One for the record books...

The second week of July we had a family reunion up at my parent's house for my Dad's side of the family. For the last two summers my Dad will drag their travel trailer out of the barn and take it to my Mom's family reunion, and then leave it parked out in the backyard as extra boarding space at their family reunion. This year 4 of the granddaughters and a friend were the lucky ones relegated to the trailer for the weekend.

I spent the majority of my weekend keeping the kids out of the trailer during waking hours as let's face it, you never know what a pack of kids will do inside a trailer without the prying eyes of adults watching. Not to mention the amount of dirt alone that could be brought in since my parents live in the country! It rained on and off for the majority of the reunion, but there wasn't too much complaining.

Saturday was probably the the day we got the most rain, and some how the same herd of children I had to keep out of the trailer managed to get themselves stranded out in the rain. Okay, so they weren't really stranded so much as on the front porch of the house with no means of getting to their tents/trailers. Some of the kids were still dry, but some thought dancing in the rain would be a really good idea. My Mom being the saint that she is caved in when two of the kids asked for towels since they were now freezing. She had also invited the kids to come in out of the rain, but they didn't have the common sense to take her up on the idea.

A little bit of time goes by, and all of the kids disappear off the front porch, and are now running in the opposite direction of the main reunion area. Next thing we know the little angels are sprinting through the backyard towards my parent's trailer! Now if my parent's didn't want them playing in there while they were dry they certainly didn't want them in there after they had been playing in the rain, and running through he mud to get there!

Fulfilling my duty I got an umbrella from my Mom and headed out to evict the little rain dancers. Boy was I surprised to see just how much rain had fallen! There seemed to be an inch of standing water in the backyard between the house and the trailer. I sloshed my way over to the trailer only to discover that the little angels that were up to no good had locked the trailer door!!!

I didn't take long for me to get all the kids back out of the trailer, make sure all the windows and hatches were shut securely, and head back to the warmth and security of the house.

[Now anyone who has known me for any length of time will know that I am not the most graceful of people, and gravity often plays mean tricks on me. My Mom kept trying to convince me I would grow out of the gangly phase when I got a little older, but it hasn't worked out that way yet!]

So I go to make my triumphant walk back to the house feeling good about the work I have just done when I should happen to put my foot down on the top step of the trailer. It is at this point I realize that the tread on my shoes and the sandpaper on the step are insufficient traction in the downpour we have been having for the last hour or so. I am sure it was a spectacular fall that I did right out of the trailer. Thankfully the steps of the trailer broke my fall!

I tried to regain my composure, and realized that it was futile to open the umbrella up for the walk back to the house. I hobbled in and apparently eldest (and now favorite) Niece was the only one to have actually seen me "trip the light show fantastic" as we like to say, and it apparently gave her quite the scare. By the way she talked about it I think she was surprised I still had a head! In retrospect it could have ended much worse!

I wasn't feeling too bad about the fall once I had clean, dry pants on again, but I should have known it would take my body some time to realize what just happened! About 30 minutes later I start having a rather delightful pain in my back side. I chalked the pain up to a fleeting reminder of the steps breaking my fall, but it just wouldn't go away.

[Now here is where the title of this blog come in to play.] Now I have had some wonderful bruises in my day, but the bruise I discovered after this little slip out of the trailer truly takes the cake! I swear that this massive, cantaloupe sized instantaneous purple bruise was the worst bruise I have ever gotten! The worst part is that I can't even show it off! [You will just have to imagine a copy of the photo I took for posterity's sake right here.} So if I were ever to keep a record book of my best injuries of all times, this would be the #1 bruise ever!

Thankfully it was all healed by the following weekend when I drove to northern UT with a friend. That would have been one killer trip for sure! It was hard making the 3 1/2 hour trip home from the reunion!