Friday, May 16, 2014

Here's What Lead Up to What Happened

We went away for Mother's Day Weekend. Madi had a Karate Tournament outside of Detroit on Saturday. (Yes, we went all the way to Detroit for Karate)

We left Thursday afternoon and traveled (a really long time) through the night. We checked into our hotel somewhere around 3am Friday morning.

For the ride home, we decided not to do the same. After supporting Sensei through his competitions we left the Tournament around 5pm, stopped for a lovely (fun, cracking my ass up) dinner with Sensei and two other families. We then got on the road and decided to drive until a decent bed time.

The other two families set their alarms and got on the road for home early Mother's Day Sunday. Not us. We turned off the alarm and leisurely began our (what we thought would be a relaxing) ride home.

We starved the kiddos for breakfast as we had missed the memo that everyone and their MOM would be at the first exit's Cracker Barrel for breakfast (duh). So we continued on while ignoring the moaning and grumbling from those kiddos we were starving in the back seat.

We happened upon Kng's Family Restaurant in PA and had a wonderful brunch with some of the BEST Customer Service I have EVER had! Knowing me (and how picky I am) and my forte, you know that this Lady had to have knocked my socks off! She did.

We finished there and stopped by the Flight 93 Memorial just outside of Somerset, PA. God Bless America. (pause here for a moment of silence)

So, our next stop? Elizabethtown, PA so Mommy could show off her college and especially the Fun Fort (think Piccadilly Castle at Brecknock Park) a block away from the college. Kiddos played for about an hour on the wooden playground set. Had a blast. But they kept bugging to go down the hill to the other playground.

Let me take just a moment to describe it. I'm sure it was there first, before E-Town College Kids built the Fun Fort in 91. Imagine if you will, your childhood playgrounds (probably the reason helmets were invented, forget bikes). This was the one with the METAL merry go round, the METAL teeter totter, the METAL giant spider who's only purpose is for you to walk on what would be monkey bars if they were higher off the ground only to get to the middle (the spider's body) and go "look ma! no hands, it's just steel bars I straddled to get up here, can you get me down because now I'm immobilized in fear even though I made it up here on my own."

Well, that teeter totter thing? The one on the giant metal spring!? Yeah, THAT THING! JP decided to exit that thing towards the middle, meaning towards the seat to the right. THE METAL SEAT TO THE RIGHT. Have I mentioned the metal!? Metal! Yeah.

Hubs and I are at the top of the hill. I with my camera, him with his cap. Wait, wrong story. JP slips and falls toward that METAL SEAT, hits his head, and ricochets to the ground. YES! Ricochets. I HEAVE my camera at Hubs, drop my camera bag to the ground and take off running. By the time I get to my kiddos she's screaming, JP is crying bloody murder and speaking of bloody! HOLY HELL!

On all fours, JP starts making his way to his feet while blood pours out of his head. I stripped off his tee shirt thinking that we needed pressure on his head, where ever all of this was coming from. I dropped to the ground and cradled the poor kid like a baby. We were joined by Hubs and a lady walking by with a toddler. She stopped and said she had paper towels and wipes if I needed them. I accepted.

She then tells me her niece is a nurse and is up the hill at their BBQ, would I like her to come down. Through glassy eyes I accepted that too. A few minutes later she comes over with an ice pack she had made for us. These ladies were the sweetest. So helpful, so kind. Makes you appreciate (what seems to be rare) kindness these days.

She recommended Urgent Care and said it looked like at the least JP would need stitches.

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