At this very moment, on September 29, we are experiencing an unprecedented snowstorm. Church was canceled today, school is canceled for tomorrow... we are literally snowed in!
What better way to spend a snow day than to update this little online journal with some of the biggest happenings of this past month. To do that, I will have to go way back to the last few days of summer. Back when the days were still long, the weather was warm, and the biggest worry on my mind was how we would possibly spend the last three days of summer.
We knew we couldn't let school begin without doing a "dessert run." Inspired by John's brother Jordan, this entails visiting a restaurant of choice with intentions to only enjoy dessert. We decided to order every dessert on the menu and what fun it was! We just sampled each one and tried our very best to pick a favorite. While we stuffed our content faces full of chocolate, mouse, and cheesecake we each took turns and shared highlights from our summer. It was such a fun way to cap off a truly incredible summer. We may just have to make dessert runs an end of summer tradition!
The kids really loved learning how to shoot this summer. We snuck out to Beazer one evening so the kids could take another crack at it. I'll proudly admit that I reached further targets with ease and totally held my own if I do say so myself;) Nate was super proud of himself. Grandpa was nursing a sore shoulder due to an injury and didn't shoot, but he normally has the sharpest eye of anyone! We stayed out until dark. What a special place that land on Beazer is. We sure felt grateful to my Uncle George for letting us spend some time on it this summer.
There is no way we would end summer without venturing out on one last fishing trip.
Well, first we attempted to do a hike together.
We drove south, entered the U.S through the Chief Mountain border, and (after being warned about active bear activity) reached the start of the Belly River trail full of hope and anticipation. We took one look at the sign posted at the head of the trail (you know the sign that indicated that it would be a 20 km hike in total) and decided that we would skip the hike and go straight to fishing!
So much for good intentions;)
The silver lining though (because there always is one) is that we were in territory completely new to us. We've never explored the Belly River before. We LOVED it!
We found a great spot to stop and fish and enjoy the view.
We stopped around noon to have lunch. It may have just been my imagination playing tricks on me, but that last picnic of the summer seemed yummier and tastier than any other.
The fishing wasn't great, but the company and the scenery were!
As we were headed home my cousin's wife Shannon texted to let me know that she and her kids were out at Beazer and that we were welcome to join them, if we wanted. It took John all of twenty seconds to respond. He's grown quite attached to Lee Creek this summer as the fishing there has been good to him this summer;)
Here is where this post gets a little graphic. (And believe me, it does get graphic.)
While Shannon and I were visiting, John and Sam had walked further along the creek in search of an ideal fishing spot. Around the bend and up, just a way was a beaver dam which hovered over a deep pool that had made for great fishing in the past.
I was really enjoying my visit with Shannon when Sam came running back to us and reported that we had to leave, because "Dad had hurt himself." He had apparently been standing on the dam, when he slipped, landing on a branch and slicing his calve wide open. A second or two later, John appeared through the trees, hobbling for sure, but moving in a way that clearly showed he was in pain and feeling no small amount of concern.
One look at his leg and I knew our end of summer party was officially done.
John was a trooper. I drove him straight to the emergency and left him there while the kids and I returned home and cleaned up. John's leg had fragments of wood in it that needed to be picked out and 10 stitches were required to patch him up. He rested for the rest of the evening, no doubt wondering how he was possibly going to navigate through the first day of school AND volleyball tryouts with a leg this sore.
If he only knew how sore it was actually going to get.
This accident happened on Monday. By Wednesday his leg had doubled in size, he could hardly bend his knee, he was flaming red from his ankle all the way up to his knee and he'd resorted to moving around the school in a wheelchair that he had found in the staff room.
By Wednesday night we knew we had an infection on our hands.
Well...in his leg, but...you know what I meant.
Back to the emergency, he went, though he probably should have gone in much sooner. He was put on IV antibiotics and for the better part of a week had to go in once a day for treatment.
About a week ago, things finally stabilized to the point that he could get his stitches out and move normally again.
What an ordeal for him.
Definitely an eventful end to a few adventurous final days of summer.
And just so that last picture doesn't stay fresh in your mind, here is a lovelier image to remind us of all the much more beautiful summer moments we were blessed to enjoy before John fell on that dam stick!
(John roles his eyes every time I try to be puny about that, but it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up;)
HAPPY END OF SUMMER!
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