Hairy Chin Sam

One year ago today Sam had a “hairy” chin as she called it. We were in Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. We had gone to Estes Park and stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center. We decided we would climb some stairs (it felt like about 500!) to the very top. It was 2.3 miles above sea level. I was 8 months preggo at the time and being way up there after climbing all those stairs I’m surprised I didn’t die! We saw the top, got pictures and decided to head on back. Max and Sam were racing to be the leader. Just as I was saying, “Don’t run because someone will trip on the rocks”…. Sam trips on a big rock sticking out of the ground and hit her chin on another big rock sticking out of the ground. Max keeps running to be the leader. There was a somewhat older couple standing there that saw the whole thing. They probably thought ‘what a bad mother’ as I said as soon as Sam fell, “That is exactly why I said no running.” Well this couple had a first aid kit and immediately started helping out. Pete and Joe were a ways behind us and had not seen a thing. I was waving towards Pete to hurry up so one of us could go chase down Max before he made his way all the way down the mountain. Pete just yells over “Go get him” and seemed somewhat pissed that I was just watching him run on down. I told Sam (who was crying and bleeding) that Daddy will be right there and I went to stop Max. He stops but is not going to climb back up the steps so he just sits himself down on the stairs and make people walk around him. Sam has blood coming out of her chin. As Pete gets to Sam the couple asks, “Do you want a band-aid for that?” Pete says, “For that?!” as he looks at her barely scraped knee and says “no.” So the couple says, “No, for that!” and point to her chin. So she gets cleaned up and a bandage on her chin. We go down the mountain and ask a park ranger where the closet ER is. He tells us 2 options, both at least 1 hour away. They have a medical station there so he takes us there and we get an ice pack. Which they could not get activated because of the elevation. We drive an hour and a half to Estes Park Medical center which was the bigger of the 2 options. Glad it was the biggest because in my opinion, it was pretty small. Sam gets numbed up (took forever) and finally gets 7 stitches in her chin. Good to go!! The ER said keep them dry for 24 hours. After we left we went and finally ate. She had spaghetti then ice cream. Not exactly dry or even clean for that matter! The scar is barely noticeable now, 1 year later.

Sam in the ER July 20, 2007

Sam on the way to the ER and Sam with her stitches

Sam 1 year later July 20, 2008



These are the stairs down and up the mountain




The view from the top




Sam's chin 4 days after it happened- the day she got them removed.