SLC

Our trip here was crazy. When we left Fernley I saw this beautiful gray/purplish mustang. I commented to Danny how someday when it’s just the two of us I would love to have a car like that one. I also told him that I had a funny feeling about this trip and that speeding was something I wouldn’t be doing on this trip. I always drive when we go on long trips, I truly enjoy the art of driving, and tend to be a bit of a control freak when it comes to driving. Anyway, we went on with our trip and stopped in Winnemucca for a potty break, then on to our usual stopping place outside of Elko. When we got back on the road in Elko I got into the passenger seat to Danny’s surprise. We were just outside of Wells heading up the Peaquops when a semi hit an orange barrel and sent it flying our way. Danny was driving, and he quickly hit the brakes, slowed, and slammed into the barrel. The van behind us saw it, slammed on his breaks, and was promptly slammed into the rear end by my pretty little mustang driven by a bunch of teenagers, they were slammed into by a large truck, and we were barely avoided by inches. After a quick call to 911 Danny ran to see if everyone was ok, there were some injuries, and a helicopter was sent. I was relieved at Danny’s quick thinking, he quickly moved cones to protect us on the highway while redirecting traffic around the wreck. It took the police almost 30 minutes to get out to us, and it was very hot. The helicopter came and landed just feet from our van, what an amazing thing to stand so close to a helicopter while the blades are whipping. The semi that struck the barrel took off! The good thing to the whole incident is that no one was seriously injured, and after the police took a statement we were allowed to go. Traffic was being held, we had the highway to ourselves the rest of the way to Wendover. We quickly said a prayer of thankfulness and headed out, the kids were freaked out, but it was a great teaching moment that the Lord had answered our prayers that morning when we left. I was grateful that Danny was driving, I’m sure he did a better job of keeping us out of an accident then I would have done. I’m pretty sure I would have over corrected to avoid the barrel whereas he reasoned it would be better to hit the barrel then completely avoid it and be hit from behind.

The rest of the trip has gone smoothly. We drove up to Rexburg to visit with Danny’s brother and their cute family. Gunner, their 3 year old son, kept saying he was going to find his girls, referring to my girls. He asked his Mom if they were his sisters, what a cutie. I need to get some pictures from Heidi of the kids together. Thanks Johnny and Heidi for lunch and a great day in Rexburg.

Children’s Museum is always a winner with the kids, we spent hours there, and the fountains at The Gateway was a great close to the day. We had a blast just going to Letherbee’s, I couldn’t believe how many people were at an ice cream restaurant on a Tuesday, and the kids were amazed that there was just a restaurant just for ice cream. One of our kids favorite places to go is the Children section of the Church History Museum. Alyssa dressed as and angel in the dress up nativity scene, Tanner built a temple out of blocks, Aubrey spent most of her time playing with the baby doll doctor area. We also went and looked at the church art contest entries at the Conference Center and we cast our votes for our favorites. We love going to the garden mazes for kids at Thanksgiving Point. Danny was chasing them through the mazes, making them scream and the Noah’s Ark splash park is always a hit for the kids. We wandered into the larger gardens, and found the Secret Garden, which turned into a mini photo shoot, the kids were posing left and right for me, and begging me to come and take their picture. I wished they’d not been in swimsuits and all wet with crazy hair, but I took advantage of their generous moods and took lots of pictures. We followed up the 24th with a night of fireworks with all the cousins.

I can’t believe the trip is coming to an end. Tomorrow we bless Hallie, and then we head for home. Back to reality, but that’s ok, reality isn’t so bad, and I’m so happy that we had a good time with family and we were able to enjoy our time with Danny.

Now for some pictures:

Tanner and Aubrey building a fort at the Children’s Museum

Tanner and Aubrey putting on a play at the Children’s Museum

“This is the Place” park with Grandma and Grandpa

Tanner winning a prize for the Hokey Pokey at the Galavan Center Disney party

Alyssa at the Church History Museum Nativity dress up area

“Stop licking the water”

Rock Band: Thanksgiving Point Gardens

The kids being angels and posing for photos without me even asking

Danny and Hallie

Aubrey lost her first tooth while we were here. She pulled it out in the car, you can see the gap in this picture, so cute! The tooth fairy came and she was able to buy a little tea set at Ikea and she served all of her cousins while we were doing fireworks. I love all the cute stages of growing up.