Many of you already know that we had a couple medical bumps on our trip with the boys, so I'll give a quick summary here. On Friday night, after we had gotten home from our big day of sightseeing, we were getting the boys ready for bed. Seth had just had a bath, and I was getting him ready for bed in our room. He was sitting up on our bed (which he has done many times before), and I was getting his pajamas. He found a book that he wanted to show to Evan, and all of a sudden he was on the floor crying. Somehow, he had fallen off the bed, and as we pieced together later (he told us most of the story), he slammed his face into the side of the wall. It was a freak accident that happened in a split second (I guess that's how they all happen). We could tell right away that he would need stitches - he split the corner of his lip open.

Luckily, Anne knew that there was an excellent urgent care clinic just down the hill that was still open, and Jason and Mom were able to take him there instead of having to sit for hours in the emergency room. This was the first time that Seth has ever needed stitches, and it was really scary for us. I stayed home with Evan and Anne, and they both kept me calm(er). Let me just say that Seth was the bravest little boy. He remained so calm throughout everything - he had to have Novocain, five dissolvable stitches and two non-dissolvable stitches. Jason let him watch Cars on his phone, and he fell asleep while having the stitches put in.

We didn't know how he would feel the next morning, but our little Seth Kekoa Monkey woke up just as bright and alert as ever. He didn't let this injury stop him, and he wanted to just keep going as usual. They did an awesome job stitching it up, and we just had to keep it clean by rinsing it after he ate. The biggest bummer was that he couldn't get salt water/sand in it until the stitches came out. Jason came up with the great idea of buying surgical masks for the beach, and Seth wore them without complaining, bless his heart. He was still able to "Dig, dig, dig" and wade in the water, and he just had an amazing attitude about the whole thing. We were so proud of him.

We got the stitches out a little over halfway through the trip, and everything had healed up nicely. He was so excited that he could go to the beach and finally get his face wet. He was such a trooper, and we are so lucky with the great care we got, his attitude, and that it wasn't any worse! We took him to the dentist once we got home, and she said things were healing nicely. He had also banged one of his front teeth, and she said that was looking good for now as well.

Then, a couple days after Seth's accident, Evan came down with a fever and a cough, etc. This is not totally unusual in the life of little children, so I stayed home with him for a day or two. Then, on the second day, he got really fussy, so we were worried he might have an ear infection. Back to the urgent care clinic for a check-up. Turns out he didn't have an ear infection, but they heard a crackle in his lungs when they listened to his cough, so they thought he might have bronchitis or the beginning of pneumonia. Therefore, they prescribed a ten-day course of amoxicillin to give him just in case. Problem was he wouldn't take it - until we figured out if we mixed each dose into an entire serving of yogurt, he wouldn't notice. He recovered quickly, and he was such a trooper as well.

So, the boys handled all this amazingly well. A huge thank-you to Mom for all her help, and to Anne and Tom for dealing with all our "challenges" so gracefully and being so helpful! Believe it or not, even despite these issues, we still managed to get up and out of the house every day (at least some subset of us). Stay tuned for a few more updates describing the rest of our trip - look forward to lots of sunshine and beach trips!!!