Oh, what a weekend, oh what a night.

So, Alex had a meet in California the first weekend of March. Originally we were going to take the whole family, but Chad ended up being needed at work, so we decided that Alex and I would go and then in April for regionals we would take everyone. I am not afraid to travel alone and am a pretty independent person, so it was not big deal for me to take her alone. The day we were leaving (Friday) Chad woke up and said that he had a feeling he should go also, he debated a few hours on what to do but, decided to stay home with the boys. Alex and I drove to St. George, visited with my brother Ben and his family who were on vacation, then Saturday we continued to California. Saturday we did some shopping, visited our old house, had dinner with a old friend and relaxed. We were having fun and enjoying the nice California weather. Well, Sunday Alex had her competition and did OK, she placed on a few events, but it was not her best meet. This is were the story gets exciting. We were going to walk along the beach, but as we were leaving the meet site I heard a very strange clunk sound. We had a totally, totally flat tire. I pull over to a small shopping center to change the tire and put the spare on. Well Alex and I could not get the lug nuts off, tried and tried and only could loosen two. Finally this nice guy with a pit bull came and helped us. Well, by then it was dark, and our beach plans were out, there were no tire stores open that late, so we just drove the 40 miles back to our hotel. I had to drive on California highways going 45-50, not a great way to travel. The next day I went to Sams Club to get a new tire, they said come back at 10, so I went to Walmart and they did not have or tire. At 10 I went back to Sams Club, who ended up not having the tire in stock either. I drove across town to Big O and finally got the new tire put on. This put us way behind schedule, but I thought we would just get home a few hours later than expected. We made great time until we were north of Cedar City and then the snow hit. Boy was the snow coming down, I slowed to 30 miles per hour along with all the other cars. We were in the middle of a huge snow storm, I could not see the road dividers or that far ahead of me either. I was trying to decided whether to stay over in Beaver all night or for a few hours. We finally get to Beaver and as we come up on the first exit the highway is closed. There are police cars blocking the highway directing traffic into Beaver. I went to two hotels and called one, all were booked for the night. There was two openings at a small motel, so we had a choice gross motel or sleep in car. We slept in the car. If we had brought our van that would have been OK, but we had brought our small Nissan Versa, which does not give much sleep room. We found a car wash across from a Texaco over looking the highway and there we waited. They ended up opening the highway at about 2 am, but I did not think it would be safe to travel that late in deep snow in a small car. 7am Tuesday morning we woke up and continued our trip home. We arrived safe at home at 10:30 am. We were very tired and worn out. Chad was worried all night wishing he had come with us. Through all this I prayed that we would be kept safe and the entire night and trip I had a overwhelming peaceful feeling, nothing was going right, but I felt calm and relaxed. I know that Alex and I were being watched over by our Heavenly Father. I knew that we would be safe. Everything turned out fine, Alex and I had fun laughing while stranded in the car. We were able to watch the American flag fly right above our car with snow flying around it. These are memories that we will never forget.

Alex in California, what big glasses you have.

Our old house in Corona, Calfornia. This was our first house we owned. We lived there for 4 years. Tons of great memories in that house.Car shot, two crazy girls.

This is a shot out of the sunroof of our car of the American Flag. We watched it waving above us and sang "Oh, Say Can You See" The picture does not do it justice, in real life it was a beautiful sight.

Alex getting ready for a overnight stay in our car.