Cuillard Vacation

We are back from our family vacation. We took the kids up to Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio. We rented a place inbetween both of the lakes, and our friends, the Hulls, met us up there. They are probably the only family brave enough to go on vacation with us. We had a blast. Great water, great sun, and great laughs. The week was eventful to say the least. The first day we went to Lake Nacimiento and I managed to back up over the rope and completely get it tangled in the prop. Scott didn't kill me, but I am pretty sure he wanted to. It took him a little more than 2 hours to cut out most of the rope. Luckily I did not completely kill the engine, and we were able to continue. Whew, what a relief. Everytime I do something really stupid with the boat I stress, because it is usually not an inexpensive fix. That is the thought that came to me when later that same day I hit something with the prop. It only scraped it a little bit, but it is not fun waiting to see what the damage turns out to be. I hate that part. Fortunately, it was just a little scrape, and that one really wasn't my fault....the water level was really low, and I cut the engine as soon as it hit. So, that was our first day. The second day, Curtis was wakeboarding and bailed on his first run of the morning. His head hit the board, and he was bleeding everywhere. Since I am an expert with cut heads, and know that heads bleed a lot, and cut heads in water REALLY bleed a lot....I was hoping it wasn't as bad as the blood made it look. I was so grateful that he did not need stitches...After that accident, Curtis learned that it was better to wakeboard with this... The next day was a lot better. We tried Lake San Antonio, and we really liked it. James and Curtis discovered that they could both wakeboard at the same time, and they had so much fun...

The Hull's didn't make it up until the next day. When you put the Cuillard family and the Hull family together, the odds are pretty good that someone will most likely get hurt. The victim this time was Charlie. Here is Charlie before the incident.....

Here he is right after.....WARNING: For those of you with a weak stomach, you might want to skip over this one......

This is what happened, a bunch of the kids were jumping off of the back of the boat. Charlie did not wait for Shaylee to move out of the way, so when he jumped, his mouth landed on her forehead. Both of the kids were screaming, and Charlie's mouth was gushing blood. When I went to get him, it was hard to tell how bad it really was, because I couldn't keep the blood cleared out. I let Scott and Shane take a look, and knew it was bad when I heard Shane say, "yeah, you'll have to take him in." I didn't realize that it was not only cut on the inside, but on the outside as well. It looked like he had completely bitten through it. Charlie was in a lot of pain, and a bit hysterical. I was grateful that Shane and Scott thought to give him a Priesthood blessing. It was really scary for Charlie to see the blood and know that he had to go to the hospital. As soon as he received the blessing, he seemed to really calm down. He was really relaxed on the way, and a true champ while he was getting the stitches. The doctor had suggested sedating him, but I really didn't want him to have to go through that. The doctor decided to try it without, and see how he handled it. Charlie was so good. It had to kill, especially when he was shooting the numbing medicine in his open wound.....ouch! Charlie stayed really still, and barely cried. I was worse than him, and needed a sweat towel by the end. Nothing is worse than seeing your little child in pain. Plus, it was soooo nasty looking. Here is a close up of him with the stitches.....5 inside the mouth, and 5 on the outside. It turned out he did not bite completely through, he must have cut the outside with his top teeth, and the inside with the bottom. The doctor thought it was completely through, until he was done with the inside and starting on the outside.

By the way, Shaylee's forehead hurt for a while, and she had a real nice bruise. Luckily, there wasn't anymore damage! Charlie has luscious lips to begin with, so with it being so swollen on the bottom lip, he looks like Bubba from the Forest Gump movie, so now I call him "Bubba"

It was such a major bummer when the doctor told Charlie he couldn't go in the lake water anymore. Charlie's favorite thing is jumping in the middle of the lake off of the boat. Yeah, that lasted for one day. Luckily, it seems to be healing pretty nicely. I am the biggest baby if I have a canker, and Charlie did not complain one time about his lip hurting. He was able to eat ok, and drink fine with a straw. Charlie learned that he could use this to his advantage. I allowed them one soda a day, and Charlie would ask for more, at first I would say no, and then he would say, "but I cut my lip" That was all it took, and he ended up getting pretty much everything he wanted. He is not stupid!

The next couple of days were pretty care free and fun. The kids got along pretty good....most of the time. Between the two families, we had 9 kids.....8 boys and 1 girl......luckily, we were out in the middle of a lake, and people couldn't hear all of the yells. We were really loud. I have known Shane since 4th grade. We were friends, but I can remember fighting with him in early morning seminary. If you had asked me 20 years ago if I thought I would go on vacation with Shane and his family I would have said absolutely no way, but things change. Shane is a crack up, and lucky for him, his wife, Juli is one of the nicest people I know. We had a lot of fun. James was a big help with the boat. Scott is lucky to have him help him all of the time, because I am pretty much good for nothing. Curtis is a good kid, and was a lot of fun. George had his meltdowns, but when he was good, he was really good. Charlie was a good sport, and had a good time with and without stitches. KC loved it. He thinks he can swim, and this was his favorite thing to do......

Yes, he is completely naked with sandals on. He loved being naked, and he loved skimming the water. I wish I could say that was it, but I made one more oops. The last day of launching the boat, I dropped Scott and a couple of kids off at the dock. I ended up going forward when I thought I was going backwards. I only drove part of the boat up on the dock. I almost hit a couple of people...one being Scott, and a young girl.....but the point is I did NOT kill anyone! I did end up scratching the boat just a little bit. Scott had been pretty good about all of my stupid things until then. At that point, his patience was gone, and we got in a bit of a tiff. After all of the emotions wore off, we were ok, but I think it scared the crud out of both of us. Here is the thing, if you don't want things like that to happen, I probably shouldn't be the one to drive it. I am actually not that bad, I am generally pretty good at it. I think you are allowed to do stuff like that one time.....hopefully! Luckily, I don't drink, because then it would be REALLY scary....can you imagine? Other than that, we were safe and happy. I love vacations, but we are back, and I have to go do another load of laundry....oh well. One last thing, while I was there, I got a call from my sister. Unfortunately, my mom has to have heart surgery this Tuesday. She has always had a heart murmur, and within the last couple of years, she has had a bit of trouble with her heart. She has been seeing a cardiologist for a while now. We have know that she would need the surgery eventually, but it looks like now is the time. So, she will go in and have a valve repaired. The surgeon is supposed to be the best one around, and she is a strong person. It is just a bummer that she has to go through this now. Luckily, I am back home and can be there with her.