The Story about the Van

It was a good van...it served us well...until I smashed it into a concrete barrier. At least no one was hurt right? Right. Actually, after this all happen I was just full of thanks, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what really happened ;)
I had gone up to visit my family, attend education week (for one day) with more family, and hang out with even more family. Someday I may do a post on all these things because they were wonderful. Well, Dan was getting antsy for me to be home. I had to leave him behind because of work and because we stayed so long. I promised him I'd be home on Wednesday before he got home from work. Well, when I left good 'ol Aurora it was overcast (and might have been raining, I can't remember). But the rain came down later when I was on 1-70. I was just about to the junction where you get to 1-15...about 10 miles or so from Cove Fort. It was raining really hard and as I was going over the last bridge there I hydroplaned. My car spun around and the back end passenger side hit the cement barrier. Luckily (although, I totally attribute this to saying prayer of safety) no one else was on the road. Had someone else been there they would most likely have slammed on their brakes, more hydroplaning would have ensued and injuries would have happened. Anyway...the kids started screaming (because hey, it was scary). Caden was screaming because his fruit snack flew out of his hands and he couldn't find them. Kember kept screaming at me, "Why did you do that mom!", and Cole was screaming mostly because the other two were and partly because that was not a fun way to wake up from a nap. I was able to turn the car around and pull off the bridge so I didn't hamper any oncoming traffic. After figuring out that everyone was okay, just scared I searched for my phone (lots of things went flying and it took a while to locate it) and called Dan. I didn't really know what to tell him so I just said, "I just got in a car accident." Needless to say, he didn't enjoy hearing that very much. He's two hours away and can't do anything so he tells me that he will call his parents to come help me. I protested and said that I could call them, but he basically hung up on me and I had to sit there and wait. So, I got all the kids out of their car seats and tried to calm them down by saying a thankful prayer. There were a little confused as to why we were thankful this happened, but like I said, no one was hurt, and it could have been a lot worse. A little while after that prayer Caden said he still didn't feel good and asked if we could say another prayer for comfort. Oh, I guess we should have done that. So, we did, and everyone started to calm down....for the most part. It was still raining, and I couldn't distract the kids with song or games. Kember kept complaining that she needed to go potty really bad, but since she can't just squat and go, I had no options for her. Truthfully, I had to go pretty bad too. Must be the stress and the rain, but what can you do? Anyway, both back tires had blown out completely, the back tail-light was no longer, the bumper was squished, and if you were in the car you could see outside...I'm not talking like through a window....like there was a hole type thing. Anyway, I'm sure there was more, but I'm trying to block it all from my mind. Scott and Carol Lee come to the rescue (bless them, again, prayers of thanks). They told me that I could just take their car home, but let's be honest, I didn't feel like driving anymore. Carol Lee told me she would take us all the way home, which was, I'm sure, just what she felt like doing, but I sure appreciate it. Scott tried valiantly to load the van on the back of the trailer, but with the back tires blown, and the angle of everything it didn't work. We left Scott to deal with the aftermath and we took off. It never occurred to me to call the police because no one else was involved, and no one was hurt. However, if you ever get into an accident, you are supposed to call them. Oops. Good thing Scott was around when an officer pulled up. They filled out the incident report together (and scolded Dan for letting me leave the scene...I'm glad they scolded him and not me). So, it was all good and happy. We made it to St. George with no further incident. Grandma smoothed everything over with the kids by stopping at Wendy's. And it was really good to see Dan again. We left the kids with grandma and went to the grocery store, and I broke down. I started crying and shaking, and I realized my neck hurt. I must have got a little bit of whip lash, but it's all good now. That night I couldn't sleep because I kept having nightmares about what could have happened, and how we all could have died, or someone else could have died or got hurt or whatever. It wasn't the best night I've ever had. And even though looking for a new van is no fun, I'm still really thankful for how this all turned out. See, those prayers of safety really do work! Keep saying them.