True and Horrifying Confessions!

 

It was July 28th and Rick and I were on our way back to Bear Lake. We had an appointment with the “shoulder doctor” and the Dr.’s office was on the way. We however, were stopped in our tracks when the Dr. said he had looked at the MRI and discovered that one muscle in the rotator cuff had completely torn through and another one had been torn off the bone many years ago.

He then gave us the cheerful news that after surgery Poor Richard would need to be in a brace/sling for 6 weeks without moving his shoulder, then another six weeks doing intense physical therapy and then it would be another two months after that before he would be able to swing a tennis racket.  Immediately we decided that the journey to recovery needed to start right away. We went straight back home and prepared for surgery the next morning. Even though there were still several families at the lake, many had gone home and those who were left offered to help clean and clear things out for the renters who were arriving on the weekend.

Fast forward to day before yesterday.  We had fun with Saren and Jared and their “five in five years.” We drove to Ogden and took the kids to Cars 2 and then we had a yummy dinner at the fabulous Sonora Grill with Saren and Jared.  Early the next morning Dad went to Logan to help Grandma and Sheri and I went to church with the Looslis. Dad came back to pick me up and visit for a while.  Just as we got up to leave Jared said, “Wait Silas and Oliver have something to tell you.”  “Okay,” smiled Dad, “let’s hear it.”  

“Well I think you better sit down for this one,” Jared said and we sat down. Oliver then spilled the beans about what happened with details also pouring out of Silas like water out of a spout.  

You see that tractor in the background there in the picture below that the grandkids have been told a hundred times not to get on because it’s dangerous and not ours, it’s our neighbor’s?

Well our darling twins Oliver and Silas got on the tractor to play. Their cousin McKay was playing on our sailboat behind the tractor which was attached by a trailer hitch. There is nothing in this world that Silas and Oliver love more than mechanical things and how they work. Apparently Silas began pulling knobs and and fiddling with switches for all he was worth when the tractor suddenly STARTED! The worst news is that it was IN GEAR and they had no idea in their wildest dreams how to stop it!  They were pouring out details so fast they we’re still not sure we have all of them but this is the gist of what happened next:

With two six year olds (we’re not absolutely sure whether they were filled with glee or terror…probably both) at the wheel and a five year old hanging on to the sailboat mast (we’re pretty sure in terror) they made a pretty interesting trip around the sandy area where the tractor sat. They did admit to crushing a bucket and bumping in to one of the jet skiis (which luckily was already defunct). 

 

That said, they somehow managed to miss all the these fences (below) and the pavilion (above). They also managed to miss the lake and missed hitting any bumps or large clumps of sagebrush that might have thrown them off when we can only imagine the worst that could happen.  They finally headed for a hill of sand that was too steep for the little tractor and after spinning it’s wheels for a while, it clicked a few times and stopped.

 

 

Now that a month has passed, I managed to avoid fainting but I have to admit feeling pretty weak in the knees by the time the whole story spilled out. I could imagine them driving into the kitchen of the pavilion and getting clonked on the head with debris or hitting the hot tub or driving away into the wild blue yonder of the lake. The possibilities are endless! 

Of course there were lessons learned….they had gone down there without telling their parents who were preparing dinner and didn’t even know they were gone.  They were sure that they would never play on the tractor again AND they knew how good it felt to tell us the truth and get it off their consciences (we hadn’t seen each other since that day until then).

McKay was the first one to tell his parents (I think just before prayers that night) and the twins, we think, were in quite a lot of trouble when the news was out! Oliver said that he was telling Silas not to fiddle with the controls. Silas admitted that he was the one who actually started the tractor and was very repentant!  Luckily Jared (who grew up driving tractors himself when he was only a few years older than these guys) was able to start the tractor and get it back to its original place without any harm done other than near heart-attacks experienced by parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles.  

 

Once we recovered from the original shock and now that we know that everybody’s okay, you just can’t help but look at these three musketeers and laugh.  What a great story this will be for the rest of their lives!  Left to right: McKay (5), Oliver and Silas (6)

 

 

Still we’re just glad that it wasn’t this tractor!  The next time you go to the farm in Ashton Saren and Jared, maybe you better double check that you know exactly where the keys are to this big guy!