Whirlwind Part 3

So we made it back from Virginia Monday night (the 22nd) and had one day - Tuesday - to unpack and repack.  We were so glad that Trent decided to take the day off work on Tuesday to stay home with us before we (my mom, Jen, Aiden and I) headed up to Utah on Wednesday.

We started the drive around 4:45 with the intention of doing most of the drive during the night so that Aiden would sleep for us.  If we had known what lay ahead we would have definitely done things differently.  It was Jennifer's turn to drive and I had fallen asleep in the front seat and my mom had fallen asleep in the back with Aiden.  Around midnight we were all startled awake to Jennifer screaming.  I think I will have the sound of her scream and the look on her face ingrained in my brain forever.  We had hit a huge buck.  It was absolutely terrifying and there wasn't a soul around. Although we could tell the car was pretty messed up, my mom got my dad on the phone and we kept driving.  Jennifer (understandably) and I were too scared to drive, so my mom took over and pretty much drove the whole rest of the way.  Thank goodness for moms!  She drove like 45 for a while because we were all so convinced we were going to hit another one.  It was a long and exhausting night.

We pulled into Provo around 6:30 Thursday morning.  What is normally about a 10 hour drive ended up being a 14 hour drive.  We were absolutely exhausted.

We all slept for several hours when we made into our hotel room.

And then Mom got up and going and was gone for several hours taking the car in and getting us a rental.  Definitely not how she (or any of us) had planned on spending the day.

The damage.  You can't tell in this picture, but the driver's window was completely shattered.  Luckily it didn't fall in.

We feel so incredibly blessed that none of us were hurt.

The car was actually declared totaled so it is still sitting in Utah today!  We will miss the Mazda (well, kind of!).

Our luggage boy ;)

We didn't do too much the rest of the day.  I will fully admit that I had a bit of a breakdown that afternoon.  I was overly tired from so much traveling with Aiden and it was hard without Trent.

Friday, the 26th, things were a little more normal again.  We got to visit Jill's second grade classroom at Westbrook Elementary and it was so fun to see her teach.  We showed up right as she was administering the spelling test.

The kids went to Music afterward so Aiden was free to roam the room :)

You'll notice him lifting the chair in the back - he's such a boy..haha.

Ms. Christensen's desk :)

Reading a book :)

Dragging Jill's backpack around.

His stance cracks me up here!

We headed out when Jill had to go outside to be on recess duty.  Then we went into Salt Lake City to show Mom City Creek.

We met up with our great Freshman year friend, Emily, for lunch at Blue Lemon and then some shopping :)  It was so great to see you Em!!

We tried out these little Halloween cake pops.

We made our way back to Provo and picked up Slab Pizza for dinner.  And later that evening Mom and I went to Meg's endowment session in the Draper temple.  Such a pretty temple!

Just one more trip post to go people!  Hallelujah!