We've been home a couple of days and everyone's recovered. Especially Max. He's back to his old cheerful, healthy self. Here's a day by day Kipp wrap up of our week (not necessarily the group wrap up).
Saturday
We drove all night Friday night and finally made it to NW Nebraska. I kept seeing signs for, and really wanted to visit Chimney Rock. You see I grew up playing Oregon Trail on Apple II Es and wanted to see it in real life. Here are Adam and I in front of Chimney Rock.
What? You can't see it? Yeah, neither could we. This is the "scenic view" and it was too foggy to even see it there. I was pretty disappointed.We got there and work was already started by the early birds. So we jumped right in.
Adam and I decided to explore a little more and headed to the next town over of Chadron for dinner (nothing special just Arby's, but Crawford doesn't have any fast food restaurants). And we loved the landscape as we drove through.
Sunday
We went to services at First Congregational Church and almost set an all time attendance record for the church (started in the 1880s), if only our youth kids were already there, we would have. It was awesome to worship with like minded believers. We didn't know each other, but knew each other's hearts and that was sweet.
Little did I know that during worship trouble was brewing downstairs in the nursery.I went down to go pick Max up after services and I picked him up, he looked at me, took his binky out of his mouth, and promptly threw up all down the front of me. Oh, the joys of motherhood. He did it again before I could get myself cleaned up, and he had a slight fever, so I took him back to the parsonage where we were staying with the pastor and his family (4 little girls!) next door and put him down for nap with some ibuprofen in him.
He woke up worse and there started the downward spiral we spent the next few days in. But we did go over to check the progress on the church.
He didn't sleep well and threw up repeatedly during the night, nothing like doing laundry in a stranger's house at 2 am.
Monday
Max wasn't any better so we decided to take him to the town clinic the next day, there wasn't a doctor on duty but they had a nurse practitioner. They looked in his ears and tested for strep (although it's rare for infants to get strep, but his throat was red) and all those came back negative. We were just to monitor him and come see them the next day if he didn't improve.
On the bright side, we did have our new camera and even newer telephoto lense, so Adam and I got to play with it a bit.
The group of workers worked hard all day and were all tuckered out by late afternoon.
Tuesday
Max seemed a little better in the morning, even well enough to play a little with Cherish (born just a week after him) but still had a fever and soon faded fast back into lethargy, so back to the clinic we went. 
This time they did a blood test which came back with his white counts and plateletts low (meaning he was definitely fighting something) and they sent me home with the orders to get a urine sample, just to make sure it wasn't a bladder infection (very rare in boys). How are you supposed to get a urine sample you ask? There a little back with a whole with bandaid like adhesive all around the opening. You are supposed to attach it to them and hope it catches the urine. It was quite an experience, but after two tries I hoped they had enough to test. All tests on that came back negative. So again I was to monitor him and come back the next morning if not improved.
This time they did a blood test which came back with his white counts and plateletts low (meaning he was definitely fighting something) and they sent me home with the orders to get a urine sample, just to make sure it wasn't a bladder infection (very rare in boys). How are you supposed to get a urine sample you ask? There a little back with a whole with bandaid like adhesive all around the opening. You are supposed to attach it to them and hope it catches the urine. It was quite an experience, but after two tries I hoped they had enough to test. All tests on that came back negative. So again I was to monitor him and come back the next morning if not improved.
Our home away from home away from home - Legend Buttes Health Services ClinicAgain, we played with the camera (we took a lot of shots of work being done too!)
Wednesday
Max seemed to be doing a little better but I was worried that wouldn't last again. The youth entertained him for a little bit during the morning devotional.
We took Max back to the clinic and they drew his blood again, though his numbers were better, they were still low. This time when they pricked his finger he threw a fit! The nurse wasn't prepared for how strong he was (or how "well" he bleeds) and he ended up yanking his hand out of her grip and getting blood all over the three of us (me, him and the nurse), he also yanked off two gauze bandages, and had to have a third one taped on so well it took to of us later that afternoon to get it off.
In the afternoon, Adam took the youth to Mt Rushmore. They said it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, but it was neat.
That evening Adam and I snuck out after Max was asleep to have dinner at Ft Robinson. Adam had Buffalo Roast (delish!) and I had poached trout. We then took a scenic drive during sunset, and saw a lightening storm off in the distance. 
(If you click on this one to make it bigger, you can see the lightening)Thursday
That morning Max woke up with a blotchy rash covering his whole trunk and neck. I thought to myself, I'd seen this before. He had roseola. It's a virus that includes a high fever followed by a rash. I took him over to the nurses from our church who were on the trip with us and we all agreed. Finally he was improving and the fever had dropped. Just in time for the trip to be over.
We went to go "help" work in the morning.
We went to go "help" work in the morning.
We walked about town that day taking pictures.
Here's a picture of the church (not sure when)
Here was our group of 28.5 (Max counted for .5)
