It's Broken Part III

This blog title is starting to sound like a (forgive me) broken record. This time the break does not have to do with Blake. It has to do with my other boy, Dillan, who enjoyed an evening of roller skating with the youth from church and fell back and caught himself with his right hand, and now has a broken wrist. I didn't believe him at first since he wasn't loudly complaining about it, but then this morning, he said I had to take him to the doctor, and this is a boy who does not complain. So I took him to the doctor's. Then to X-Ray. Then to the orthopedist. Then to Costco (he was STARVING). The orthopedist took a look at Dillan and asked if he'd hit his growth spurt (Dillan is currently measuring in at 5'11"), I told him that he hadn't. I think the doctor was a little skeptical until he looked at the X-Ray and said "Oh, no, he hasn't hit his growth spurt. Look at all of that room in his growth plate. How tall's Dad? He's going to be a big boy." I told Dillan he may outgrow his uncles in height. Looks like he will be destined to a life of basketball. Or swimming, which was my main concern with this break, not because it is going to be 119 on Saturday, but because he has his swim championships in less than two weeks! The orthopedist put a soft cast on him that he is able to take off for showers or training for swim, but absolutely no horseplay in the pool. No Wet 'n Wild. No piano, either. I don't know what this boy is going to do with himself. I bought him a new book that he was wanting to read because I felt so bad for him. The good news to all of this is that because of the multiple visits to doctors, etc, I got to spend the WHOLE day with my boy. It was great. He,however, was a little bit shocked that his mother had no idea the importance in noting the different kinds of cars that there are, such as a Nissan 350Z vs a Nissan 370Z. I told him I have never paid that much attention to cars, and that before I had my BMW, I had no idea that there was a difference in all of the series, or whatever. I thought they were all the same. He was flabbergasted. He then sought to quiz me on cars, which has been a common theme for us that he will quiz me on his strongest subject at the time. And I have always been lacking in the kind of knowledge that he has. So, here's to happy healing for Dillan. That wrist has to heal properly so he can hit the big time in the NBA. Or the USSA.

Who's Team Are You On?

My children (minus Blake) have an Olympic Gold Medalist for their swim coach, Misty Hyman. She's great and I remember her winning the medal. We had been in the Valley of the Sun for less than one year, so I didn't know that she was a local OR that she went to the high school down the street that my children will go to. But I will never forget how close the race was and how she overcame the odds and won despite not being the favorite. And then there was her contagious triumph at winning and the biggest smile ever. Chloe was a newborn at the time, so I had lots of time to sit and feed her and watch the Olympics (just because I enjoy embarrassing my children, Dillan attempted to breastfeed his stuffed kitty). So now that she is coaching my children, I thought that they should watch her defining race. You can watch it too on YouTube. You can also watch me on YouTube, but it is far less exciting. I will attempt the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zUFLP40nGE . I don't know if that worked. I will have to check later. So I gathered the children that I had at home, which was everyone minus Chloe, who was getting coached by Misty at the time, and explained to them that this was Misty's race and who she was up against, etc. I'm not sure if Dillan was serious or not, but he said "I think she's going to win this race." I let it slide and didn't give him too hard of a time. Even though it happened ten years ago, Dillan and Olivia were cheering Misty on the whole race. That is until the last fifty when they were coming down the home stretch and Blake yelled out "Go Susie!" We all looked at him in disbelief. He was cheering for her opponent? The one that was favored to win? And how did he know her name? Fortunately, my other children did not do an "in your face" when Misty won. That would have been poor sportsmanship. I shared this with Misty about how her future team member was not cheering for her. She said she'll make it up to him when he's older and have him do extra butterfly.

Give it a Tri

No, I didn't misspell (because we all know how much I love to spell correctly). My sister, Nikki, has been talking to me about doing a triathlon in Utah in July. I have been afraid of the swim, because even though my children are swimmers, I am not. I gave up on swimming when I was eight years old and my goggles broke. Poor excuse, I know. But I KNEW that I had the biking thing mostly down because I have been going to spin classes for months and working my tail off. I love the puddle of sweat. I feel like I really accomplished something. Plus, I get to look in the mirror and compete with myself. So I bought "clipless" pedal shoes (I don't know what the technical name is) to try out in class first and then hit the road. The first pair and class were a disaster and HUGELY embarrassing as I attempted to #1 Put them on and #2 Clip them in. Why are they called clipless when I have to clip? Anyway, I took that pair back and got an easier putting on pair. Unfortunately, they are loose in the heel, but that was not crucial at this point. I wore them to class, and it was a SNAP, or CLIP, if you will. I tried them on my bike that Kevin bought me four years ago that until I got my shoes, did not even realize that they had clipless pedals. Silly me. Wonderful husband. I tried them in the backyard with the assistance of Chloe (and Blake, although his help was minimal. He got on his bike in front of me to demonstrate how one puts their feet on the pedals and then he raced me back and forth.) as she held the bike. After loosening the tension that I learned on YouTube, I was a professional at getting them clipped and then getting out. I took to the road. I went around the block a few times and felt pretty good. I was warned by Ed Packard that it wasn't a matter of if I would crash, it was when. I knew he didn't realize what a cautious girl I am. I was telling myself over and over again on my first "real" ride that I was clipped in and unclipped each time I was coming to a stop and had trained myself to unclip the left pedal since I am right handed. I don't know. I read that somewhere. All through the mountain preserves, neighborhood, canals, dirt trails, I was attacking the road. Well, kind of, since I am not used to the out of control feeling of the bike on the road. On my LAST stop, and chance to unclip, I failed. It was at the busiest intersection of my ride. I hit the ground and a bush. Road rash. Bike grease. Pride smashed. Thoughts of running later gone.

I also had thought of "What will I wear to church on Sunday to cover this? I will need to get a maxi dress." I was afraid that I would have everyone asking me about it and having to relive the story. That was until I got in the house. NO ONE NOTICED. There I was helping each one of them. Kevin asked me how my ride was. Blake and Olivia had demands. I started Dillan and Chloe on their chores. No one saw. Finally after thirty minutes of talking with everyone, Chloe noticed. Of course. She has always been very concerned. I thought it was a bad enough way to draw attention to myself. That is, until I went to Wet 'n Wild after this and put three large bandaids on there to protect the injury and came home looking like this:

Now it looks like road rash with white stripes, thanks to too much fun in the sun. I can only imagine what I am going to do next to draw attention to it. BUT, this will not keep me from using clipless pedals or biking outdoors again. I just hope the next crash is not in front of a bunch of people.

A Sunday Discussion and Protest

I am the Primary teacher to the five turning six year olds in our ward to a very energetic group of seven children. They have keen insight and interesting comments to share. So this was how one of our discussions went today (names have been removed to protect the parents)

Child #1: Why are we called The Latter Day Saints?

Me: Because we are in the latter days or the last days.

Child #2: This isn't our last day. We have a lot more Sundays to come to church, like until we die.

Child #3: No, we don't have to come to church after we are parents. We can just take our kids to church, drop them off, and then go home.

Needless to say, I told Child #3 this story, and they were a little bewildered that this was their child's take on coming to church on Sundays.

And now for the Protest. Olivia has a lifelong friend, Charles, who she has been in charge of since they were babies. I have informed Charles that he can speak his mind around Olivia and that she is not in charge of him, but he's dealing with a strong personality. So in singing time at Primary, the chorister divided the kids into boys and girls so that there could be a competition to get the kids to sing (BTW, I know that there is not supposed to be any competition in Primary). Unfortunately, there were about nine girls on this day and four boys, two of whom were in my class and are challenged in the singing department, so it was really two boys trying to out sing eight very vocal girls and Olivia, who can out sing anyone. When the competition was over, the chorister declared that the girls were the winner. No surprise. But Olivia was not going to take this information sitting down, because, after all, her dear friend, Charles was singing his heart out. She turned to Charles and said "Charles, do you think that's fair? I don't think that's fair. There were a lot more girls than boys and you didn't have a chance." She then pleaded her case to the chorister and told her how she was not doing her job right because really, there should not have been such an imbalanced competition, and to make it fair they should have divided into equal groups. I never pictured her as a lawyer, but she's got her first case.

It's Broken, Part II

For those of you who have followed my blog, and that means two people (that might be a record for the least amount of followers. It goes with the Most Boring Blog on the Block criteria), you will remember Blake's first incident with something being broken. I am supposed to be able to insert that right "here" and have you click on the here and then the blog post will pop up and you can refresh your memory, but I do not know how to do that. Today, Blake had a little bit of diarrhea. Sorry. I should have warned you that it may get a little graphic. He looked to see what happened in the toilet and said "It's broken." Yep. It was.

And since I have opened the door for graphic speech. I was reminded recently of a one of my favorite nursing stories. A man was having his lower leg amputated due to a history of diabetes. Unfortunately, this is something that can happen to one with diabetes. He, however, was not ready to part with his leg yet. He asked if he could keep the amputated leg and have it bronzed for a paperweight. If you are thinking this is a good idea and wonder what the paperweight looks like, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. That's because you are not allowed to remove body parts from the hospital. That story really wasn't that graphic. I'm going to have to do better than that.

Trip to the ER

The Partridges are no strangers to Epipens, thanks to the fact that 75% of them have one for nut or egg allergies. We have never had to use one, thank goodness. But Blake took matters in to his own hands today. Literally. When he self injected the auto-inject ADULT strength epipen into his little boy big hand. Chloe called me in a panic and terrified, as she had been left in charge of him and he got a hold of the epipen and shot himself (I kept saying that today and had to rephrase myself) um, he injected himself with a needle in the palm with the epipen. She felt so bad and kept telling me how sorry she was and how bad she felt as I raced home from my drive to Costco (yay for close Costco) and got there to assess the damage. I called my doctor's office, who told me to call poison control, who told me to apply a warm compress and look for blanching and cool areas, which would indicate that the area had vessel constriction. All I could think about was the babies and little kids in the burn unit that were on epi drips and what that did to their poor little extremities as they slowly died from feet to......well, let's just say I pictured his hand turning black and falling off. So I took him to the children's ER. And then I wished that I worked in the children's ER, because I LOVE that rush of adrenaline that comes with taking care of critically sick people. I really miss it. But then I remembered the kind of people that are allowed to procreate, and reassured myself that I was fine where I am. His hand turned out to be fine, although I was concerned with the white streak that is noticeable at the base of his thumb. I was reassured that it would revascularize soon and I needn't worry. He was a very good patient. He will be unscathed by this event. I cannot say the same for Chloe. When I had to leave for the ER and I told her that she was in charge of Olivia, who, let's face it, has never really needed any kind of supervision since she was two and will arrange appointments and is charge always, and I told Chloe that she was to watch her and she was in disbelief that I could trust her to babysit one of my children with her obvious irresponsibility. Some things never change. Chloe has always been cautious and concerned about other's well being, and Olivia has always been in charge.

Grand Canyon R2R2R

What in the world does that mean? For those of you who are not endurance junkies or insane or promise your wife this for her birthday present, it means hiking the Grand Canyon from the South Rim to the North Rim back to the South Rim. In less than 24 hours. Total mileage? Depends on which trails you take. We went down South Kaibab (7 miles from trailhead to Colorado River), up North Kaibab (14 miles from Phantom Ranch to trailhead), down North Kaibab (you can figure out that distance.), then up Bright Angel (9.8 miles from Colorado River to trailhead). There is added distance when you factor in the trail to and from Phantom Ranch and the trips to the toilet off the trail, so we'll call it a 45 mile hike that goes a lot of down then a lot of up then a lot of down and then a.......lot.......of........up. But this recap does not start with the hike. It starts with some touristy things.

This is the Hermit's Rest Trailhead. We did NOT hike this trail. I repeat, there is a trail in the GC that we did not hike. Not because we couldn't, because we could have if we wanted to, but because we had to conserve all of our energy for the task at hand. We took the shuttle over there, which was quite nice, but a little stinky with all of those bodies.

Kevin took this picture and told me that he got his mad self portrait skills from JT (Justin Timberlake-and he's not kidding). So I had to try out what I had learned from the person who learned from the master.
Not bad, right?

Friday morning 3:50 am wake up call. Get ready with layers because it was expected to be chilly to start out, which I understand is all relative, but when the starting temp is in the 40s, that's chilly for us. Caught the Hikers Express Shuttle at 5:00 am, which the term "express" should be used loosely here, since it took us 20 minutes to get to the trailhead and we stopped twice. Got to South Kaibab Trail Head. Used the potty. Of course. Took this picture ate 5:30 am and started down, down, down:

You see that wrap thing on my head? I love it. I bought that at the General Store up there because I was concerned for my warmth. The print on it is a trail map of South Kaibab and Bright Angel. It kept my ears pinned to my head so they were nice and cozy. And if you look in my Camelbak you can see the top of my Nalgene bottle and it looks like there is dirty water. Not the case. It is Perpetuem, an endurance athlete drink. Remember this. It saved Kevin.

So we trot down. The BEST thing about the early am is NO MULE TRAINS. None. It's the little things like this that really made a difference. We did see a trio of crazed Asian descent people. They were whooping and had on a floppy shoes and a bottle of water. That looked like the extent of their provisions. We saw them at least three miles down, which is the easy part, and there is no water on the South Kaibab trail. I hope they made it out alive. But maybe they saw us and thought "There go two crazy Americans. They have no survival skills if they need all that stuff to keep them alive." We got to Phantom Ranch in two hours, which is good time. I know it seems like not fast, but we had to stop twice (for me). We ate and used the facilities. There were several people up milling around in the area, but the cafe was not open. Here we are after we refueled:

How many pictures do we have like this? I'm going to say a dozen. On to the North Kaibab! We did not see anyone for almost six miles! And the two people we saw snuck up behind us. I almost had a heart attack. I was worried about getting attacked from behind after Susie told me that the trail is rampant with murderers and rapists (she told me this to discourage me from hiking to the top alone if anything happened to Kevin). We stopped at Cottonwood Campground for food and refill water. It was eerie that there wasn't anyone. This is us in case you have forgotten what we look like when we are hiking:

Hey! Where's me? Oh, that's right. Potty break.

Keep on keepin' on. Up to about this point there is very little incline as it runs along the river. After we get through this campground it starts heading up. I chose to listen to General Conference on my iPod. Which I was very glad that I had that thought because I don't really need motivation music, and besides, I am a little sick of listening to it right now, so I filled my spiritual cup as I drained my physical cup. There was a terrifying moment on the trail. No, I didn't slip off the side. We came across this:
FIRE!!!! In the Grand Canyon!!! One of the Natural Wonders of the World! Oh, wait. There are guys in yellow jackets that seem to be tending the fire. And it is very controlled. Thank heavens! I was worried that I was going to have to activate the emergency system, but more importantly, HOW WERE WE GOING TO GET TO THE TOP OR BACK AGAIN IF THERE WAS A WILDFIRE?!?!?! So, my thoughts were selfish, but glad that this was not a wildfire, but a controlled burn. Keep going.

I was getting a little antsy that we were not moving faster, but I could tell that Kevin was hitting the wall. Hard. And I did not want to push him beyond what he felt he could do. A few times he told me to go on ahead, but I refused to leave him (again, the murderers and rapists might get me), but finally once we past the Supai Tunnel, I agreed and went on ahead. I got to the top at North Kaibab and was met with five hundred flies, and some of them were biting. I was not amused. Especially when I tried to eat something and they wanted to join the party. A young man who was working at the North Rim Lodge was there and was quizzing me about all of the details of the hike that we were taking and how long had we been hiking and how long did it take to get to the river and how could he do it and how long the trails are. Kevin got out and is usually a very friendly person and will talk to anybody, but he barely acknowledged my companion. I knew he was in trouble. Here comes the Perpetuem! I had enjoyed my own earlier, but I gave him the Orange Vanilla flavor, and he said that he felt better instantly! Unfortunately, the water was turned off at the top. And at Supai Tunnel. Which meant that the next source of water was at Cottonwood, which was about seven miles down. Not good. There were a couple of hikers that were at the top that were planning on going down the next day, and they had some spare water, so we "borrowed" (I wasn't planning on returning it, though) some water. Here is us at the top:

If you do a Rim to Rim to Rim, this shot is obligatory as proof that you made it to the other side.

Back down. This part gets tough because your toes have gotten relief from the going up and now you are going back down with a steeper decline. I could feel my right two toes were getting blistered, but kept moving. Here's me by Ribbon Falls:

Two things that you could learn from this shot. #1 Hiking poles are ESSENTIAL. I mean it. They reduce the effort on your legs by 30%. #2 Compression socks are ESSENTIAL. This was the first time I have worn them on a hike and I could tell a difference.

It seemed like everything took FOREVER on this trip. For instance, when on this trail is "The Box" which is the relatively flat section that I talked about that is about eight miles, but it seems like sooooooo much longer. We crossed five bridges that seemed like fifty. Got back to Phantom Ranch at 8 pm, which we were worried that the cafe would not be open, but it was and it was rockin' in there! People were still having a good time. We needed a break and something new to eat so we each got a bagel with cream cheese. We saw a ring tailed cat and a fox when we were leaving. There is no picture of us this time. We were beat and had.......nine.......uphill.......miles.....to .........go. And it was dark, which really shifted our perspective because we didn't have the visual cues to let us know how far we had gone. And there were spiders. Toads. And scorpions on the trail. Kevin told me later that he tried to step on all of the spiders because he was in front and didn't want me to freak out, but after a while he became too tired to even do that. I didn't care about the spiders. Or the scorpions. Because now, all I could think about was the mountain lion that I was SURE was stalking us. I even turned around a few times, sure that I would see eyes shining in my headlamp. We did see a lone doe on the trail. It became a mental challenge, because I kept thinking about taking a shower and getting into bed. So I started counting in my head. I counted to 100, and then when I got to 100, that was one, and I told myself that we would get to Indian Garden by the time I had 32 sets of 100. I only got to 26! I was so happy. Kevin laid down at Indian Gardens. I did not. I was not too tired to remember the spiders and scorpions. He asked me to take this picture:

He said he wanted a picture of him for the kids in case he didn't make it out alive. So once we pushed on, I kept thinking about how selfish I was for asking my husband to do this with me. I had to stop that, so I counted again. The moon was full so it helped light the way. I was so happy when we got to the 3 Mile Resthouse! Only three miles to go! We still had three miles to go? Ugh.

Onward. Now instead of counting, I tried predicting how far we had gone and kept saying in my head: "We've only got 2.9 miles to go, we've only got 2.9 miles to go" and then when I thought we had gone a tenth of a mile, I changed it to "We've only got 2.8 miles to go" etc, but I hoped that I was underestimating how far we had gone, and when we came up to the 1.5 miles resthouse and I had in my head that we still had 2 miles to the top, I was elated! Kevin saw the emergency call box and commented that it looked really good right then. Still going up. This part is such a mental endurance challenge that I can't even describe it. You know you have to keep going because you can't pull off to the side of the road and motion to the medical response team that you're feeling lousy, you have to get out! And I could NOT have done it without Kevin, nor would I have wanted to, despite the fact that I thought he may not make it. But when we saw the sign for the Bright Angel Trailhead, I don't think I have ever had that much relief or love for my husband. WE DID IT!!!! Truly an amazing bonding experience. And here we are at 0230 in the am:

The looks on our faces do not relay the exhilaration that we had. Must be the tiredness.

We got back to our room and surveyed the damage, which was great. I had chaffing on my shoulders from my pack, two blisters on one foot, two toenails sure to go, sore backside, but that shower. That shower! And then the bed. And the sleeping in. Nice.

We were beat up, battered, but definitely closer as a couple, so for that, the experience was truly once in a lifetime. That is, until Kevin told me three days after the hike that he would do it again. Wh-aa-at? Yep. He says he'll do it again and wanted to know if I would to. Of course I would, dear.

P.S. Siblings: This trip is NOT the one that we will be taking for my 40th birthday. Mom said there was no way she was going to allow it. Ours will be the much easier 17 mile hike.