Some of our good friends, the Cowleys', invited my siblings and I to go up to their cousins house to go sledding. So we all got out our snow clothes and sleds and hopped into the cars. Ashlyn went in a different car than me, McKaye and Dallin. She rode with sister Cowley, Lindsay, Megan, and Tyler. We rode with brother Cowley, Jen, and two of Jen's friends. We rode up to Woodland Hills where their cousins lived. They took us to an abandoned road (asphalt) that does not get plowed making it perfect for sledding. The first thing brother Cowley told us was that at the end of the hill, the snow stops immediately and the asphalt road starts. Brother Cowley said "You must stop before going off the snow bank. I did that once and it really hurt." Remembering the warning we began sledding.
The first person down was McKaye, making the track. She made it about half way down and then Corinne took a turn and made it a little farther. McKaye went again and FLEW down, making it the whole way having to jump off the sled in order not to fly off the snow bank. Others had started to make it down the whole hill and everyone started to have fun, laugh (at how Jen and Lindsay couldn't quite make it to the bottom without crashing at least twice), and just enjoy the day.
My second time making it down the entire hill, I got going a little faster than I'd liked and couldn't quite stop. I ended up going over the bank, where my sled then stopped, and I kept sledding on the asphalt. I had to get up fast, because for one, I wanted to make sure that I hadn't ripped my snow clothes, but also because the road was covered in mud, slush, and ice salt. I jumped up and ran back over to where Jen and her friends were standing laughing. I made sure I hadn't ripped my clothes and then looked up to see McKaye coming down really fast and her face looked as if she knew she was in trouble. We, Jen, her two friends, and I, began yelling to her to stop, but she yelled back that she was trying but because there was so much powder, putting her feet into the snow wasn't enough to stop her. She went over a huge jump, plowed into another jump, knocking the air out of her lungs, then eventually slid down the side of the bank, and sliding on the asphalt, like I had, but with her sled.Jen's friend ran over and stopped her from going further. We were laughing so hard I'm sure if we'd had to use the bathroom, we wouldn't have made it. We laughed for a few minutes about it and then the car showed up to take us back up to the top of the hill. Everyone started to load into the car when brother Cowley and Dallin stopped at the bottom of the hill, crashing into each other.
The last person down was Ashlyn. She was flying down the hill and was going to go straight into brother Cowley. He was having a silent debate with himself as to whether or not he would stop her. He told us that the last time he decided to stop someone, he ended up hurting them pretty bad so he then made the decision not to stop her. She went off the bank, but her sled didn't go with her. She flipped through the air, landing on her head on the asphalt. McKaye and I, seeing that she hit her head pretty hard, ran over to her to see if she was alright. She sat up, pulled her hat off, and grabbed her head. She started bawling saying that her head hurt. We were trying to calm her down, and check her head to see if she was bleeding. The Cowley's uncle told us he didn't have enough room for all of us and he'd come back down to get us. So we had Ashlyn stand up and we walked her over to the side of the snow bank where we sat down to wait. Right as the car had left, Ashlyn freaked us all out by asking, "Where am I? How did I get here?". That is when McKaye and I looked at each other, then to brother Cowley and I said to him "We need to go", and he shook his head in agreement.
Waiting for the car felt like hours. Ashlyn was crying and asking the same questions, "Where are we? How did we get here? What day is it? What month is it? Who did I sit by in the car? Where did I sit in the car?" over and over. We were really scared, but we tried to stay calm in order to not scare her even more than she already was. It scared her even more when we couldn't answer the questions she asked. Since she was in a different car riding up, we couldn't tell her who she sat by, or where she sat, or what they talked about, and no one that was in the same car as her was with us at the bottom of the hill. With just our luck, some dogs from the house nearby came out and were walking around. Ashlyn is very scared of dogs so we were concerned that she would be even more scared because of them, but she didn't even react to them which wasn't normal for her at all.
About 10 minutes after her crash, sister Cowley came down in her car to take us back to the house where brother Cowley's sister-in-law was waiting for us. She is a nurse so we were taking Ashlyn over to her to see what we should do. By the time we got into the car and were heading back to the house Ashlyn started remembering little things about the day. We got to the house and their aunt checked her out and called a doctor she knew in the ER for a second opinion. They both agreed that we just needed to watch her and make sure that her symptoms weren't getting any worse. She had started to remember things but she was still really confused and kept repeating things out loud that she could remember. We sat there for about and hour and a half when Ashlyn decided that she wanted to go home. We got ready to leave and their aunt suggested that brother Cowley and his brother give Ashlyn a priesthood blessing. They gave her the blessing and then we headed home.
Ashlyn ended up with a major head ache but nothing else. We were very lucky. We didn't end up calling my mom and dad until we were on our way home because we didn't want to scare them when we didn't even know what was going on. We got home and just relaxed, it had been a long, scary day and with everything else that has been going on in our family we just decided we didn't want to deal with anyone or anything else for the rest of the night. We were done.
Ashlyn is fine. She still has a slight head ache and her head is a bit tender where she hit it, but other than that everyone is good.
Dad has to stay in the hospital for another day, so now we are hopeful that he'll come home tomorrow.
Keep us in your prayers. We love you all so much and are grateful for everything you do for us!
~Corinne
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