Dh and I decided to take a long weekend and go up north to visit dh's brother and his family in Fort Collins. On the way back we swung up to Grand Lake near Rocky Mountain National Park to visit with my former sister in law from Scotland as she was there visiting with her friend for a couple of weeks.
Saturday we drove to Fort Collins. We spent the afternoon relaxing and visiting with Steve and Jill and their two daughters Hannah and Haley. The girls love to be with their cousins, and they play together really well. They make up plays together and other fun activities. Here is a picture of all the kids except our son - who was probably taking a nap at the time. My daughters are the three in the middle.
On Sunday we went to a park in the afternoon. A cold front was coming in, and it got really cold right after we arrived. I went to the van to get some socks to cover the baby's hands, and found that I had locked the keys in the van. Ugh. Dh spent the next 45 minutes and $58 to get that worked out. Here are a few pics from the day:
The next morning, Monday, we left Fort Collins and drove to Grand Lake. There my former SIL, Lorraine, was visiting her friend Brenda, who worked at the motel where we stayed. We enjoyed the afternoon there visiting, eating pizza, and the girls enjoyed watching some television in the motel room (they don't do that at home as we don't have television at home besides videos). The first picture here is Lorraine and Brenda. The second one is our family with Lorraine.
On Tuesday morning we woke to this beautiful scene from our motel door. That is low-lying clouds over the frozen lake.
We left around 8:30 am and headed toward home. At about 10 am we were on I-70 when the traffic slowed down very quickly. We jumped into the left lane and immediately, before we had time to slow down, the traffic stopped. Dh couldn't do anything but run into the back end of the van in front of us. I was working on getting a dvd started in my laptop computer on my lap when the airbags deployed, sending my computer into my chest and crushing it. I had a Ratatouille DVD in my hand that was shattered into a million tiny shards that put a bunch of cuts in the upholstery on the ceiling, and was delivered all over the van, somehow missing us all. I had some bruises from the computer crashing into my chest, and my 8 yo had some seatbelt marks on her neck and chest, and dh's arm got scraped somehow, but miraculously no serious injuries. The van is totalled, however. It took us until 12:00 or so to get towed to the nearest town, and we sat in a coffee/pizza place that charged almost $5 for a hotdog, and waited until dh could arrange a rental van to get us home. We finished lunch in Denver (no, we didn't eat at that coffee place, but we did have hot drinks and tried to calm down) about 3:00 and got on the road again finally. We were so glad to get home 5 hours later! When I got home, I got a letter from my dear sister-in-Christ, Katia, in the email. She said that God had put me on her heart for prayer, and she had been praying heavily for me. It was so good to know that God was using her to help us and that we weren't alone in that crazy day!
Wednesday we had to go to town to take back the rental and so we couldn't start school again. Thursday we started back with a little school, and I went to work at the clinic in Delta. Today (Friday), we had a good day of school, and I'm so glad this day is over!
Oh my !!! I wish I had read your post last night ! I saw the pics of happy children so I didn't think to do it last night. I was tired but saw your cbox message. ((((((((((HUGS)))))))))) I am soooooo thankful you and the family are okay. I pray all comes together for you and a car. I pray that is it for a long time of big eventful and hard cituations. I PTL for stirring Katia to pray. I love it when the Lord connects our hearts to what is going on in the spiritual rehelm. I pray for a quiet week end for you.
We are having a simple dinner with MIL. I wish I could do some neat things but just but not up to it.
Sending you all BIG HUGE (((((HUGS))))) my SSiC. I am soooooo thankful you all are okay.
Hi Carol, it looks like you had a wonderful trip. What fun you look like you are having! It is in the high sixties and lower seventies here this week--definitely no snow.
Hope you have a blessed Easter!
Pam
Hi Carol,
Hope you had a wonderful Easter. I don't know if you do tags, but if you do and would like to participate, I tagged you for what's on your fridge.
Pam
How scary. I am so glad you all didn't get seriously hurt. I think it's a miracle that you were not cut injured more seriously from the dvd or laptop.
That photo of the lake is gorgeous.
Yes, in hindsight, we think the doggy coffin is pretty hilarious, too!
Letitia
Oh, how scary! I am praising the Lord that you are all okay, and that no one was seriously injured! (Just to let you know...you will have to replace all carseats/boosters that were in the van, too. - Your auto insurance will cover the replacement cost - but many people forget to include it in their report.) ;-)
I am glad that you had a nice visit, and your photos are lovely. Happy (belated) Easter!
Carol,
I'm so glad you didn't have any serious injuries.
The Lord really protected you all.
I'm sorry for the headache of it all! What a mess.
Hope this week is going better!
Blessings and {{[Hugs}}},
Linda
Praise the Lord for his protection on you all~ What an exciting and busy week you must have had. I hope and pray that his week has been better for you. I will pray also for you as you work out your vehicle situation. It is so wonderful how our heavenly Father places us on people's hearts or puts someone on our heart to pray for when we need it most. He is so good!
love,
Jaynee
I cried when I read this post, Praise God you were all safe. It must been a terribly scary time for everyone. Some people hate air bags, but they are a blessing at times. I am glad the pieces of the totally destroyed DVD players didn't go into anyone's eyes.
I lived in F. Collins for two months while looking for our house. I hated going west on I-70. One time, it begin to get icy and the traffic just plain stopped, but nothing like what you all had to go through.
Love,
Katia
One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty, the beauty of the Lord. To inquire in His temple, the temple of the Lord.
This is my everyday thoughts about being a mother to three little ladies (10, 8 and 3) and a toddler son. We serve God full-time, and I am a physician assistant. I have the most awesome husband in the world. I am trying to seek God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength.
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by Gina
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 