Monida Pass

A week and a half ago I woke up and talked Kasey into driving up to Northern Idaho to visit my grandparents. We left a little later than we had wanted and we hadn't gotten as far as we wanted when the sun went down. The roads had been real good and we were a little ways past Dubois Idaho when we hit some black ice near the Continental Divide at Monida Pass. I tried to keep the car on the road but was unable to do so and we ended up going into the median that divides the freeway. We went in sideways, Kasey had time to yell "Oh Crap!" and soon left the comfort and safety of our four tires. We ended up on our side, in complete darkness with a very cold wind coming in my now windowless door. Adyson was quite confused to say the least, having never been on a roller coaster she had never experienced being strapped in while being jostled and turned about. Although she did start calling out to us right away, when I asked her if she was okay she responded quickly that she was okay. A gentlemen came upon us after a few moments and helped me get Ady and Kasey out of the vehicle. We had a couple of boxes of books that got broken open and then the books ended up in the snow(we had snow in the vehicle from the broken windows and the roll), several diapers ruined and my cup of change for parking meters and whatnot is somewhere in the median, but no bruises, scrapes, broken bones, cuts, whiplash, premature labor, or anything wrong with any of us. When I had finally found Ady's shoes and socks(she refuses to leave them on her feet when she is in the car) and climbed out of the vehicle myself, I was amazed at what I saw. We had clothing and junk outside the car, glass was everywhere looking at the slide marks in the snow I saw a 6 foot wide section where there were no tracks, indicating that we had been air borne at that point. I went over to the car of the gentleman who had come upon us and called 911 and checked on Ady and Kasey who were sitting inside trying to stay warm. I asked them if again if they were okay and once again both responded affirmatively. As soon as I asked Ady if she was okay she immediately asked me if I was okay. I smiled and told her that I was also okay. Then she said very matter of factly-"Dad we okay." Her simple statement struck me quite poignantly, I was worried about all sorts of things and feeling quite stupid for wrecking my vehicle,but her words caused me to really realize how blessed we were. We were all okay. After the officer had filled out his paperwork, the wrecker had come to tow our vehicle back to a wrecker's yard, we were sitting there in a small motel room in the middle of no-where and once again found ourselves looking for any sign of the wreck and once again failed at even finding a bruise from the seat belts. Even though we had only purchased our car less than a month ago and really liked it, and were totally unsure of what to do next we were profoundly grateful for our physical safety. We know that we were watched over that evening, and no matter what else, Ady was right, "we okay". The next day after I hitchhiked back to Idaho Falls and had obtained a rental car we continued on our journey to visit my grandparents. We had a wonderful time and we have some pictures to share.

Here is Ady when she saw a playground across this field. She didn't even hesitate just took off running.

We walked down to the river by my grandparents house. Ady really liked the river, she thought it was the same as the ocean and immediately stuck her hand in the water. No worries she soon figured out the water was a bit chilly.

Here's a picture of beautiful Coeur d'Alene Lake. We had a nice time visiting with grandma and grandpa and enjoyed the beauty of the scenery up North.

The Last Month

Well it has been about a month since our last post. Although no one may have noticed that we haven't posted anything recently, I thought I'd update you on what we've been doing. I graduated on the 18th of December, and we left our warm and beautiful Hawaii two days later. When we arrived in Salt Lake City we were not only extremely tired from Ady being a bit of a pain on the flights and not allowing us to sleep, but the sweatshirts that we had bought just before leaving Hawaii proved to be grossly inadequate at keeping us warm. After spending a day car shopping we selected a vehicle, which gave us some measure of freedom and independence and began bouncing around, visiting friends and family which we hadn't seen in a couple years. Both of our families had some illnesses so we timed where we visiting, according to who was sicker. Christmas was fun, we enjoyed the casual unorganized activities with my family and the extremely organized chaos of Kasey's family Christmas activities. Ady had so much fun. She loved running around and having cousins to play with. Ady has shown us once again that she is a thrill seeker. I took her on a 4 story tubular water slide at the Legacy center in Lehi. When I asked her if she was ready, she nervously looked down into the total blackness and her voice shook as she said that she was ready. I pushed us off and I don't know who was holding who, on the way down. In the blackness we couldn't tell which way the next bend would be and Ady was making a shrill somewhat terrified "weee" most of the way down. When we came out and became completely submerged under water I grabbed her and stood up, she quickly wiped the water from her eyes, gasped and said "again? I go again Dad?" Not sure if she was asking if she got to go again or had to go again, I asked her if it was fun, and she said that it was fun and that she wanted to go again. Seeing that my experiment was a success and having proof that Ady had survived, we headed over to inform Kasey of what Ady had just done. Of course Ady wanted to show Kasey, and so back up the steps we went. Several runs later I had to tell Ady that it was time to go, and she immediately threw a fit, because she wanted to "lide one more time". A weel or so later we took her sledding and once again had to pry her away from the sleds when it was time to go. Take a look at this picture. Ady has been horse back riding half a dozen times. Always bareback, and by herself. No fear for this kid.

Ady loves looking at Christmas lights, so of course we took her to Temple Square. It was very cold and Ady refused to walk, so I hoisted her on to my shoulders and away we went. I think I only made it about 2 minutes before I was tired of having her grab my ears, rotate my head and say "look dad, more lights". I don't know exactly how many lights are at temple square, but I'd venture that Ady pointed out just about every single light.

In addition to the Christmas activities, family fun and showing Ady new things like water slides, horses, and sledding, we have spent 5 days hanging out with/tending 5 of Kasey's cousins(ages 4-15) while their parents went to California. Ady really enjoyed playing with Eli, who is four. Eli varied between enjoying Ady's company and tolerating Ady. One day while driving around, Ady saw some cows, whose existence still surprise her, and shouted from her seat in the back, "Dad, look at dat". Before I or Kasey could say anything, Eli said in a very serious, bored, strait up voice, "yeah, they're just cows". Completely unfazed by Eli's lack of excitement over finding these "rare" creatures, a minute later we hear once again "Dad look at dat". I looked out to see some geese in a corn field. Once again Eli was faster at responding, and in that same "you've got to be kidding me to be even remotely interested in that" voice said "yeah that's just a corn field and they are everywhere".
We finally got our car in Hawaii sold, thanks to lots of help from our good friends Steve and Lauren. Ady has adjusted to having a new car and likes to sit in the drivers seat and act like she is driving it. Looking at this picture with her and her cousin Carissa maybe she has a future in racing. The best part with Ady is that you don't have to put in a quarter for her to enjoy the arcade.

I am still working at finding work. And we haven't made a decision about grad school. Right now we are just staying with family and will hopefully have a more permanent address, and answers to our future plans. Until then any questions you have about where are we, what are we doing, or what our plans are can easily be answered with, depends on the day, don't know or ask us tomorrow. All answers are interchangeable and arent particularly associated with any specific question.