Grand Canyon - Day 1

This summer we decided to take a family vacation to the Grand Canyon!!!!  My mommy, daddy, Lindsey, my nephew Scotty and me and Tate!!

We flew out to Arizona on a lovely Friday Texas morning!!

We flew into Phoenix and wow it was hot!  No matter though....at least it wasn't raining!  We hung out for a bit while my dad got the rental car.  As always these boys found something to do involving pushing cars and toys along the floor!

Then another little boy joined in the fun!

We headed over to Zinburger for some of the best burgers any of us have had in a very long time!  I had brought along a hot dog for Tate that I had cooked that morning, and let him have some of their fries.  I verified they would be safe for his allergies, and we were good to go!  

Then we loaded up the car and headed for our first overnight stop...Sedona!!!

The boys were exhausted and with the time change, I wanted
Tate to try to nap.  I think they slept about 45 minutes.

Gorgeous views as we drove into Sedona...

We got checked into our hotel and I took the boys down to the pool to swim for a bit.

Then things got a tad dicey.  Tate vomited about 30 minutes after being in the pool.  Twice!!!  Ugh.

We went back to the room and got him cleaned up.  Settled into bed with some tv and cuddles.  I will never know if it was the french fries (allergic reaction?),  latent airsickness (he gets airsick, so I always give him Benadryl 30 minutes or so before descent), the hotdog being bad after being 'out' for 7 hours or the pool water being so cold while the hot tub was so warm...he kept going back and forth between the two.  I was at a loss.  It's so very scary to travel and feed him with his food allergies.  I am always on high alert...I never truly relax on vacation.  I pack a ton of food, but when we're flying and staying in hotels I'm a bit stuck.  I have to rely on restaurants and the chefs, managers and wait staff to take his life-threatening allergies seriously.  I have to worry about how well they *really* cleaned the stovetops, if they *really* checked the labels, if they *really* used different utensils for his food.  Each bite of food he takes has me in fear.  I'm constantly surreptitiously watching him for any signs of anaphylaxis.  Sometimes I even try to find out the closest hospital's locations;  I make sure we can easily get there.  I don't want Tate to know how scared I am, so I just make sure to tell the wait staff, ask for a manager and impress upon them the severity of his allergies and then I go back to chatting with my boy (as far as he knows).  I live my life on high alert.  All.The.Time.  It is exhausting.

But the good news this night was that it just didn't seem to be an allergic reaction.  He had no other signs or symptoms of anaphylaxis...no hives, no itching, no lethargy.  I chalked it up to either heat exhaustion or bad pool water.  

He was able to keep sips of gatorade down the rest of the night.  He and I just stayed in and relaxed while the other four went off to dinner.  He fell asleep and I crawled into bed with him soon thereafter!

This view outside our hotel room door made everything so much better!