Duggar World Tour

[Lillybee]

I really feel sorry for Anna, if they got back on Wednesday and are running all over Alabama, does she ever get time to rest and wind down?

[amie]

..........

[Lillian]

Certainly you didn't expect Smuggar to stand in the back so his wife and daughter could be in the picture! Especially considering how manly and virile Joshie looks in that flight suit.

Wtf, I really hope there is a better reason why the girls weren't wearing the jumpsuits than something along the lines of "There is no point in pretending to be an astronaut because it has nothing to do with being a wife and mother".

[apple1]

The following article details where the Duggars, minus Josie, Jill and Mullet, were on Saturday. The picture confirms their absence and the article briefly states that they are on their way home, which may or may not be true; that part of the article is quite vague, not even naming names. That alone makes me suspicious about what's being hidden.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/09/19_ ... count.html

And sadly, this "field trip" is the closest JD will ever come to being a pilot.

"...to be a small part at the end of an episode about the family rebuilding houses of tornado victims in the Birmingham area."

This just makes me angry, more at TLC than at the Duggars. My husband is from one of the small communities that was hugely devastated by the tornados (Birmingham itself was not an area of major devastation BTW).

No TLC dollars (nor Duggar help- rolling eyes) have appeared in the community my husband is from.

What a crock.

And another thing-

"...Duggar said. "This is just fascinating with all the rockets here."

Really? REALLY? That is the smartest thing you could say? Gah.

[Koala]

Yes, I believe they were in Birmingham "helping" families w/ tornado damage. One of my friends on fb posted pics of them and then waxed on about what a WONDERFUL1111 mother Michelle was, and how she wished she could be like her.

[Curious]

I'm confused by their nonchalant treatment of Josie. Surely they have had medical professionals discuss with them about her immune system and the fact that preemies have issues that full term babies do not and need to be sheltered and have extra care.

My son was born approx. 4 weeks early and had pneumonia at birth. He was in NICU for about a week, on oxygen initially (he was 7 pounds btw, so GINORMOUS in the NICU).

When he was released, we were told that it would be best if we did not put him in daycare until he was at a MINIMUM of 2 years old and the longer we could keep him out, the better.

We followed all their directions for his health to the letter and had basically no problems with him until I put him in daycare (at around 2 because he was having delayed speech which was upsetting my dr. I wasn't worried and nothing was wrong with him as it turned out).

He was constantly sick from the first week in daycare. It lasted 2 months. I pulled him out when he had to be put on a ventilator and was back in PICU after a trip to the ER at midnight with a bout of epiglotitis.

I can't imagine dragging him (and he was FAR healthier than Josie at birth) around like they have done. My pediatrician would have had my head if I had said I was going to do half the stuff they have done with her at the ages they have done it. They have to have been told this stuff was NOT in her best interests.

[breaker]

Since JB and the troops are out filming other episodes already, I'm guessing Josie's health scare is either minor or close to being resolved. If they were doing a very special episode it would look kind of weird contrasting Josie fighting serious issues in hospital with the others playing with rockets at the Space Centre, at least right away. Then again, I don't know what they did when Josie was in hospital originally; were the episodes normal "family outing" type adventures in Little Rock, or did they tone it down somewhat?

No, I think the two at the bottom are Jordyn and Jennifer. It looks like Anna is holding Mac in the very back.

Bottom center looks like Mac to me, and Anna is holding Jennifer (since she's lacking her sister-mom I guess Anna is filling the gap).

[samithemage]

Unless she was traveling AMA, which we don't know.

Actually, from what I've hear, the general medical advice for premies is to avoid unnecessary exposure to germs for at least two years. Premies' immune systems are not well developed. In fact, Michelle and JB initially talked about protecting Josie for 2 years. Then, once she seemed less obviously sick, it became 1 year, even though she was still on oxygen and suffering from multiple colds/ear infections. Josie's health is obviously still fragile.To be honest, I'm shocked they dragged Michael along too. He's a little baby. His schedule was completely upset and he was exposed to a ton of germs. Any of the little ones being there just made it harder for the big kids and grown ups involved. All for a trip they won't even remember. I just can't imagine dragging toddlers, fragile premies or not all over they world for photo ops. Talk about a miserable trip for everyone.

[BoomerLynn]

That poor baby. Didn't she just recently come off of oxygen? Even if she were not sick, wouldn't being in a pressurized cabin of a plane be hard on her lungs anyway. I would think it would be very uncomfortable for her, especially on a long overseas flight. I've only flown once and it was an hour flight on a smaller plane so I could be way off base here.

[Triplet3]

I noticed that the older girls weren't wearing the blue jumpsuits but were in their regular clothes. That is sad.

They must not have wanted to wear trousers. Also, where's Joy? I can't spot her in the photo.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Wow. Just Wow. Dragging that kid all over the place for a buck.

[slickcat79]

That poor baby. Didn't she just recently come off of oxygen? Even if she were not sick, wouldn't being in a pressurized cabin of a plane be hard on her lungs anyway. I would think it would be very uncomfortable for her, especially on a long overseas flight. I've only flown once and it was an hour flight on a smaller plane so I could be way off base here.

I think that Josie has been off of oxygen for at least 6 months. After all, many of the episodes are several months behind real time when they're aired on TV, and IIRC she wasn't wearing the cannula tape on their road trip. I'm not sure the plane would cause problems for her breathing, but the pressure on her ears could be very uncomfortable, especially if they were already infected or had excess fluid. I don't think the oxygen or lack thereof is any kind of excuse for taking a couple of babies with fragile/developing immune systems on an international flight for the entertainment of your fans though. There's no reason that they couldn't have pushed the trip back to next spring (or later) except that their popularity may have tanked too much by then.

Wow that article has been through the spin machine:

The Duggars try to make educational trips when they can, he said. The children are home-schooled and are keenly interested in science. Everyone has benefited from technology developed by NASA, Duggar said.

In what universe are those kids keenly interested in science? They refuse to believe in evolution, and have "graduated" from school before they'd even be exposed to many areas of science. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

So, if it costs the average family of four $300 to attend a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field, how much does it cost 18 family members to attend Space Camp?

"I'll have to add up the numbers and let you know," said Tim Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with "$0 because we comped everything for TLC" :roll:

ETA: It looks like Joy actually got to wear one of the jumpsuits and participate. I think that's her standing on the stairs in between the other two girls on the left. Also, I'm nearly positive the two little girls on the stairs in the front are Jenny and Jordyn; the one in front of Hannie is definitely Jenny, and the girl next to her looks too big (and too much like a Duggar) to be Kynzie.

[lilwriter85]

$300 for a family of four to attend a Cubs game sounds off. Ticktets for four could range from $60-80 and stadium food isn't too expensive in some places. Whoever wrote that article must not attend baseball games that often. Baseball is one of the cheapest sporting events to attend. Attending an NFL game as a family of four would easily be $300 or more. My cousins live in San Francisco and they go to Giants games often and they never spend $300.

For a family like the Duggars attending a MLB game would be around $500.

The idea of the Duggar kids going to a space camp sounds dumb. We all know Boob is bullshitting and those kids would probably be lost at space camp. They wouldn't know certain things and they probably see the big bang theory as sinful.

[emmiedahl]

I didn't even catch that. Yes, they probably fudged ticket prices a bit. We have taken two adults and a bazillion children to Mariners games. They have special family days when the tickets are like $15 each and the kids get a special children's fan pack. I don't think it cost $300 even with fuel for a 2 1/2 hour drive each way. Most teams have occasional specials for local families. My husband took our sons to an NFL game with a similar deal, although it was more expensive because football just is.

The Duggars like to throw in how expensive it is for the average family to raise children, but it just isn't that bad if you watch for deals, have a brain, etc.

Space camp is hella expensive. My oldest wanted to go at some point and when we looked into prices, he was like--nevermind!

[Jessica]

And another thing-

"...Duggar said. "This is just fascinating with all the rockets here."

Really? REALLY? That is the smartest thing you could say? Gah.

Considering his usual response is that whatever's happening is "rrrrilll neat!"...

[lilwriter85]

I didn't even catch that. Yes, they probably fudged ticket prices a bit. We have taken two adults and a bazillion children to Mariners games. They have special family days when the tickets are like $15 each and the kids get a special children's fan pack. I don't think it cost $300 even with fuel for a 2 1/2 hour drive each way. Most teams have occasional specials for local families. My husband took our sons to an NFL game with a similar deal, although it was more expensive because football just is.

The Duggars like to throw in how expensive it is for the average family to raise children, but it just isn't that bad if you watch for deals, have a brain, etc.

Space camp is hella expensive. My oldest wanted to go at some point and when we looked into prices, he was like--nevermind!

I agree the Duggars like talking about how expensive it for average families to raise kids and then they compare their large family. I find that annoying at times. During the New York trip, Boob was bitching about the cost of subway tickets for 20+ peoeple and ice cream from an ice cream truck. I rolled my eyes because we know TLC was footing some of the expenses. The Duggars and TLC have exaggerate certain details and costs about raising large families. The author in the article is doing the same thing as them by fudging up baseball game ticket prices. Sport leagues do have special family days like you mentioned emmiedahl. But even with those days, the Duggars would easily be spending over $300. There was an episode when they went to a hockey game in Nashville. But I bet a third party or TLC paid for the Duggars to go. If the Duggars went to an NFL game the cost would be pretty high.

If TLC films the Duggar kids at space camp, I bet it will be another attempt to shush the critics. The Duggars will try and act like they think science is important. The family is probably aware of the hate they got after they visited the creation museum.

One of my friends who I grew up with went to space camp. This was back in the 90's and it was probably cheaper than. I never asked him how much it was. Also back then his father had a booming computer repair business and they had money to do expensive things. My friend is 26 now, but he has two siblings that are 12 and 13 and his father's business has went downhill a bit in a past few years. I doubt that family is doing the expensive stuff they did years ago.

[Deleted02]

Poor Josie :(

God, her parents are so stupid!

[LilMissMetaphor]

Vitafam just posted a Duggar pic, seems they were at the same hotel/conference recently.

[GeoBQn]

An anonymous commenter on the Duggar Family Blog says that when Josie got sick, her oxygen saturation levels were too low to fly, and that Michelle and Jill flew home with her yesterday.

[marmalade]

$300 for a family of four to attend a Cubs game sounds off. Ticktets for four could range from $60-80 and stadium food isn't too expensive in some places. Whoever wrote that article must not attend baseball games that often. Baseball is one of the cheapest sporting events to attend. Attending an NFL game as a family of four would easily be $300 or more. My cousins live in San Francisco and they go to Giants games often and they never spend $300.

For a family like the Duggars attending a MLB game would be around $500.

The idea of the Duggar kids going to a space camp sounds dumb. We all know Boob is bullshitting and those kids would probably be lost at space camp. They wouldn't know certain things and they probably see the big bang theory as sinful.

I think the total includes hot dogs and a soda. That's usually how they cost out these things; a body's gotta eat....3 hour game and whatever time it takes to get to the stadium and back is a LONG time to go without food. Many stadiums allow you to bring your own stuff as long as your satchel doesn't exceed size requirements, but I've been to a few (Seattle for example) that don't allow outside food and have no parking lots to tailgate. You're pretty much stuck eating overpriced stadium food.

But I agree, the cost to the Duggars, as long as TLC was filming: $0.

I also think that TLC had a filming schedule and they had to stick with it, regardless of Josie's condition. That's why I predict the VSE Skype from Isreal as Michelle fills Boob in on the girl's condition.

[luv2laugh]

This is terrible! What event in Alabama was this? Does anyone know?

[marmalade]

It was the tornadoes that hit in April, one of which destroyed Kelly Crawford's parents' property and killed a VF royalty patriarch. That said, this rebuild appears to be sponsored by Habitat for Humanity, which means Kelly et al. are not benefiting from it; she only accepts handouts for specifically noted items via her solicitations on the internets, doncha know.

[mythoughtis]

I really feel sorry for Anna, if they got back on Wednesday and are running all over Alabama, does she ever get time to rest and wind down?

NO. None of them do. It appears they were home one day and then off to do this event. that is after the whirlwind bus book tour, the other bus travels they did after the baby was born, and this month long overseas trip. Was Jason totally healed from his broken jaw, etc in time for them to go to Europe or did they drage him around that way? It will take several of them at death's door for JB, Michlle and Josh to wake up and smell the coffee. A visit from CPS (even if they can't do anything) wouldn't hurt.

[Daenerys]

How did Jason break his jaw?

[marmalade]

He fell off a stage during a performance about a month before they left for Europe. They had pictures of him recovering on the bus while Ray Comfort invaded it.

I think he also broke his ankle, or at best, severely sprained it. I remember seeing crutches.