A Bee's Nest

Our girls' summer vacation started with a week at home, no cousins, just the Kehrman girls and the house. Jim and I are still working, so on my work days the big girls were tasked with watching Hanna and keeping things running. I wanted to take advantage of the time with just my girls so on my home days I thought it would be fun to go somewhere. The girls picked Patapsco State Park.

We picked Bridget up from her Tuesday morning Summer Reading Program and headed with our picnic lunch to the park. It was really hot and humid but the shade of the picnic pavilion felt nice. We ate our PB&Js with grapes and snack mix, and then watched Hanna happily walk around the pavilion talking to herself. I cleaned up as the girls did a quick tromp through the tire park playground and then we headed down the hiking path. Hiking is new to Hanna so we had to temper her tendency to run or skip down the rocky path. At one point when the path got wide the girls lined up and I snapped a picture. I love it when my kids hold hands. It was a great moment and I was grateful I got to see it.

We saw an outcrop of rocks off the path up a hill so we decided to explore. We got to the ridge and the girls spotted a deer. Hanna even got a look as the deer ran off. Megan sang the tune to the Lion King and Hanna picked it up, repeating it over and over as she tried to climb on the rocks. We all explored and kept Hanna safe.

We then decided to split up. The big girls would continue hiking while I went back up the trail with Hanna to the playground. Bridget considered which group to join and enthusiastically picked the big sisters. They headed down the hill in age order; Bridget bringing up the rear and Hanna and I headed up the path. Just seconds later Bridget screamed. It was Bees! There must have been a bee's nest in the decomposing log that they walked over on their way back to the path. She was screaming in pain and I told her to run to me. There was some confusion in the screaming. I had her continue to move away. She screamed again and I couldn't tell if there were more bees. Megan took a route around the bees and came to Bridget, Hanna, and I with her first aid kit. Then Megan screamed. She got stung too. Bridget also screamed again. We continued to move away, and every few seconds Megan screamed, it made me think there were still more bees. Poor Hanna was scared and started to run away but she stopped when I asked her too. The screaming made everything very disorienting so I focused on getting that to stop and continue to move our group farther away from the bees. Megan had one sting on her finger and Bridget had four stings: her shin, her thigh, her collarbone and her eyebrow.

In the screaming chaos Megan's first aid kit spilled all over the place and Megan was upset about that in addition to her pain. Emma and Rachael came to us and we were able to regroup a little. (occasional screams still came out of Megan and whimpers from Bridget) Emma picked Hanna up and I checked the stings. A few minutes passed and we decided for Emma and Rachael to go back and scout out where we had first stopped to check Bridget and see if collecting Megan's supplies was possible. If they saw anything moving they were to come right back. Em and Rae were cautious and were able to pick everything up without any problems.

It felt like a long walk back up the hill. Bridget was in a lot of pain and held onto my hand as we walked back up. Hanna held onto Megan's good hand. We got back to the van and applied ice and sting relief (from Megan's kit) to the affected areas. The girls were so understanding about the change in our afternoon plans and I am so proud of how flexible they can all be.

We made it home and tended to the stings and settled into a quiet afternoon of naps and resting and luckily no more screaming.

the swelling got worse the next day