Janet and I have had the honor of having Janet's parents, Helen and Ray Baker, from Michigan with us for the past several weeks. They came for Christmas and they have been great to have around the house. This photo shows one of the reasons why. Just kidding! Yes, they do a lot of dishes. But the real reason we like to have them here is that we love them.
We got this great idea to go ice skating this past Saturday. Rachelle had come from Provo (BYU) to see the Grandparents before they left for home. We all wanted to see the new ice skating facility here in St. George. Of course, upon seeing it, Rachelle wanted to skate. This started the juices flowing in Janet and Ray and they wanted to skate too. Helen was apprehensive, as we can see in this picture, but she wished her husband well. Of course she was thinking of the time Ray fell and broke his hip at age 63 when he was taking skating lessons and -when about to glide onto the ice - forgot to take off his skate guards and did a "spread eagle." He was taken off the ice in an ambulance. But despite her misgivings, Helen relented as she knows it is impossible to stop a "bull headed Englishman."
Here is a photo of Janet, Ray and Rachelle just before they went out on the ice.
Ray and Janet went around the rink getting adjusted to the skates and ice. They were looking great. Then Ray asked Janet to "ice dance" with him - just like old times! Here is a great shot of the two of them. Imagine that- 83 and ice dancing.
Here is the next photo I got of Ray.
What was a happy moment, turned into one of great concern. Some kid knocked them from behind and both Janet and Ray went down. Ray hit is head and was immediately knocked unconscious. Janet yelled at me to get over there as her Dad was "blue." Indeed he was. As we watched him, I was wondering when we should start CPR. It was scary. Anyway, he woke up after 2 minutes and the paramedics were called. He got to spend the night in the hospital after his CT showed a bruised brain. We were so relieved that he woke up and quit speaking nonsense. His face skidded on the ice for a while causing quite a "road burn" around his left eye. We sure were glad Grandpa came out OK. Needless-to-say, Ray is hanging up his stakes for good. No more ambulance rides from a skating rink for him!
