A Great/Terrible Trip to the Uintas, July 25, 2015

What a great idea - take an impromptu day trip to the Uintas.  Pack a picnic, do some hiking, make fun family memories.  Well . . .

Our first stop of the Fairy Forest.  We had painted some rocks and brought them with us.  The little fairy homes and trails were so fun to explore.  Davis created a little fairy home for our rocks.  Eva played in the dirt and sucked on sticks and Noah whined about being tired and wanting to go home.

Then we planned to go to a small lake, where there was a child friendly hike to the lake.  We parked on the side of the road and looked for a good place to spread a blanket and eat our picnic.  It was so rocky and uneven, that there really wasn't a good place, so we put the two youngest on the blanket in a small flat area between trees and rocks and started to unpack lunch.  Davis was playing around and walking on fallen trees.

All of a sudden he yelled and I looked over, not too alarmed because he yells often.  He was holding his knee and I couldn't figure out what I was looking at.  He had fallen and a branch had poked a quarter-sized hole in his leg.  There was very little blood, just white flesh that I shouldn't be able to see.  Darren carried him to the car and I tried to get the first aid kit to find something to put over it.  My hands were shaking so bad I just dumped it all on the ground.  Darren was very calm and didn't panic.  We got a big bandaid on it, gathered the other two worried children and put everything back in the car.  We headed to Evanston in search of an urgent car facility.  On the way, a police officer pulled Darren over for speeding, and even after we had explained the situation, he took his sweet time writing up a ticket.  Davis was calm by this time, playing games on the phone and so maybe the policeman thought we were lying.

Anyway, there is no urgent car facility, so we found the hospital, but when I asked about how much it might be, they said the ER charges start at $500, so we decided to drive on home and take Davis to the urgent care near our house.  Darren took him because I couldn't handle it.  And Davis came home with 13 stitches in his leg.  He was supposed to keep vaseline on it all the time and he wanted to do it himself.  At first he didn't want anyone to see his wound because he thought they would laugh at him, but after awhile, he forgot about it.  After the stitches came out 10 days later, there were still several blue stitches left in.  As they became looser, I would clip them with scissors and Davis would pull them out.

It was fun and exciting to head out on a day trip and our first stop was very fun and the scenery we drove by was beautiful.  But I will probably always associate the Uintas with a hole in Davis's leg.  And I learned I am NOT good in a medical emergency.  I freak out a bit and panic a bit and worry a ton.  I sure am glad it turned out to be less of a disaster than I thought in the moment.