Friday, August 3, 2012

Lucky

This post is for Monday, July 30

It’s Rachel.

Before I get to the lucky part, I’ll tell you a little about Sunday. Instead of going to church, we decided to go to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing and the Orchestra at Temple Square play. It’s a program called Music and the Spoken Word. It was pretty neat to hear them sing in person because I’ve seen them on a broadcast lots of times. One of the songs they sang was “76 Trombones” from the Music Man. We loved it!

My parents borrowed a wheelchair to help us get around Temple Square. Christian started saying that he had a broken foot. By the end of the day, he kept steeling my crutches and yelling, “No! I need crutches! Christian have broken foot!” Sometimes, he would even limp around the room like I do.

In the afternoon, we played with cousins. We started with cousin lunch. I made Muddy Buddies with a few of my cousins. They were yummy and it was very, very, very fun making them. I started feeling like I could still do some things with my broken foot.

Monday started out by us going to the Alpine Slides. The Alpine Slide starts at the top of a mountain and then you ride in a little thing-i-mijigy down it.  I was NOT looking forward to this. I mean I had been down the Alpine Slide and loved it. Now I was looking forward to riding the ski lift up and down, which is fun, but it isn’t a slide. My family got there an hour early and decided to explore. They had put in a lot of new things since the last time we had been there. One of these new things was the Alpine coaster. My dad took Taylor, Sarah Ann, and I to look at it, but since I’m slow on my crutches, they got there before I did. My dad talked to someone who ran it and he said that I could probably go on it after all – even though I had a broken foot. I went back down and some other people from our family reunion had arrived. Two of them were doctors and my mom talked to them about it. They said that as long as I kept my boot on I would be fine to go on the ride.

I was soooooooooooo excited as I went on the slide and coaster. On the both of them you control your speed. I was careful not to go too fast on the slide because people have fallen off the ride before, and I don’t need another broken foot. On the coaster you can’t fall off, and they said it was safer to go faster. Although you can’t control your speed going uphill, I sure went fast on the downhill portion.

That afternoon we went swimming with a bunch of other people from the family reunion. We thought the pool was closed, but it turned out it wasn’t. Another stroke of luck! I spent a lot of time spraying people with water guns. I was sad to leave the family reunion.

The most surprising thing ever occurred on the way to Salt Lake City. We were driving down the freeway when all of a sudden someone started waving at us out their window. As we pulled up to the car we recognized the driver as someone we know. The driver was an old friend who had moved from Massachusetts to Utah about four years ago. He motioned us to follow him to an exit. We both pulled over at the exit. As the people got out of the car, we saw that with him were some of our friends who currently live in Massachusetts and were just visiting Utah. What are the chances of that happening?

We reached our destination not so long after that. It was the house of some friends who also used to live in Massachusetts. They have four boys and since they moved they had a new baby girl. We had a fun time playing with them. We ate dinner and played some fun games: Pounce and Telestration. They boys all slept in the basement after some serious parent persuasion. Sarah Ann and I slept upstairs in peace. Overall, it was a very, very fun and lucky day.
Mom and Christian on the Alpine Slide

Here I am on the Alpine Coaster

Our friends we saw on the road!

Playing games with our friends from Massachusetts

6 comments:

  1. Ah the Alpine Slide! Happy to hear you were able to go on it Rachel! The coaster looks fun too!

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  2. It sounds like a broken foot didn't keep you down! I was watching the olympics and they told the story of the female gymnast in 1996 who performed on the vault even though she was injured. She got a very high score, and team USA won the gold medal - but it ended her career. And afterwards they learned that the team didn't even need her score to win. It was a very selfless act on her part - but an unnecessary sacrifice. so, here's my question. Do you think it was worth it - for her? Because we don't know what she might have done, I guess we won't really be able to answer that question adequately.

    I'm glad you are having a terrific time. It sounds like you have more adventures ahead!! We're looking forward to hearing about them.

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  3. It was great to see you guys. Hope the rest of your trip goes just as lucky.

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  4. Hi Sarah Ann,
    I just returned from my vacation and had a great time reading all about your adventures when I returned. I am so sorry that Rachel broke her foot. Unfortunately my son, Eric, broke his ankle this summer, too. He broke it while wakeboarding for the first time. His cast will come off on August 24, right before school starts. I think that he understands how Rachel feels.
    I am excited to start school again. Are you? I can't get my room ready yet because summer school is in there until Thursday. After that they will clean my room and then I can get ready.
    I think that your teacher is going to be so lucky to have you this year. You have so many wonderful adentures to share with your new friends. I bet that you could fill a whole journal :)
    I can't wait to read more about your trip.
    Mrs. Schliemann

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  5. So glad that you got to go down the slide--I went down it once and it was so much fun.

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  6. Hi Rachel
    Reading these words and seeing your constant smile in the photos is a true blessing. I'm so happy that you're still having fun. And what a coincidence to see friends unexpectedly! Sounds like a great day!

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