Matt's nauseatingly-fun birthday

I think Matt had a great birthday, minus the fact that he was nauseated most of the time. At first we thought he had food poisoning. But when it lasted a while, we decided it must be the flu. And later, we changed our thinking again. Poor guy - but he was such a great sport!

The festivities started on Thursday, as did the bug. He layed in bed all day watching TV and napping. I teased him about having a perfect day. Some people would love to lay in bed all day, but that's definitely not Matt's style. When it was time for the family party, he jumped right up. We ate dinner at Benihana with Grandma & Grandpa and the kids. It's everyone's favorite place to go for a birthday. Then we all rushed to Josh's first Pinewood Derby. More on that soon.

Friday was Matt's actual birthday and he was in bed all day again. But when the time came to head to Alyeska, he jumped up again. We ate at Chair 5. Actually, this time I ate while he watched. Then we hit the pool, sauna and hot tub, before we had a nice relaxing night at the hotel with no kids.

Matt's sister, Heather, sent chocolate-covered strawberries to our room and I really enjoyed those . . . while Matt watched. I think he ate one. Lucky me!

On Saturday we skied. There was lots of fresh snow and it was a great, sunny ski day. We had run into the Moreheads the night before in the hot tub, so we skied with them most of the day. At lunch, I could tell Matt was ready to go home, but he toughed it out because he knew I was having so much fun skiing. He was such a good sport! After skiing we drove home into a big ash cloud . . . and that's yet another story.

Finally, when Matt was still sick on Sunday, we started side-by-side Googling his symptoms on our computers. After about five minutes, I looked at him and said, "I think you should go to the First Care right now." He jumped up and went and we discovered our suspicions were right. He had salmonella poisoning. Ew! The Doc gave him a shot in the butt and sent him home with more antibiotics. Besides feeling a little weak from not eating much for five days and having a really sensitive stomach still, he is starting to feel much better. As we speak, he is doing his favorite thing to do while sick - play video games with a friend.