The Gibbs Life: Our Long Weekend

I know I'm a week behind, but I've been meaning to chronicle our long Memorial Day weekend. It wasn't TOO eventful, but it did start out with a bit of a scare.

Friday night, our family decided to go out to eat in Rochester. We opted for El Loro, a Mexican restaurant that's in an old train depot. It was a beautiful night, so after dinner on the deck, we decided to go for an after-dinner stroll on the nearby bike/walk path.

All was good until we were almost back to our car. We were walking in the right lane and spotted a couple bikes coming down the hill toward us in the other lane. Steve was ahead with Bode, and Maggie was by my side, furthest from the other lane. I had just gotten done telling her to stay right next to me due to the bicyclists when, at the last minute, she bolted behind me directly in front of the oncoming bike. I screamed, the bicyclist screamed, and the next thing I knew Maggie was clobbered and fell flat on her face while the bicycle (sans rider) continued over her.

I snatched Maggie up as soon as I could get to her, and checked her over quickly for any major injuries. Although she was all bloody and scraped up, I observed that she appeared to have no serious trauma. (We found out later that the reason Maggie had run over to the other lane was because she saw a heart drawn in chalk. *sigh*)

I had briefly forgotten about the bicyclist in my motherly panic, a 40-something year old mom who was with her teenage daughter, but after I checked Maggie over and had her in my arms, I soon started reassuring the woman that this was not her fault and that Maggie was fine while Steve put the chain back on her bike. Steve remembered to ask how she was, and it seemed she was physically fine, though very shaken up by the whole incident. Meanwhile, Maggie was hysterical, and continued screaming and crying while we walked back to the car, drove home to Stewartville, and took a warm bath.

At El Loro - goofing around before "the incident."

That night she zonked right away due to emotional exhaustion. And I had so many thoughts and emotions going on while replaying the whole incident over and over in my mind for much of the night. Ah - could have been so much worse. We are thankful.

The first non-sad face I got out of her that night. This photo doesn't really show the extent of her scrapes. Her nose looked much worse the next day.

The rest of the weekend was filled with gorgeous weather and lots of friends.

Visited by our dear friends, the Larsons, Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. (Have I mentioned there's a baby under that striped shirt?)

Earlier in the week, I was running with Bode in the jogging stroller when we came across this field of dandelions. "Mommy, pick flowers?" Couldn't resist.