It was Labor Day and Mr. HOS was climbing "the half wall." It's perfectly vertical with almost no handholds so it's no wonder it's hard. It's also a feature in our house and not exactly a climbing wall. In fact, it separates our living room from the hallway to a bathroom and the laundry room. So why was he climbing it? He's 11.

He came crashing down and landed square on his left knee. All indications are he screamed out and refused to move it. The girls alerted us as we were outside working in the yard. "Hurt? Walk it off!" I said. "Put some ice on it," she said. We went back outside.

A few hours later we came in and it was way more swollen than you might expect. A quick trip to the urgent care clinic and an x-ray and yep, broken patella. On the upside, he broke it the "best" way because he's an over achiever.

The "wrong" way to break your knee is horizontally. When it breaks that way the quad tendon and the patellar tendon pull the patella apart giving it no chance to heal without surgery. Breaking it the right way is to do so longitudinally. In other words, upsy-downsy. With no tendons pulling it part side to side it can sometimes heal without surgery. Hurray for getting lucky and doing it right.

So a month later Mr. HOS was finally cleared for his first rehab hike. Just like Clara's first walk, it was a slow, half mile walk to Tokul's Pool. Henry wore "Jeremy," the brace that protected Clara's knee and that had definitely seen better days. Henry was just stoked to be outside and without crutches again so he didn't mind the frayed straps and torn foam.

So the moral of the story is don't try to free solo architectural features in your own home. And if you have to break your patella go for a longitudinal break. Now you know.