Hello Again

There is a great excuse as to why I have not written for so long. 

First off, while in Utah I became extremely ill and was only capable of eating crackers for about 10 days.  The day I started to feel better, everyone decided to head to Alpine Slides for the afternoon. I initially was not planning on going down the slides, but they looked like too much fun that I could not resist. There was a new ride there called "The Coaster", and we decided to give it a try after the slides. The Coaster is similar to the slide, the only difference being that it is on rails...and you have a seat belt. Just before we went on the ride, the guy told us to go as fast as possible because, "it is impossible to fall off." I was the second to last to go down (Scott was behind me). As I made my very first left hand turn, going as fast as I could, the top half of me was thrown out of the cart. Because of the force of the turn, I could not get myself back into the cart for a while. So basically the tracks ate my right arm for lunch. I was certain that my limb was going to be returned to me completely broken..... Instead I was faced with a mangled mass which started spurting blood.....but it was not broken :)

Because I had been "under the weather" for the past week, and because of the amount of blood I was losing,  I knew it was only a matter of time until I became light headed. Conveniently, there was no one on the mountain to help me, so I had the opportunity to experience The Coaster in its entirety. Just as I was about to reach the end, Scott came up behind me and yelled, "Hurry up! You're slowing me down!" Needless to say, he felt horrible when I held up my bloodied arm and shouted that I had fallen out.

My family was all standing there, waiting for my triumphant descent, when they noticed something was wrong. I was covered in blood and Jacob got a little anxious. Everyone started calling for help, and Scott ran over to get me. He wanted to lift me out of the cart himself, but I did not want to add insult to injury...so I insisted on getting out myself. With the help of a few people I was able to get out of the cart, but was then splayed right next to the ride....as people continued to get off the coaster.  What a fun image - a random woman covered in blood laying next to the ride! 

The girl who cleaned me up told me I needed stitches and that she wanted me to go down in a wheel chair because she didn't think I would be able to walk. Well, going downhill on a gravel path is no easy task. So she had to turn me backwards and pull me behind her, which meant I was the facing all forty people waiting to go on the ride. At that point I wished I had passed out because it would have been  a little bit less embarrassing than having everyone stare at me. It was somewhat entertaining to see the spectrum of reactions to my feeble descent down the hill. Some people shouted out questions, while others turned their back and acted like nothing was amiss.

Park City dropped us off at the hospital and left just in time for us to find out we had to pay all the bills out of pocket. Scott promptly made a phone call to the Alpine Slides, who denied any financial responsibility. We are still fighting that battle...details will follow on how that goes.

Four hours later I left the ER with four stitches, a number of steri-strips, an x-ray, and a $500 bill. The good part, however, was that Scott and I at least got to spend some alone time together. As we were checking out I told him that this was one of the most expensive dates we had ever had.

Well, I will have to summarize the rest of the summer....otherwise, no one will read this whole thing. I must apologize to the Barlows and the Barrys for not focusing more of this entry on all the wonderful time we spent with all our family members. We all had an incredible time visiting with everyone.

THE BARLOW FAMILY REUNION

That occurred prior to the trip to Utah. I drove with my in-laws and my two boys up to Cannon Beach (in Oregon) for the weekend. David and Jan were kind enough to rent suites for each family, so the boys and I had plenty of space to spread out and relax. My brothers-in-law were also kind enough to help out with my boys so I was able to go out with the girls a few times. My favorite image of the weekend had to be when all the little boy cousins were dancing around a massive sparkler/firework in the middle of the night....it was a total Lord of the Flies moment. 

UTAH

I was able to spend two weeks in Utah visiting with my side of the family. It actually wound up being a mini Barry Family reunion. We all decided to hold Thanksgiving in July since Scott and I will not be here in November. My parents even make a last minute decision to fly out for the event.  We full-on did the whole Thanksgiving feast...I am talking turkey, stuffing, and pies. It was totally random and a total blast. Besides my week and a half of illness and my mutilated arm, Utah was awesome. 

The flight back to Singapore went well. Luckily the plane was not too crowded, and we were able to spread out a bit. Because he is a Gold Class Member on Singapore Airlines, Scott had been bumped up too Business Class on his way out to the States (Side note: Scott actually texted me while he was in Business Class to tell me this and how glad he was because he had two kids sitting behind him in coach.....excuse me!? I had two kids sitting with me in coach!)We were hoping that Scott would have the same privilege on the  flight back to Singapore, but we had no such luck. Scott had to suffer with the rest of us in lowly coach. 

We have pretty much adjusted back to life here on our little Asian island. The boys start school on Wednesday - I am both thrilled and depressed about that fact. We met both their teachers this past Saturday and I think they are going to have a great year. I have listed all our pictures from the summer in the post below to make things a little easier for me. Enjoy!