We really were concerned about having Owen catch the flu and with Matthew at preschool we felt there was a reasonable chance we would all be exposed this year. As unpalatable as the idea of going down to the fairgrounds was, we decided to make it a family adventure. The time line went as follows:
5:30 AM Stewart arrives and gets in line - despite his early arrival we are still #379 in line.
6:15 AM officials announce that they will be opening the gates early at 8 AM (in the past it was 9:30) but if you don't have your whole family there you'll lose your place in line. Immediately, everyone in line reaches frantically for their cell phones.
7:35 AM: The rest of the family arrives and after some lifting of the stroller over barriers and general futzing around, we all get in line.
8:15 AM Gates open and Matthew dashes away to go jump in a puddle (unfortunately spare socks are not included in the many bags of stuff we brought).
9 AM vaccinations start
9:35 AM we are done!
Here is a photo of the crowd at around 8 AM:
That time line and crowd don't look terribly appealing but we were expecting much worse and were very pleased at how things turned out. The county, in so far the only humane act of common sense I've seen since the swine flu vaccination process started, began vaccinating 30 min earlier than scheduled and encouraged parents of infants (even those > 6 mos old) and young children to get vaccinated as well. The kids were great. Matthew handled himself very well. When you consider that he is a 3 yr old with a serious case of ants in the pants and waiting in line for 2 hrs is no fun for anyone, he really did a great job. As soon as we got home he wanted to have lunch right away in order to have the promised Fudgsicle for dessert. Owen, as usual was our snuggely ambassador of good will and smiled at everyone from under his multiple layers of fleece lined flannel and puffy cold weather suit.
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