She Fought the Bike...

And the bike won!

Last Sunday had major potential to be a great day.  After church, the girls and I headed to Smith Lake to help our sweet friend Emma celebrate her 7th birthday.  Emma's sort of like family.  We've been to every birthday party she's had since she and Towns were three, so even her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents feel like family.  Towns and Cate were pretty excited to see Emma's cousin Piper who's two years old because they like to pretend she's their baby. We'd talked about it for weeks.  The girls absolutely couldn't wait to get there, and if I'm being honest, I couldn't wait to have zero cell service for a whole day.  Hello relaxation!

It was all going as smooth as silk until the kids decided they wanted to ride their bikes.  Little did I know, this would be the last time I saw Towns in one piece...

If you've ever been to a lake house of any kind, you know the driveways are long and steep.  The driveway down to Emma's lake house wins the award for both of those.  They were told numerous times that riding a bike down such a driveway was completely off limits.  Towns has always been our child who plays by the rules and is scared to death to get in trouble.  But she's also a closeted thrill seeker, much like her father.  So as she walked her bike to the top of the huge hill, I told my friend Jennifer that there was no way she was about to come back down it on her bike.  Conner even ran as fast as he could to the top to make sure that's not what she was about to do.  I ate my words right then and there when I saw blondie slowly accelerate on her way down.  That slow acceleration turned to down right fast acceleration. Before I knew what was happening she was flying about 15 mph down that hill.  That's when someone flipped the slow motion switch.  I knew exactly what was going to happen, but I felt like my feet were glued to the concrete and I couldn't run towards her fast enough.  As she got closer all I could think about was that if I could jump out in front of her I'd be able to stop her before the pavement did.  I didn't get the chance.  She started wobbling and I knew that it was over for her.  Her eyes were huge and she had the fear of God in her.  She'd made it all the way to the bottom...almost.  I felt totally helpless.  I've truly never been that scared for anyone in my life.  I threw my camera down as I tried to get to her as fast I could.  She and her bike tangled up and then it sent her sliding across the concrete face down.  As I bent down to scoop her up I was literally praying that she still had teeth.  It was hands down the worst bicycle wreck a person could possibly get themselves into.  And it was my sweet, rule-following Towns.  I was shaking like a leaf and so was she.  I picked her up and she repeatedly said, "I'm ok, I'm ok" and never once did she cry.  Seconds later all she could do was apologize to me over and over again because she knew she'd done what I told her not to do and it didn't end up so great.  At that point I didn't even care.  My heart physically hurt just looking at her.  I knew she'd learned her lesson, albeit an extremely painful one.  But isn't that usually how lessons are learned?  Standing on my own two feet was out of the question.  I sat right there in the driveway and held her in my lap.  I wanted to cry hysterically as I surveyed the damage on my baby girl.  When I say it was awful, I do mean it was awful.  Everywhere I looked there was missing skin with blood in its place.  Jennifer was so sweet to fetch my camera and Towns' bicycle.  And poor Conner, Emma and Cate.  You could tell they wanted to do something to help but they didn't know what.  So for the next hour or so they made sure Towns had a handful of Hershey kisses at all times.  When she'd run low, they'd go get more.  Precious.  My husband has been in enough motorcycle accidents to know exactly what Towns was feeling.  I was so worried about her lack of emotion.  I didn't know if she'd knocked herself out or what!  He informed me that the adrenaline in her body was taking over and keeping her from feeling all the pain.  We got her cleaned up, gave her some Tylenol, and for the rest of the day she insisted that she was fine but rarely said much of anything else.  She didn't have any skin on her knees, her toes and one foot, her stomach, her arms, and her chin.  It was pretty pitiful.  But she wasn't letting that ruin Emma's birthday fun...

For the longest time she wouldn't smile for fear of her chin hurting.  I can't say that I blame her!

Later in the afternoon she started fading fast, but the talk of a boat ride perked her up.  Even if it doesn't exactly look like it...

One person who thoroughly enjoyed it was Cate. She felt like such a big shot sitting in the front of the boat with the older kids...

Townsy had a good time watching Emma and Conner wake board.  I could tell she wanted to try it, but I wasn't about to let her out there in her condition...

It was Conner's first time to try it and he looked like an old pro. And it was fun to watch Emma showing us her dance moves while she was wake boarding.  Such fun little loves they are!

After a full day, it was time to get back to reality.  And that included sleeping most of the way home...

Bless her little heart, she couldn't take it a second longer.

I walked her into school Monday so that I could tell Mrs. Propst what happened.  Otherwise I'm sure she'd have one hand on the phone ready to call DHR. Slowly, but surely, her wounds are healing.  I keep asking her if I need to write a note to keep her from having to play in PE or participate in dance, but she continues to tell me that she's fine...

She calls it fine, I call it tough as nails!
The moral of this story is twofold...
Steer clear of steep driveways and never, ever disobey your mother!
Unfortunately, Towns had to learn the hard way...