Face Plant { Not for the squeemish }

When we've gone to the mountains in the past, we've gone rafting.  But, since the kids came into the picture, that always means a couple of people have to stay back and babysit while the others go rafting.

SOooo... this year, we went tubing.
Now THERE's an activity all ages can enjoy.
Floating down the nice cool river, at a leisurely pace.... it's relaxing, non-anxiety inducing and SAFE... who wouldn't love it?!

So we went on Friday.  The first day everybody was there.

And it was a HIT!

We all had a blast.

And we had talked about going rafting on Tuesday (the last day) but I put together a campaign to do a repeat of the tubing adventure because it was über fun, everybody could do it, and let's face it, tubing is a whole lot safer and less stressful than rafting.

I mean, people end up in the ER after rafting, but tubing is ssoooooo safe.  Let's do that.

So we did.

And we pull up to the tubing spot and get out of the car and Benson asks if he can go spit his gum in the river. 

Sounds good to me!

So what do I do?

I carry my 34 pound three year old, who is perfectly capable of walking on his own, on my hip, down to the river.

In my rainbow flip flops.

Stepping, on dry land, from large river rock to large river rock.

Why, you ask, was I stepping rock to rock on dry land?

That is the million dollar question to which I have absolutely no response except, I don't know.  It was dumb. Really dumb.

Because large river rocks are covered in fine river sand, which doesn't make for a very sturdy walking path.
And a 34 pound lump of three year old on the ole hip doesn't make for great balance.

So I stepped with my left foot onto a rock, it slipped off and I went immediately down, and since my arms were preoccupied with said 34 pound LUMP, I didn't brace myself at all from the other large river rock that was placed at just the right distance away from the slippery rock, in order for me to drill it, full force with my face.

So Benson and I took a spill of epic proportion.

I tried twisting to my right to somewhat soften the blow Benson took, but he still walloped his noggin on another large rock.

I've never really experienced anything like that.

Maybe that's what it's like to be in a wreck.

It all just happened so fast!

I face planted into the rock and immediately stood up, sure that i had left my entire face on the ground.

The first thing I said was "I broke my cheek."

Benjamin came running up to us and I told him to go check on Benson.  He was sitting there in Christa's lap crying, with a bumped head, but appeared to be fine.

But there was all this blood that was covering my face and it was hard to tell where it was coming from, so I was convinced that, along with my face, I had left my teeth on the ground.

So I went down in to the (sterile, I'm sure) river water and rinsed and rinsed until all three of my nurse sister in laws could see the wound.  It was above my lip, under my nose, but my teeth were still in the right place.

My whole face was numb.

Susie did a little proddin' and pokin' and said she thought it needed stitches because it looked deep.

We made the collective decision that it was probably not the best idea to go a podunk mountain ER to get my face stitched.  No offense to podunk mountain ER doctors, but it's my face we're talking about. So we hopped in the car and drove two and a half hours to Spartanburg Regional.

It wasn't until he put the needle with the numbing medicine into the wound and started pressing the syringe and the medicine started pouring out in my mouth, that we confirmed that my teeth had indeed gone all the way through my lip.  Nice.

They took good care of us and had me all stitched up, with my very first stitches, in no time.

For the next couple of days, I pretty much didn't leave my house, because I looked like a really messed up version of Angelina Jolie (well, the really big lips part, at least- not the tatoos or pretty much anything else.)

I'm all healed up now, but I can still really see it in pictures.  Oh well.  It could have been much worse!

Here's a pic of us before we left for Benjamin's ten year reunion, three weeks after the crash.
There's a little funky dip to my smile, not like it normally does, but that's gotten better with time too. 

And here's another, just cause I have it :)

Praise the Lord, for his protection!  

It really could have been much worse!! (this is what I keep telling myself :)  )  

Have you thanked the Lord for your smile today?!

Here's a lovely little piece of trivia for ya...
How much does it cost to get four stitches in your lip from Spartanburg regional?

Take a guess in the comments section.  I'll reply with a comment in a couple of days. 
Winner gets a gold star. :)