Heidi fell off the slide at recess yesterday and broke her arm. The school freaked out and called 9-1-1. One police car, one ambulance, and one fire truck showed up. We opted to forego an expensive ambulance ride to the ER, but the EMTs still carried her to the minivan:
The firefighters put her arm in a temporary splint
The diagnosis was a supracondylar fracture. The bone was displaced, so she had to get surgery to realign the bone.
Swollen and bruised. Before surgery.
After surgery.
The surgeon's handiwork. He put in three temporary pins to align the fractured bone. The pins will be removed later.
Safe at home the next morning
The next step will be to remove the splint and put on a cast next Thursday. (It's too swollen to put on a cast right now.) After that she will wear the cast for three weeks. She has lots of limitations on her physical activity for the next three months until it heals completely.
This one wasn't at the Nature & Science Center, but we saw it on the same trip. It's the Treaty Oak.
The Treaty Oak in Austin, Texas is estimated to be about 500 years old. In 1989, in an act of deliberate vandalism, the tree was poisoned with the powerful hardwood herbicideVelpar. Lab tests showed the quantity of herbicide used would have been sufficient to kill 100 trees. The intensive efforts to save the Treaty Oak included applications of sugar to the root zone, replacement of soil around its roots and the installation of a system to mist the tree with spring water. Although arborists expected the tree to die, the Treaty Oak survived. Still, almost two-thirds of the tree died and more than half of its crown had to be pruned. (Before its vandalism, the tree's branches had a spread of 127 feet.) In 1997, the Treaty Oak produced its first crop of acorns since the vandalism. City workers gathered and germinated the acorns, distributing the seedlings throughout Texas and other states. Today the tree is a thriving, though lopsided, reminder of its once-grand form. Many Texans see the Treaty Oak as a symbol of strength and endurance.
William fell on his face and got a major goose egg. He says he has a turkey on his head. (Goose... turkey... get it?) ;)
We got a tour of the birds of prey. (Can you spot 2 owls in the cage?)
Scott and the kids helped an older couple in the ward (one of Scott's ministering families) put down sod in their back yard:
Emily has been helping her father-in-law with his life story. We tracked down this lady (center), who introduced Brian to the gospel when they were teenagers, more than 40 years ago:
(I should clarify that I didn't actually meet her... just tracked her down online and sent her a letter.)
Emma figured out how to put her foot in her mouth, lol:
