Sunday, July 30, 2006

Not Such a Great Day on the Lake

This morning we joined Mom and Dad at Fall Creek Lake for the maiden voyage with our kids of Mom and Dad's new boat. Dad was offered this boat at a great "deal" by a very good friend, and Mom and Dad have been very excited to get us all finally on it, and provide the opportunity to ski and intertube. Yesterday, we picked out a massive intertube at G.I. Joes- we packed picnic lunches this morning, my kids even had wetsuits to use. We were ready to go. After noticing it listing to one side, Dad took out his toolbox and adjusted the prop - that seemed to fix it- and Michele hopped in ready to ski.

It's been a while since Dad has pulled a skiier, so there were some adjustments that needed to be made, Dad was overly cautious and slow and Michele appreciates a fast pull from the water. When she did get up and was doing very well on slalom, she indicated that she wanted the speed to be increased. We were all yelling "faster". However, Dad, with less than stellar hearing, heard "we lost her" and cut the engines. Since I wasn't the one skiing, I found it all very comical....

When Michele was back up again and speeding across the lake, we found the "glass" by the dam, and all was looking wonderful. The kids were enjoying the bed space beneath the bow and were very happy- and the rest of us, including Mikayla and Mom, were watching Michele. Then, all of a sudden, the boat lurched hard at a 90 degree angle. The steering cable broke causing Dad's shoulder to break the pexiglass next to him, John to barely contain Brayden on his lap, Michael and I to take a jolt, Michele to obviously fall off the ski, and Mom to break Mikayla's fall with her own body and fall on the side of the boat. When Mom lifted up (having saved Mikayla from injury), we saw blood next to Mom's ear and discovered it had been split from the exterior edge all the way to the bone in her cheek. Ouch. That ended the trip in a hurry. Michael layed underneath the steering console to navigate the boat by pulling the cables and we finally got to the dock. From there Mom and Dad headed to the emergency room.

Michele and Michael just got back from switching vehicles with them and said Mom's ear looked like something out of a horror film (sorry, no cameras available to post a picture). Fortunately, it was numb and the on call plastic surgeon was on their way to stitch her up (since cartiladge was involved, they wanted to bring in a specialist). She should be okay and released pretty soon.

Have to say, this isn't quite what we had in mind for the first day out on the boat. But, we're extremely thankful things didn't end up any worse. Here's hoping the next trip out ends in smiles and not ER visits!

2 comments:

StephieAnne said...

Sometimes, when an accident happens, it's hard to tell if your child is just scared or legitimately in pain. Mikayla appeared pretty shook up, but complained also of her forehead hurting. Now that it's the evening and the "color" has set in, I have to ask for forgiveness from her for trying to "shush her crying" at the time of the accident. Quite a kaleidoscope of purples and greens setting in on the goose-egg in the middle of her forehead. Poor girl - she's had a tough summer! (She's exhibiting very playful behavior -so no serious worries, and has already napped and woke up fine....)

HollieHobbie said...

awwww Poor Mikayla and Mom! I hope all is well now. But that does sound like a nice, whole fam damily kind of day. And I would've laughed so hard at "Faster" vs. "We lost her". I am laughing now, sorry 'Chele!