One Crazy Nuts Weekend.

Have you ever had the experience where you are looking forward to a vacation like crazy and then something happens that totally blows and destroys your hopes and dreams? Well... that's what happened to Aaron and I this past weekend.

Aaron and I had been planning to drive up to Utah to go see Aaron's old college buddy get married in the SLC temple on April 24th. This trip was going to awesome because pretty much ALL of his close college friends were going to be there and rent a house to stay up late in and party. =awesome reunion times. I was excited to go on a road trip with my crazy amazing/hot husband and meet all of the friends that had such an impact on his life. Anyway, Aaron and I had decided that the best way to get there would be to drive through Wyoming and into Utah on friday and then stay until sunday. We even purchased a brand new stereo for my car two days before the trip so we could listen to our ipods in the car.
So friday came and the first thing we noticed was that it was rainy and cold outside here in CO, which generally means that the weather is ten times worse in Wyoming. To put this in perspective for most of you Arizonans- Wyoming is a death pit when it comes to roads and weather. A few years ago they had a 90 car pile up due to fog. FOG! and then another huge pile up some years previous because of snow. The highways in Wyoming can be closed anytime year round due to bad weather and when they close the roads- they mean it, it's nasty stuff. Let's just say that the towing companies there are never hurting for business haha! So friday Aaron and I made sure to check road conditions before we left, we wanted to make sure that one: the roads were still open and two: that our '01 Camry could make it. Even Aaron's dad called us and warned us about the roads- but we figured we could make it. I mean, it didn't look THAT bad. But they were... oh they were.


Okay, so you all know where this is going by now. I mean, why would I preface this whole story with how bad the roads were if it didn't end up in an accident. Well, yes, it ended up in an accident. You were right. Let me illustrate how this happened- mostly because I need to prove that I am still a good driver and I CAN drive in snow thank you.


Below is the scenario I will try to describe. As you can see I am the little white car minding my own business behind two large semi-trucks. I don't know exactly what happened in front of me but semi number one in the blue suddenly slowed down, probably because of ice. Semi number two in the red tried to brake suddenly but as there was plenty of ice on the road so he swerved to the left to avoid semi number one (blue guy).

Which put me in THIS position. I now have two suddenly really slow semi trucks in front of me and a butt load of ice to maneuver through. I pressed on the brake but my car hit ice in the right lane making it impossible for me to slow down enough to not hit the guy in front of me. So to avoid Semi 1 I turned into the left lane, unfortunately semi number 2 was now going super slow in front of me and I hit a nasty patch of ice which resulted in:

CRASH!
My car actually hit the rear bumper of semi #1, which lodged into my grill, latched on and then turned my car perpendicular to the semi, released and took us into a 360 in the middle of the road. Like this:

Fortunately after we spun out our car ended hitting the concrete median wall squarely on the rear bumper- not to mention we went through quite a bit of snow on our way to impact which slowed us down enough that we were not injured.
The worst part of the whole thing is- my mother in law called an hour before this happened warning me about the roads and telling not to get in an accident. She might never let me drive with her son in the car again. hahaha!
No but really, this was my first accident ever (I mean, while I was driving) and it sucked, I was pretty emotional that 1. I could have seriously hurt my husband or myself 2. I just trashed my beautiful car Alana, 3. I just ruined our vacation. 4. I no longer had a perfect non accident record. I know my worries were really silly, I should have just been grateful that no one got hurt but I was so SAD! I'm so thankful Aaron was there to help me through it. He comforted me, hugged me, spoke rationally, and never once made me feel like I was any less loved. He is the best blessing and gift I have EVER been given. I know Aaron and I were truly blessed and protected during this ordeal. Had our car hit the median, or the semi at any other angle, we would probably be in the hospital or worse. Not to dwell on the"what -if's" but thinking about what could have happened just makes me feel even more in debt and grateful to my father in heaven for his great and tender mercies. He truly does answer prayers.






To finish up the story, the guy driving the semi we hit was actually a stud. he pulled over, called the cops before we had a chance to, and made sure that we were okay. He stayed there until our tow guy showed up just to make sure we were well taken care of. Fortunately there was no damage done to any vehicle but our own and the police officer was understanding that the road conditions were nasty enough that I left with only a citation. Aaron and I were towed into Laramie where we waited for Aaron's dad to pick us up, and we called Geico for obvious reasons.

The story doesn't end there though, after driving back to CO with all our possessions we were able to find last minute tickets to SLC for Sat morning and we were able to experience the reunion of a lifetime. Thanks to all of Aaron's buddies for making us feel so welcome, and for showing us a good time. It was SO great to meet all of you even though it was for a very short time.


Rich and Mari out of the temple!


All in all it ended up being one crazy expensive and long weekend. But I still feel blessed and happy to be where I am with the best man I've ever known.


Goodbye Alana, Rest in peace.