Close Call: Thankful to BE ALIVE

Well, our Thanksgiving trip to Colorado to stay with Andrew's mom was great. Our trip back wasn't so much. It's about a four hour trip to Grand Junction, CO--where Andrew's mom lives. We left around 6pm and were about 3 hours into our trip--an hour from Provo. Andrew stopped at a gas station to take a break (as he had driven both ways). I felt bad and offered to drive the last hour. He, of course, took my offer and went to the back seat to play with Kate (who, by the way, did very well for her first road trip).

The last hour of this drive is mostly winding around in Price Canyon at 60 mph. I was probably only driving for 20 minutes when out of nowhere a GIANT deer was right in front of me!! I don't think I had time to even scream, but I know my foot went to the brake pedal (not sure how much I was able to slow down. Andrew said he didn't notice anything wrong until I hit the brakes). For any of you who have been in a big car accident (I had been in one when I was 16), there's this strange moment right when you realize what's about to happen and then it happens. But inside that moment is a lot of surreal slow motion and feeling like this is your last moment alive. Luckily, the deer did not go through the windshield! Thank goodness we have a Saturn with a hood that has a sharp high to low curve and not a gradual one. The windshield cracked, but didn't break.

I don't remember pulling off to the side of the road, but somehow I was there. We were all frozen in a state of shock, breathing heavily, and Kate was crying (she was fine--thank heavens!). The deer didn't make it, though. The person driving behind us stopped immediately to see if we were all okay. It took me a minute to realize that we were. Luckily, our car was still drivable and we weren't stranded in the middle of nowhere an hour from home. I switched back with Andrew and he drove the rest of the way. Our main headlights were out, but the brights on one side worked.

I'm a little sore today, but that's all. I couldn't even think about our damaged car until I got home. As I sat back with Kate in the back seat, tears filled my eyes---I was just so grateful no one was hurt. As we had left Colorado, we had forgotten to say a prayer together (Andrew, me, and Andrew's brother), so I just said a little one to myself and prayed for safety. Heavenly Father definitely answered my prayer. Not only were we unharmed, but our car was able to get us back home again.

After we got home, Andrew said that maybe it was a good thing because he wouldn't be able to work this week (with the car broken) and so he'd be able to work hard on us getting packed up and moved (we'll need to borrow a car to move, though...). We have to be out this Friday (assuming everything goes through). If we didn't have the money coming in from the sold house, we wouldn't even have any money to get the car fixed.

Anyway, hope everyone had safe Thanksgiving travel! I'll post a couple pictures from our trip later.