Griswald's B.C. Vacation

Well we are back from an interesting holiday to B.C. We departed on Friday 18th after Darren got off from work. We met up with Heather and Derek at windy point for the night which is about 12 km west of Bighorn Dam. And they don't call it windy point for nothing. It was crazy windy! But we managed to have a nice fire and some drinks after the little ones went to bed.
Saturday 19th: Took off that morning and headed to Cedars Campground outside of Sicamous. The drive was going fine until the girls started getting a little car sick and Annika puked all over her blanket. So I told Heather and Derek over the two way radios and we had to stop at a rest area and get that cleaned up. Got to Cedars and camped there for the night and enjoyed our last opportunity for a fire. (there are no fire pits at the campground in Penticton) The guys stayed up and Darren drank a little too much bubbly.
Sunday 20th: Woke up at about 3:00am to Darren puking in the kitchen sink! Yes I said it! KITCHEN SINK! Grrrrr. So I gave him shit and sent him to the bathroom while I cleaned it up. I was pissed, but now when I think of it it is kind of funny. Then we settled back into bed to sleep some more until the girls woke up around 7:00 or so. So we then had breakfast and headed out again to our final destination, Penticton. Well we were about an hour into the drive, enjoying the beautiful B.C. countryside when Darren felt sick. So I radioed to H&D saying, "We got some puking action again.....from the driver." We pull over for a few minutes so Darren can do his thing, and then we shove off again. The drive was going pretty good again until we had to drive through Kelowna. The traffic sucked! It took forever to get through there and we almost rear ended a guy like 4 times. Once we got through there it was an awesome drive. It felt so good to finally get to Penticton. We got to Wright's Beach Campground and noticed how tight everyone was parked. They pack you in like sardines! We get to our site and get the trailer parked and then we noticed the neighbour's shitter hose is pretty much in the middle of our campsite! Gross! All the sites were like that! It wouldn't have been that bad if the guy wouldn't have kept his crap hose plugged into the hole all week! H&D's neighbours were all sitting around H&D's sewer hole. Disgusting! It felt so good to finally get there though and get all settled in for the week. After a few days we got used to the hose thing. But that night we were sitting at H&D's and we could smell strong sewer. There was a sewer holding tank with the man hole right behind their trailer. So once in a while you would get a good whiff. Yuck. Other than the sewer problems, the camsite was okay. The playground was behind us in a field so we could sit in our site and watch the girls play at the park. That was nice.
Monday 21st: We went on the lazy river. We took our boat "Dillweed" and H&D had a wicked raft with a cooler in the middle and IPod hook up with speakers. But we forgot to bring the IPod. Oh well. We all fit on the raft (4 adults and 4 kids) so it was a nice size. We tied Dillweed (which held all of our towels and such)to the raft and began the float. I got hot right away so I jumped out and laid on an inflatable toy of the girls which I tied to Dillweed. It was so nice! I would love to do that again! We had a little excitement with some aggresive baby ducks....they wanted food...we didn't have any. I got a little creeped out with the big fish swimming around us. It was awesome though. Heather and I got off half way with the kids and Darren and Derek continued on. They fell asleep from time to time and Darren got burned on his chest and stomach. That afternoon we got back and started having lunch when Erika got stomach cramps. She needed to have a BM which she didn't have in 5 days. All the rest of the day she was hurting so bad she could hardly move. I tried giving her the longest bath of her life. It seemed to help a bit but then at supper her tummy hurt again. She was in pain. She sat on the toilet most of the day and she just couldn't get anything out. Later I put her to bed, she slept about 30 min and woke up in pain again. So we put Annika in H&D's trailer and took Erika to the hospital. That was hell. But more for her than us. They tried a supository, took blood, xrays of her tummy, then they saw the huge poop that was the size of an orange that she would never be able to push out. So she had to get put under so the doctor could manually get it out. Scary stuff! But before they did anything they gave her some liquid my mouth which tasted gross because for like 5 min she just sat there with her tongue hanging out and crying "Yucky!!" It was 'forgetting medicine' the doctor called it. So they tried getting an IV into her first on her right hand like 3 times, blood was coming out like crazy. Then they tried her left hand a couple times. I don't know what the doctor's problem was, she would get it in then it would fall out, and she would try again and again meanwhile Erika is freaking out! Inside I was freaking as well but I didn't want Erika to see that. So they gave up and gave her some more 'forgetting serum' up her nose with a syringe. Two big squirts in each nostril and she was freaking out again. I felt so sorry for her and there was nothing I could do. After that stuff kicked in she was pretty out of it and then they were getting ready to begin the procedure. By this time it was 3:00am.
The doctor came out at 3:30am and told us they were done, we could go in and see her. Then we decided Darren should go back to camp and sleep while I stayed with her. We didn't get into a room until about 5:00am.
Tuesday 22nd: I woke up after only sleeping 30 min and checked on Erika, then I went back to sleep until she woke up at 6:00am. She saw the IV in her hand and all the bandages covering it and she freaked, she tried to rip it all off. She kept saying "Annika can't see this! Annika can't see this!" That broke my heart. She was concerned about what her sister would think. I calmed her down and she fell back asleep. She slept till around 8:00am and woke up in a much better mood. I talked to her and explained about the IV and what it's doing. We played around with the buttons on the automatic bed. She was fine after that. Darren came by around 9:30am with Annika. We hung around for a bit and I took Annika back to camp while Darren stayed to help Erika with her breakfast. I showered and cried and cried and cried. I couldn't stop. I felt so guilty and that this was all my fault. After eating we took off again to the pharmacy to pick up the meds Erika has to be on for 6 months. It is 3 containers of this powder stuff which cost $99 all together! Expensive! By the time we got back to the hospital it was time for Erika's lunch. Darren took off with Annika and I stayed and helped with her lunch. She got so tired all of a sudden. So I layed her down and she slept from 1:00pm till around 4:00pm or so. I also had a sleep which felt good. We didn't get out of there until 5:00pm. It felt so good to take her out of there and continue on with our holiday. All while everything was going on Heather and Derek were awesome. They gave up their bed for Annika when we had to take Erika in. She cleaned my trailer, did my dishes! That night we all picked up lobster tails and they made us and the girls supper. Wow did we ever appreciate all of that! What a day!
Wednesday 23rd: We woke up to rain and it rained most of the day. We had a boat booked for us to rent all day. Thank god we were able to cancel that and we booked another boat on the Okanagan for Thursday. So we decided it was a good day to go touring and check out the fruit stands and such. About 10 min before we were leaving Darren's burn on his chest got severely itchy. We was going crazy!! He lathered himself with anything he could find, green jelly for burns, aloe vera, lotion, calamine lotion. Nothing was working. To be honest it was pretty funny! So we headed back to the pharmacy and the pharmasist recommended Benadryl allergy pills. While I was paying at the till I could see Darren in the truck rocking back and forth going nuts. It was so funny..I almost broke out laughing! So he took the pills and within 20 min he was feeling much better. Who knew! So we went to the info center, bought wine and other souvenirs. Checked our fruit stands on the highway south out of Penticton and bought some yummy jams, syrups, and fruit. Made our way to Okanagan Falls to Tickleberry's, an ice cream and gift shop, and had some yummy ice cream!
Thursday 24th: We rented a boat to do some tubing and such. Our rental was from 10:00am till 6:00pm. It was a beautiful day compared to yesterday. There was hardly anyone else on the lake. We all took turns on the tube. Even Mackenzie, H&D's little girl, went for a ride, first with Derek, then by herself. Then we stopped and let Erika and Mackenzie float around in the tube. I asked Erika for the hell of it if she would like to get pulled behind the boat. She surprisingly said 'yes'! So her and Mackenzie went for a little ride together. That was cool! I didn't think Erika would want to do something like that! Later we docked and went and had a picnic in the park before heading out again for the afternoon. Did some more tubing, swimming, etc. We only lasted until 4:00pm and we got tired. So we docked early and headed back to the campsite. We were all so tired from a day in the boat. Derek might have gotten heatstroke, he was in bed super early! And I was very cranky! After a couple drinks I felt better though. heehee
Friday 25th: Said farewell to Penticton. I think I wouldn't mind going back to that campground again. Took off that morning for home. Stopped in Summerland to try to catch the Kettle Valley steam train but missed it by 5 min. So we then went to Summerland Sweets, another gift shop, and bought more jam, syrups, fruit wine, and$7 crackers that were yummy! Went as far as Canyon Hot Springs east of Revelstoke. Went and swam in the hot pools which felt awesome! That was a really nice campground! I would totally go back!
Saturday 26th: We stayed another night at Canyon so we would have more time to go back to the pools. The girls did so well swimming with their lifejackets on. They had a blast! That night we had some icecream at the main buildings which topped off our wicked holiday!
Sunday 27th: Headed for home sweet home!! It was a very pleasant drive, long, but pleasant. All in all, I think it was a pretty good trip and I would love to do it again!
A couple lessons learned: We have awesome friends which I don't express enough, Benadryl allergy pills help with itchy sunburn, and fibre is your friend! : )
Pictures will be on facebook.