Grandma, four presidents, tipis & water slides

7-21-07

I almost feel guilty because we had a fun-filled day while much more serious things were playing out in California. We were literally standing in front of Mt. Rushmore when we got a phone call from Dee telling us that Grandma Kit had gone into the emergency room early this morning and would be having surgery in a little while. We were very concerned, but our impression at that time was that it was supposed to be relatively minor surgery (maybe even laparoscopic). Maybe we misunderstood or maybe Dee didn’t know for sure at that point yet, but we learned later that day that it was pretty major surgery. The blood flow to part of her bowels had been cut off because of some artery problems so they had to remove part of her intestines. That certainly explains why she hadn’t been feeling well on the trip. It’s hard to have a good time when you can’t digest your food.

Anyway, we found out later that day that the surgery went well, and she will be having at least one follow-up surgery later once she recovers from this one in order to repair the internal plumbing.

Thinking that it was relatively minor at the time and not being able to do much because we were in South Dakota, we decided to finish our plans for the day. Once we spoke with Dee later in the day we would decide if we should come home early.

We did have a very fun day though. One of the reasons I had pushed to catch back up on the driving is that I knew that today would be a blast for the kids without a lot of driving. Our campground was only about ten minutes from Mt. Rushmore (or the Faces of Liberty, as Zac calls them) so we were there fairly early. Everyone enjoyed the monument, and the kids even seemed to like the museum.

Afterward, we drove a little over an hour to Hot Spings, South Dakota where we had a few surprises for the kids. We went to a campground where Alex, Zac and I went on a horseback trail ride through the hills. We had a good time even though the kids were scared for a little while when the horses were spooked by a large sheep that caught them by surprise. We then took them to Evan’s Plunge, a water park that is supplied with the natural warm mineral water that gives the town its name. All of us had a great time there.

That night the two older kids and I slept in an Indian tipi (Becky and Katie stayed in the RV). Alex and Zac were very exited about the theoretical idea of this, but they grew a little nervous when we had wind, lightening and a little rain. They even started asking about mountain lions. Fortunately, they were tired enough to fall asleep before too long.

Back to Grandma Kit. We expected to hear from Dee sometime today, but we realized in the middle of the afternoon that there was no cell phone coverage in Hot Spings. It took us forever to find a working pay phone, and when we finally did, we realized for the first time just how serious Kit’s surgery was. We debated whether we should start driving home right away, but we decided to get some sleep and start out early tomorrow morning.

Grandma is in our prayers.