Pumpkin Patch and the Urgent Care

Oh fall. Autumn. If we had moved to New Jersey in the fall, I would have been sold right away. Fall here is beautiful. One of the best things about living here is that you have one of the biggest cities and all that offers about an hour away. Or you also can feel like you're as far away from that as possible, which is my desire about 80% of the time. We have been to several farms since moving here where you can pick your own fruit or take a hayride or practice being a "goater" (June's word for someone who takes care of goats).

So on Saturday, we headed to a pumpkin patch. To look at pumpkins. Because I buy our pumpkins at Aldi for $2.50 a piece.

We went with our friends, the Wilkes. 

Did you sense a feeling of foreboding in this last photo? There is a tale to tell about these two later in the post.

We went through a corn maze, and the kids enjoyed trying to get just far enough away to be out of sight and earshot. The maze was great interval training for the adults--walk at a steady pace for 2 minutes, sprint ahead for 30 seconds to find lost kids, walk again, sprint again, etc.

We played on the hay, fed animals and discussed how we would run the place if it were our business. Well, the kids didn't discuss that but Dan and I did. It's something we do every single place we go. We're great at parties.

After a couple of hours, everyone was tired. Actually, only I was tired. But everyone was nice to me and agreed to leave. The whole group came over to our house for pizza and a failed pinterest ice cream dessert. Par for the course around here.

At about this point of the evening, Gwen and Ruby were fighting over a toy and Gwen pushed Ruby off the trampoline. We even have an enclosed trampoline, but she fell just through the crack that was left open so the kids could climb on and off. Ruby cried and cried and cried. That's the only way I can ever tell when it's a serious injury--the crying just never subsides. The sweet Wilkes kept reassuring us that they were sure she was fine, but eventually they did decide to take her to the urgent care . . .

where it was discovered that Ruby had broken her collarbone.

Now the only thing that could have made this situation worse would have been if the adults didn't remain calm.

Which is why I bawled my eyes out for only thirty minutes instead of my standard ninety.

I don't think I'm a person who has a lot of drama in my life, but I am extremely emotional. So the evening ended up with Ruby's parents comforting me as I went through the five stages of grief about the injury that had taken place on my trampoline.

Kendra gave me a call, and I sobbed and sobbed. She kept telling me that it was fine and that Ruby was laughing and playing.

After I got off the phone with her, I ran to Dan and cried some more. He finally turned to me and said, "Why don't you do us all a favor and just go to bed?"

And he was right. The next morning was much better, and I only teared up once that day.

Poor sweet Ruby.

And poor Gwen. It's hard being the perpetrator.

But mostly--poor me.

Just kidding.

Thank goodness for great friends who love us anyway.