What a Weekend!

We spent the weekend at my in-laws' place in Abilene. There is so much to do there, and the boys love going! Here's the rundown of how we spent our West Texas Weekend:

Off to a good start by watching movies in the car

Fishing at the pond

Playing with the bait

Goliath was fishing for bass, but caught this HUGE catfish instead.

It was 28 inches long and weighed 10 pounds!

Goliath also caught this nice-sized fish!

While Goliath was busy cleaning his catch, Little Middle and Baby
had fun playing with the puppies...

and kept a wary eye out while visiting the pigeon house.

Just like their dad, all of my boys love horses. On Sunday afternoon we saddled up Blaze and they took turns riding. Aren't they good-looking horsemen?

Goliath was riding out in the pasture when our weekend suddenly took a downward turn--literally--when he fell off of the horse. To be accurate, he slid off when the horse walked under some trees. Goliath ducked to avoid the branches, but couldn't get low enough fast enough. The mesquite branches actually brushed him right off of Blaze's back, and as he says, "The horse just kept on walking!"

We rushed to the emergency room...

...where we learned that a pitiful-looking mini-cowboy who screams really loud during X-rays can earn the sympathy of a few nurses and get his chart moved to the ER "fast track."

The X-rays showed that Goliath's wrist was broken, as well as the bones in his forearm were out of place. The ER doc summoned the on-call orthopedic doc, who explained that he would have to manipulate the bones to get them back in place--a procedure that would need to take place in the operating room. For obvious reasons, he wanted Goliath to have full anesthesia so he could neither feel nor remember anything that would happen!


This is my brave boy getting ready to be wheeled into surgery. Explaining to him why we couldn't go with him was really hard--look close and you can see the tear stains on his cheeks!

Post-op Goliath

He ended up having a tough time fully shaking off the effects of the anesthesia, so he spent the night on the pediatric floor of the hospital for observation. I slept on a chair in his room, and we both were awakened every 90 minutes by a nurse checking his vitals, doing breathing checks, etc. At about 4:00 in the morning, after one such check, I got up to turn off all the lights. I was sure he had gone right back to sleep, but I heard his little voice in the darkness say, "I didn't expect it to turn out like this, Mommy."

Neither did I, buddy.

The next morning, Hubby brought the brothers and some McDonald's breakfast for all of us to share before Goliath was discharged. He now has a fiberglass splint that reaches from his fingers almost to his shoulder. His arm is wrapped up in bandages and he is wearing a sling to keep it "still" (yeah, right!). He will get a regular cast in a few days after the swelling has had time to go down.

As soon as we left the hospital, we packed up the car and made a beeline for home. I'm all for adventure, but this weekend was a little more excitement than any of us bargained for. Thing is, with 3 little cowboys, I doubt this will be the last time that family fun becomes a medical mishap! As one ER nurse said, "This is par for the course for a boy mom."