Thanksgiving Part 1

O.k. folks, I am sick (thanks Heather and Scott!) so I am going to break this up in my fever laden mind into parts to try and get it all down. I have gotten multiple requests to write about my holiday weekend. Apparently I do silly enough things that people find it humorous to read about my tripping through life.

We were able to finagle enough finances to go home to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. It was the first time we had spent the holidays at home in over 2 years (Thanksgiving or Christmas) so we really enjoyed the time.

The trip up was "eventful" to say the least. We weren't able to leave until after 1 p.m. Moscow Time because I had to work. We finally got out of town around 2, and thanks to Winter sunshine, we hit dark around Couer D'Alene. Roads were o.k. Little wet, which made the passes a little bit Icy. Nothing that slowing down wouldn't fix... so we thought!

As we hit the Idaho/Montana boarder, things got a little icy. (What can you expect from Montana roads?!?) We dropped our speed, but of course on that pass the semi's always slow down to 5 mph and back up traffic. Our trip was no exception. Slowly all the cars started moving around the semis but we were still rather packed together. Something I hate while driving on dicey roads. Up ahead we saw a semi pulled onto the shoulder, with a vehicle (looked like a lead car for slow moving semi's that they have) pulled off in front of it. Of course they were on a curve. We pulled into the fast moving lane to pass a car as we came around the curve. As we were side by side with the other car we could finally tell that the lead car that we had assumed was pulled off to the side of the road was actually STOPPED in our lane! We tried to hit the brakes, but started sliding. That is when we saw that there was a PERSON standing between that car and our sliding truck with one of those light sticks trying to wave us over. Like the more wildly he waved his arms, the quicker our truck would stop sliding. RIGHT!!! Luckily the car we were passing had better traction then we did and was able to slow down so we could move over into their lane and safely get through the obstacle course they decided to set up! We still have no idea why the car was in our lane there wasn't an accident or anything, we figured it was just our warning that we needed to get new tires (which we did accomplish!!)

As we are still taking deep sighs of relief for the successful navigation of the obstacle course, I turn to calm screaming kids when

BANG!

I turn back around to see a HUGE smear right at my head level. The smear was wider then my hands can spread. John said that it was a white bird, he saw it outta the corner of his eye before it hit. I figure we killed our thanksgiving turkey. I wasn't about to stop and find it though. My parents' did say to contribute what we could... I figured that was a good contribution. We ended up stopping at the 10,000 Silver Dollar just off the major part of the pass to clean the windshield as neither of us could see very well, and let's just say the windshield wipers weren't cutting it.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for the totally expected whiny kids. Both of them are stomach sleepers, and neither one of my kids could figure out how to sleep sitting up. Lainey was the worst, screaming forever, and finally falling asleep about 10 minutes before we got into Idaho Falls. (at 1 am) Needless to say, it was wonderful to visit family I just wish we didn't have to deal with the drive.

I hope all your holiday was less eventful than ours was, but enjoyed the same wonderful blessings and thankfulness. We are definately thankful for all our friends and family who love us despite my ramblings. Know that we think about each one of you through this Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.