Sunriver

If you have never been to Sunriver, Oregon, you should really considering planning a vacation there! It is such a beautiful place to go, and so many fun things to do with kids. There are miles and miles of bike paths, an amazingly fun aquatics center, playgrounds, horseback riding, golf, and much more. It is used a lot by various organizations and groups for meetings as they have great convention and meeting centers. And since there are so many other fun activities, there is never time to be bored.

Greg's work had some meetings scheduled for the weekend of September 21-23 so we decided to head down on Thursday night so we could take full advantage of the time we had there. We brought bikes for Greg and the boys and I planned to rent one while we were there. On Friday the kids and I rented my bike and a trailer for Caden when we went on a family bike ride. Then we met up with a friend of Kyler's from school who was there with his family for the same meetings. We went to the aquatics center and played together. It was so much fun!

Saturday morning after a wonderful breakfast with the whole group, we headed out to do some biking. Caden enjoyed his ride in the bike trailer while the rest of us roasted in the sun. Most of the time we all did really well. I, however, am horribly out of shape and when we got to some hills, I had a pretty tough time keeping up! Kyler on the other hand, did amazing! I don't know how many miles we rode, but it was a lot and he was such a trooper. We rewarded the boys for doing so well by going to a really fun park to play for awhile toward the end of the ride.

Riding down the path of happiness

Such beauty along the ride

Taking a little lunch break

Then, just as we were on our way back to the condo where we were staying, Kyler lost control of his bike while going downhill and had a nasty crash. Greg and Caden were in the lead and didn't see what happened. Kyler was next and I was bringing up the rear so I got to see the whole thing happen. I could see what was going to happen before it actually took place but there was nothing I could do. :( Kyler's bike is a single-gear bike and we were going downhill at approximately 15 miles/hour (according to Greg). Kyler was trying to pedal his bike to keep up with the speed, but because he didn't have gears, he couldn't keep up and the motion of him trying to pedal so fast caused his handlebars to move too much from side to side and he went down. He went down hard.

I screamed as I saw his head (inside a helmet) hit the ground and bounce up. I stopped immediately after he fell and ran over to him very worried about what I would find. However I was pleasantly surprised to find he only had bad road rash on one leg and on one elbow and some sore hands. His helmet did its job protecting his precious head from any major injury and he said his neck didn't hurt at all. By this time, Greg had come back to find out what happened.

I kept hugging Kyler and telling him I was so glad he wasn't hurt worse. I think he was a little concerned about my reaction because he kept saying he was fine. He was okay. It didn't really hurt. We still had about a 15-minute ride back to the condo so we decided we would all ride back together because Kyler said he wanted to do that. A few minutes down the road, the adrenaline started to wear off and Kyler began to become aware of the pain he felt. We made it back to the condo before he couldn't take it any more.

We took him to the bathtub and started washing out the road rash because it was filled with dirt and gravel. Kyler started screaming about how much it hurt. So I put on some Lidocaine cream to numb the area (we have this on hand thanks to Caden receiving daily growth hormone therapy injections—it helps him deal with the anxiety/pain of his shots). After we let it sit for a few minutes we came back and really scrubbed Kyler's wounds. He said it didn't even hurt at all so we were grateful for that. Whether the cream really works that well, or if it was all in his head, we don't care. We are just glad he calmed down enough to let us clean it out. In the end, he ended up with several band aids on his leg and a couple on some minor abrasions on his hands from where he tried to catch himself. But I think we were all lucky! He could have come away with broken wrists, broken collar bone, broken leg, or worst of all a severe head injury. But all he had was road rash and some bruises. Thank you Lord for watching over our sweet boy! We are truly grateful! Be sure to wear those helmets, kids!

Sunday morning, the boys and I loaded up our car while Greg finished up his meetings, then we hit the road back to Walla Walla. It really was a fun weekend, depsite Kyler getting hurt. I would love to go back and spend more time there where we can truly have a vacation.