closest Saucon came to a touchdown in the first half.

Bangor took the ball and at first the Saucon defense held up. On third down, the Bangor quarterback was sacked, but the play was called back due to a facemask penalty and Bangor was given 15 yards and a first down. This seemed to break the confidence of the defense, because Bangor then proceeded to march down the field and score a touchdown. Saucon blocked the extra point, making the score 6-0.

Saucon had trouble moving the ball on their next possession and punted without making a first down. Bangor marched down the field again, but lost the ball due to a fumble inside their own 20 yard line. Saucon recovered, but was unable to get any points on the board.

By this time, Juli was really complaining about her stomach hurting, so Jenn decided to walk back to the car. We had decided before hand that in order to make sure we got back to the school before the band did, we wouldn't be able to watch the end of the game. As it turns out, the rest of us followed Jenn and Juli out at the end of the first half. During that last few minutes as we were making our way out to the car, Bangor scored again. I'm not sure if they tried for a 2 point conversion or had the extra point blocked again, but as we left the score was 12-0.

We met Cyndy back near home and she took the girls home with her. Then we did a little grocery shopping before getting Kai. Expecting to hear "we lost", I asked her how the game went. Saucon scored two touchdowns in the second half, and kept Bangor from scoring (including a last-minute interception). Saucon won, 13-12.

It was great to be back at a high school football game, but we're even more excited that the first home game is going to be next Friday.

Preview Night

Kairi and the rest of the marching band has been working hard getting ready for the 2009-2010 season. Kairi spent last year playing mellophone, since French Horns are not used in her marching band. This year, a lot of high school seniors left and were not replaced by incoming 7th, 8th, or 9th graders, so the band was very short in quite a few important areas. The band director asked Kairi before band camp began if she would be willing to split time between mellophone and trumpet. In the end, however, she was asked to play trumpet only.

While not very pleased (she has a lot of friends in the mellophone section), she decided to take up the challenge. I think it says a lot about her skills and what her band director thinks of her that he was comfortable asking her to play a different instrument this year.

For this year, the band has chosen to perform songs from the musical West Side Story. I am still discussing with Jenn whether it was an approriate movie for Kairi to watch at her age. I think it would be a good idea for her to watch it, just to get an understanding of the story.

This evening, the band put on their preview night. Jenn, Nick and I got to sit in the football stands and watch as the band showed parents four of the six songs that will be included in the show, and played a few stand songs. We were originally going to bring Faith and Juli with us, but Faith had a "episode" and was picked up early by Cyndy. They will be with us for our first football game of the year on Friday, though.

The show started with "Maria" and after a trio with Kairi and two other trumpets, transitioned into "Cool". Next they played "I Have a Love", and followed that up with "Jet Song". There are two more songs they don't know the sets to yet ("Somewhere", and I don't know for sure, but I think the final song might be "Tonight"). This is farther along than they were with their previous show at this time last year (preview night last year, I think they only played three songs).

After playing the songs, the band director asked for one family member to come onto the field with each band member. I went down this year (although I think we ALL went down last year) and went through the sets with Kairi. First time, the drum major used a cowbell to count off the beats, and the second time they actually played the music. It was great seeing Kairi having fun and enjoying the music, even though she didn't have dinner until 9PM tonight (my fault!). She told me her favorite song was "Maria".

After I went back up into the stands, the group gathered into a half circle and played "Wipe Out" (including obligatory tuba dancing) and The "Hey" Song (Rock and Roll Part 2). They then marched back off the field and almost forgot their traditional "march into a spiral in front of the high school doors".

I am excited for this season to start. I can taste the french fries already! (and feel the cold stadium benches.)

Something Knew: Knoebels

We decided to try something new this weekend, since we were watching the girls all day Saturday. We had heard of Knoebel's, and Scott had been there as a child, but we wanted to see for ourselves what a free amusement park is like.

Free? Amusement park? Doesn't usually go together, and to be honest, Knoebel's is free - but the rides aren't. Yup. That's how they getcha. As it turns out, though, we could get $150 worth of ride tickets for only $135, which was still a lot less than admission to Hersheypark or Dorney for the seven of us for the day.

We started our adventure with a picnic at one of the many tables and pavillions scattered near the entrance. It was hard to find a place that wasn't reserved, but eventually we were all enjoying our turkey wraps, fruit salad, and cookies.

Then it was time to find some rides! While everyone else went on some crazy Flyer ride involving tiny vehicles thrown around on cables, I went with Nick and Juli to the teacups. $2 buys a lot of spins!

There are also some bigger rides. We had a blast on the Plunge log flume. Scott and the older girls enjoyed the wooden coaster, Phoenix.
It was wicked hot, even in the shade of all the trees. But the refreshments were reasonably priced. Especially when you can share.

Then it was back to rides, rides and more rides. The one disappointment for the kids was the Haunted Mansion. They were expecting something more Disney-like. Especially since a dark ride fan club rated it higher than Disney's Haunted Mansion. In two words - it sucked. In a few more words? It scared the kids silly, but not in a good way.


And when we were tired of riding, an ice-cream break hit the spot.



Then back to the rides! These bumper boats looked fun, and Hannah loved them. If we didn't have our hands full, I'm sure Scott and I would have had a good time on these.

But how can you complain when your hands are full of such cuteness?
A few more lines, a few more wild and crazy rides...



...and we lost one. First to sleep, then to waking up and being sick to her tummy. So we called it a day. Unfortunately, we still had $82 of ride tickets left! Oh well, that's what eBay is for.
We made one last stop at a Pizza Hut for dinner. I think the waitress thought we had five kids! Thanks, but NO THANKS. Still, we're gonna miss Hannah until she comes back at Christmas.

Maybe We Should Just Move In

We spend so much time at the zoo we should just get our own exhibit! This time, it was the Lehigh Valley Zoo. Since I write about zoo trips all the time, I'll just let the pictures tell today's story.

When All Else Fails, Chuck E. Cheese

It was still raining, despite the forecast that kept promising sun tomorrow. No really, sun tomorrow. No, really.... Okay, it's still raining. So we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for the morning.
Nicky won a free ice cream, which made his day.
And everyone else was content to just blow through 150 tokens in under an hour!
Now what?