4th of July

After last year's fun long weekend at Smith Lake, Brian and Shannon extended the invitation to all of us again.  Mom and Dad flew down, and we all headed up for the extra long weekend.  It was beautiful weather, and we were all looking forward to spending time together. When we arrived midday, everyone was already out on the boat, so we just unpacked and got ready.  Due to the busy holiday weekend, Brian thought it would be best to take a break and swim at the pool before heading back on the boat.

The kids love the pool, so though the pool was crowded - they had a blast!  Later that afternoon we headed out.  Brian is so patient instructing our kids, and giving them plenty of turns to try wakeboarding, kneeboarding, or whatever their hearts desire.  And that is how we spent the next two days....boating in the mornings, lunch at the house, pool in the afternoon, boating late afternoon, and dinner and fun at the house in the evening!

Pres learning to get up on the wakeboard

Walker loves "driving" Uncle Brian's boat!

On Monday morning, July 3rd, we were all up and getting ready to go boating again.  Shannon and I were cooking breakfast and Walked just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He walked into the kitchen to tell me something and then I watched the worst thing happen before my eyes.  Sadly, bacon grease got accidentally poured on the top of his head.  Thankfully his reflexes were quick, and he covered his eyes.  However, the grease ran down the top his head, over his face, chest and splattered onto his arm.  I immediately picked him up and put him under the kitchen faucet and the rest was a bit of a blur, everything except the horrific scream/cry that lasted for over 30 minutes.

Thankfully Brian and Shannon have a neighbor who is a nurse, so she came over and spoke with our pediatrician who called ahead to Children's Hospital and told them we were on our way.  We kept a cool damp cloth on him and sped back to Birmingham.  Shortly after we got on the interstate, Walker fell asleep.  I carefully removed the wet cloths and this is what I saw.  My heart broke.  I was so worried my beautiful baby was going to have scars, or that his vision might be impaired.  I sent texts to a few of my close friends and asked for prayers.  I prayed and cried the whole way there.

Due to the holiday weekend, the roads were pretty clear, so we made it back in record time.  Steve dropped us off, but by the time he parked and walked into the hospital, we were already in a room.  Walker was immediately given a popsicle so they could check him out.  Thankfully his vision was fine.  They wanted to shave his head, but I just couldn't do it.  They said he would definitely lose his hair where the burns were, and that it was imperative to keep that area clean, but they let him keep his hair.  Thankfully the burns on his head were only 2nd degree, and everywhere else was 1st degree (which they said shouldn't scar if kept out of the sun for the first year).

After an hour, they had bandaged him, instructed us how to do it going forward, paid our first installment and set up our follow-up appointment.  With such a scary situation, I felt comforted by the staff, and thankful for having a top notch hospital in our community.

Our brave little soldier

We were ready to call it quits with the lake, especially since the doctor gave us strict instructions to stay out of the sun completely until the follow up appointment.  But Walker had other plans, he was dying to return!  We went home to decompress for a bit, but after some nagging from the little guy, we drove back up.

Everyone was excited to see Walker, and surprised him with lots of goodies.  It pleased us to see his personality unchanged.  Though he wasn't able to drive the boat anymore, he was content playing inside, coloring, watching TV and playing with his cousins.

We all took turns staying inside with him, and he was okay with that.  The rest of the weekend went fine, with Pres and Bennett enjoying time with Nene, Poppy and their cousins, and perfecting their skills on the boat.