sledding with family in minnesota (& a crash)

we had the whole hill to ourselves.

All 7 of us (yes, my whole family is here with us for Christmas!) packed up into a rented mini-van and drove about 4 hours to St. Cloud, MN for my grandma’s birthday. We spent two nights there, and drove back up to Grand Forks after that. While we were there, my dad and 3 out of 4 brothers went shopping for some good sleds. They got 3, so that afternoon grandpa, my dad, three brothers and I drove to a large hill. I had been debating the whole morning about going (even 10 minutes before we left, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to go.) on one hand, its lot’s of fun. On the other hand, I twisted/sprained my ankle pretty badly last year from a sledding incident. So I went through the pros and cons of going over and over and over.

FINALLY, I decided to go. Go to this huge *icy* hill.

I slid down once- didn’t get hurt. Went down again, fine, but third times a charm, right? Right.

I used a different sled the third time. It was a circular sled (which is difficult to steer) and tried to avoid the ramp half way down the hill, but instead I headed right towards it. And BAM. That was the end of sledding for me for the day. Maybe ever? Haha. I landed on my jaw/head/hip/knee. Don’t ask how I landed on all four of those places at once. I didn’t even notice my knee was bruised until that night… Ha. *ok, back to the crash* Nate said I was lying there for quite a bit of time. I don’t think I ever lost consciousness though. The rest of the day I had a painful pounding/throbbing feeling in my head, and I also felt nauseous and really dizzy. Around dinnertime those symptoms began to clear. Praise the Lord. We were planning to go out to dinner for Grandma’s birthday, and I didn’t want to hinder that! I was extremely tired though. Even with all the coffee I drank, I wanted to sleep. My mom didn’t let me- I guess that’s something you’re suppose to do if someone possibly got a concussion- do not let them sleep. I might have had a concussion, but we didn’t go to the hospital to confirm it.

Now a few days after the lovely sledding experience, I only have bruises and a scrapped chin left as “battle scars”.