Spokane & a Piper Story

Our oldest niece is heading to college, and she chose our state!  Okay, it’s the other side of the state, but since that family lives in California, it is still several hundred hundred miles closer than our usual visits.  So we trotted off to Spokane for a long weekend to see some of our favorite people.

Deborah and Esther are always up for anything.  We got some extra time with just Esther on our first day there as everyone else was doing college stuff or had other plans. 

 

We also got a lot of good time with Isaac, who being an adult now, can take Wesley on all the scary rides at the River Walk midway.  

 

The tax we had to pay for getting so much Esther and Isaac time was that we only got to see Kara for a few minutes at a chaotic Sunday brunch before she had to head back to soccer practice on campus.  And I never get enough Deborah and Dan time, but that will never happen with kids around!

The downside of a fantastic weekend was that Piper caught a virus before we left.  It made her feverish and lethargic, but not horrible ill.  When we got to Spokane, I ended up at a local drug store to buy Benadryl for her as well as a little umbrella stroller for our tired, tired girl.  Her sensitive skin broke out in hives as her body fought the germs, which is not atypical for Piper.  I kept dosing her as her hives got worse and she felt crummier and crummier.  Finally, the morning we came back, I took her to Urgent Care, where she was seen pretty quickly.  And where we found out that Piper is probably allergic to Benadryl.

Oops.

All those teaspoons I gave her when her symptoms got worse, ahem, made her symptoms worse.

Sorry, Pipes. (But it is kinda funny.)  The doctor have a strong does cocktail of something, advised that we try Zyrtec, and sent us on our way.  Piper was feeling excellent when we started our drive home a few hours later.  Sheesh. 

*     *     *     *     *

Piper is at her most upright on the train ride through the park. 

We also did the gondola over the river.  Great views, but lots of long stops and it closes for most of the afternoon on a hot day so that no one dies of overheating in one of the cars!