Getting Better and... Hot Weather

A quick update:

We're mostly better from the flu, except for my mom who's still a bit congested and coughing a lot. Whatever virus hit us, it was a pretty nasty one. I'm glad that the kids didn't suffer much. My husband, my mom, and I had a hard time with cough, upper airway congestion, and now, lots of yucky stuff being expelled. I had a hard time with sinusitis, but I think that's gone now. We didn't go to the doctor (mostly because me and my parents have expensive or complicated insurances) or take any prescription drugs, but I guess that's the way to go with viruses... Lots of water, vitamins, cough drops, herbal teas, etc...

On another front, I'm pretty sure I'm having trouble with my liver and gall bladder, so I need to change my diet completely and try to get healthy on that aspect - maybe I should even see a doctor. This weekend I felt sick again like I did in Massachusetts. My mom had exactly the same problems when she was my age, and her gall bladder was removed some years ago, so we're pretty sure this is it. I also did some googling and found this site pretty helpful.

This weekend (late on Saturday, Sunday, and today) my parents decided to stay home and my husband, the boys, and I went to Maryland to my brother- and sister-in-law's house. They were just getting sick there - my poor nephew was pretty miserable today -- which didn't stop us from going to the National Zoo, but it did make our stay there shorter (his sickness and the extreme heat).

Wow, I'm always taken by surprise by how quickly it gets really hot. My husband always says that it's not that the temperature changes that dramatically - it's that our tolerance threshold for it is extremely narrow. I know it depends on the person, the place, the humidity (it's extremely humid here in the summer), but generally under 18- 19 C (64-66F) it feels a bit "chilly," and above 28-30 C (82-86F), it starts to feel quite hot.

In spite of the heat, we had some fun yesterday in the late afternoon - we went to a state park which had a great playground for the kids and then went on a pedal boat for the first time with the boys. My son initially resisted the life-preserver, but then he enjoyed being on the boat while my nephew had no problem with it being put on but screamed to take it off during the ride which had to end earlier for them.

Here's a picture of our family's first boat ride!

Then, we picked strawberries, how great is that!? Today we really shouldn't have gone to the zoo, given the heat and my nephew's cold, but the boys did enjoy seeing a giraffe, elephants, a gorilla, monkeys, and hippos... too bad the lions and tiger were sleeping, of course.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, no we didn't get to see the baby panda, they're issuing tickets for the panda exhibit and I didn't find out about that until last night, so they were obviously gone :(