The Big Vacation

Yes, you may be thinking we have taken an awful lot of vacations this summer. And you are right. But I think this one may just qualify as the "Big" vacation. The reason will soon be clear. We went to Colorado to visit Paul's family because his little bro Eric was getting married to the lovely Ashley. This trip has been much anticipated by us and the rest of the Rigg clan. Yes, the wedding was exciting, but the plan was to spend the weekend before the wedding at LAKE POWELL! This is something that the Riggs have done often in their growing up summers. I remember when Paul and I were first dating and he told me how someday I would come to Lake Powell with his family. I have never really been to a lake. Not like that. Not with a boat. Not with wakeboards and tubes and skis and houseboats and ton of delicious food. So I didn't really know what to expect.

We finally got to Fruita where Paul's parents live at 3:30 in the AM after a frustrating missed flight and a generous rescue by April. She drove us from SLC through the night to Fruita. I'm not quite sure how to make that long story short. Let's just say, she ended up getting her heart broken by Peter, Paul's younger and very available brother. (Don't worry, we'll get some pictures of him in here for those single friends of mine who may be interested.)

Like I said, we arrived at 3:30 and left at 4:30. We laugh in the face of sleep.


We got all set up on the houseboat, cruised out to where we were going to dock/camp and started off for the first tubing adventure of the weekend. We were all having a blast. I was deciding that I too was developing a deep love for Lake Powell. I had never been there before and pictured it kind of dry and ugly. Well guess what. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my entire life. Then Paul and Eric (the brother getting married the next weekend) decided to go on one last ride on the Delta Double, a two-seater tube. They got some air, flew out of the tube, and landed on each other's heads. And this was the result about 12 hours later.



Yes, that is my sweet Paul in the ICU in Grand Junction. When they had their accident Paul was knocked unconcious. I saw him floating face down in the water. That was the scariest moment of my life. Eric was still concious and able to turn him over. We in the boat got back to them with a quickness and Peter (the available brother) jumped out and got Paul back in the boat. Paul was seizing and as Pete lifted him out of the water to hand him to Paul's Dad and brother-in-law, I saw a huge tube of blood shoot out of his head. That's when I gave myself a talking to to calm down, because I was about to lose it. Eric climbed himself back into the boat before we noticed he was bleeding a ton out of his head too.

After dropping off some of the crew at the houseboat, Jeff and Peter giving them blessings, and the longest 30 minute boatride of my life we got them back to the marina area. Paul was concious but not with-it at all. They both had mostly stopped bleeding, which was great. Paul kept asking the same questions over and over and then got mostly unresponsive and a little angry. There was an ambulance at the marina and a ton of EMTs appeared. They got Eric off the boat and onto a board while the rest of the responders fought with Paul. He told one of the EMTs that he was going to hit him if he didn't let go of his head as they were trying to get a neck brace on him.

They took him and Eric to a little clinic, got Paul stabalized and called for a Life Flight to take him to the hospital in Grand Junction. They pretty much paralyzed him and put a breathing tube in because he was being so fiesty. There was no room for me in the helicopter, so I stayed with the rest of them while Eric got his 15 staples in his head and big bottle of pain medicine. Ashley (the brave fiance) drove me (still sleepless) and Eric back to Grand Junction where I left them at Paul's parents house and I went to the hospital.

Paul's Grandpa Bob and his wife Karen had met Paul at the hospital and stayed with him until I got there. They told me Paul had his stomache pumped, got a CAT scan and had his head stapled up before I got there. I was so glad they were there when I got there. It was pretty scary seeing Paul all tubed up and still unconcious. I got tucked in on a little couch in his room and slept for about an hour before the Dr came in in the morning to say Paul's breathing tube could come out. Before they could take it out though, Mr Fiesty pulled it out himself. The nurses came a-runnin', none too happy with Mr Pullerouter, but he was fine.

He gradually woke up and became more and more able to remember things. He eventually got unhooked from all his tubes and moved to a regular room.

These are the staples in his head.


This is him resting peacefully in the new room on the regular neuro trauma unit.


This is Paul so incredibly happy to have his stupid neck brace off.


He got to the hospital Friday night and was out of the hospital on Sunday morning.
Paul is fine fine fine now. Lots of things happened just right so that nothing more serious happened. I definitely prayed a lot and know that I wasn't the only one praying for my sweet husband. I am sure that he was looked out for.

I know some of you are thinking, "Oh man. Paul doesn't have any insurance." You are right. But thankfully the boat insurance is going to cover all of his medical bills! That is another huge blessing.

So the rest of our week was a little tamer than we had originally planned, but still incredible. It was so nice to spend time with family. It felt like we were ther FOREVER, in a really good way.

I think this picture is hilarious. We went for a drive Sunday night after everyone was back home together. We drove up on the monument, which is beautiful. But here are poor Eric and Paul, hurting, while the rest of us enjoy the view.


We went up to the Grand Mesa where we saw some views, had a picnic and fished. Yup, I caught my first fish of the summer. A nice little Brook Trout. Kathy, Ashley and I were the only ones to catch anything. I told them all how my friend Brittany had never roasted a hotdog before she came to visit us this summer. Everyone was properly amazed. Then Ashley admitted this was her first roasted hotdog ever! So Brittany, you're not alone.







We went out to eat and played with the nephews Oliver and Everett.






We got to go for a flight with Jeff. Paul got some sweet pictures. We flew over Arches National Park.



We went to Denver for the wedding. It was super fun to get together with the extended Rigg family. That is a group of people who are always ready for a good time.


Ashley was beautiful and Eric was stylish. 'Twas a blast. Paul got some serious food poisoning. Again, he is better now.


And now I have used up all but 24 hours of my Paid Time Off.

Pop Quiz for our readers. How much does it cost to be Life-Flighted 168 miles? We'll let you know in our next post.