Independence Weekend

Just in case anyone is still interested in what's going on around here, I thought it was time to post an update. Last weekend Alice tested for her purple belt in kung fu. She passed with flying colors. Most impressive for us was the three places in her mandatory form where she must hold a pose on one leg for several seconds. That kind of balance is hard for her and kung fu has really helped.

The kung fu school always walks in our local July 4th parade. Last year we told Alice she couldn't walk with them because of the distance (1.7 miles) and the heat (it's typically in the upper 80s to low 90s with high humidity). This year she was determined to be in the parade so we let her go with her big sister. Lucy (who is EXTREMELY hot-blooded) wisely decided to sit in the shade and watch the parade go by with us. Molly did her hair in braids before we left home and Lucy was very pleased with her "new do" -

We were sitting close to the end and Alice looked hot but okay (and very happy) when they passed. (Camera was on the wrong settings so the pictures are terrible. ARGH!)

There was another 15-20 minutes of parade after their group. I headed to the exhibit field at the end of the parade route to get Alice while Steve and Lucy took all of our stuff (including my camera) to the van. I arrived to find Alice on the ground (under the kung fu school canopy) being iced down and looking ill. An emergency crew arrived minutes behind me to check her out for heat exhaustion. Because no one could say for sure if she actually stopped sweating, everyone felt it would be best for her to be check out at the hospital. So Alice, Molly and I had our first ambulance ride! Steve and Lucy met us at the emergency room. We were extremely fortunate that it was still early in the day (lunch time) and the holiday craziness hadn't started. She was wheeled in and within 15 minutes we were in a room and she was being checked out. They decided to do some blood tests and give her a liter of IV fluids. All the tests results were very good, so after she finished the IV we got to go home, but altogether we were probably at the hospital over 2 hours.

One positive outcome from the parade was when we pointed out some of the unusual bicycles in the parade. Lucy was very interested. It reminded me that I had found a bicycle shop less than an hour from our house that carries a huge variety of specialty bikes. We took the girls yesterday to check them out and decided on a recumbent trike that wasn't assembled. We put a deposit on one and they assembled it overnight and we went back today for a test drive. The girls really liked it. They could ride up inclines and use the handbrakes, which was a big challenge on the 2 wheel bike. Lucy never got to where she could ride the 2 wheeler, so she is thrilled that she can ride a bike now! (Due to cost, they're going to share for now - until we find out how much they REALLY will use it.)