Our First Family Vacation...

We were looking forward to our first real trip as a family as we loaded the car to embark on our 1000 mile car ride to the Denver area, to yes do a little shooting, but mostly visit with our best friends who call the mile high city home. Our son rarely makes it an hour in the car without growing tiresome of the experience, and when he grows tiresome he lets us all know it, and not in a polite way either. Planning this trip for months, we fully envisioned the hellish car ride it would be. So preparing for the worst, we left during the night so that he would hopefully not wake up until the trip was almost half done (this is a pretty effective strategy by the way), of course he woke up early on in the trip and proceeded to stay awake into the mid morning hours of the morning, but surprisingly he didn't really protest the situation. Some how during the whole planning process we overlooked the possibility that he may just be...good, the entire way. So with the hard part of the trip over, and it not nearly being as hard as we expected, we thought nothing but good times were a head. I was able to keep part of the trip a secret from April, one of our favorite performers Andrew McMahon and Jacks Mannequin were playing an intimate show at Blue Bird Theatre in Denver and I was able to find some tickets to this sold out show from a guy in New York on Stub Hub a few days before we left. On the car ride out I had to keep the radio off local stations as much as possible as they were getting a lot of coverage. We actually heard promo for their Omaha show on our way through Nebraska, but I was able to brush it off as it was too bad they weren't going to be in Denver when we were out there. Our friends role was to play it off as they were taking us to a local gig of a band that they knew of as something to do once Koeplin had went to sleep for the night. Then sometime during that day he begun not feeling so well. And of course this made us hesitant to leave, even for a few hours, but knowing that our friend Sarah's mom, who is a pediatric nurse, would be watching him while he slept, made it possible for me to keep the concert a secret. However, April began to get a clue that something was up seeing how I was so proactive about seeing this insignificant act. It wasn't until she saw the marquee on the theatre though that she knew for sure. And even though we were late, missing part of the first set, the show was still incredible and the venue was awesome. It was well worth the hassle of finding the tickets and I think April was pleasantly surprised. We skipped going out after the show to get back to Koeplin, that's when the fevers came on. Becoming a parent has taught us both this new fear, the fear of your child being sick and you being fairly helpless to do much about it. We entered into the regiment of Motrin & Tylonel, along with cool baths and watching fluid intakes for days as his temperature bounced between 100 and 105 degrees. We felt bad for our friends, as this was their vacation too, and this situation wasn't making for a very fun time. But as it goes with good friends (especially those that live in another time zone), it's not necessary what your doing together that counts, it's just being able to spend some time together that matters. After about 4 or 5 days his fever finally broke and we began seeing signs of the pleasant and fun child we're blessed with on a daily basis, but who had been feeling so crumby for so many days. That's when the rash broke out in full force. Covering his body with chicken pock like dots. Another trip to the urgent care office left us with a diagnosis of Roseolla. A virus characterized by high fevers for 4 or 5 days followed by a nasty rash that subsides in a few days. I guess this is in part what they always meant when we would hear people say "ah, the joys of parenthood." Of course the weather had turned cold by the time Koeplin began feeling better, but we were able to take a few hours and drive up to Estes Park for an abbreviated trip to the mountains. It was here that we were able to see the famous Stanley Hotel from the "Shining,' walk crazy close to a large heard of Elk, and Dustin was able to get the great picture of the three of us smiling and having fun on our first official family vacation. And as we get to see and share in so many wedding day "Growing up Picture Shows," It's photo's like this that transcend time and come to represent family outings, trips and other important events. And though we expect Koeplin to remember little about this trip if anything, he will at least always have this photo to look back and see us three together having a great time in Colorado when he just 16 months old.