What says great trip better than a packed fridge?
Leo, Ziggy, Amadeus, and their snowman
Like father, like son. Getting ready to go sledding
Leo & Ziggy making snow angels
I absolutely ADORE the family that invited us to go- they are just genuinely good people and I'm really looking forward to the memories our families will continue to make together. Our weekend was filled with lots of screams from the kids playing (and of course occasionally fighting), new friends, good meals, plenty of beer & wine!, s'mores, hot chocolate, football watching, games of apples to apples, sledding, snow-man building, the creation of many inside jokes [damn, Toby!], and lots of laughter. The whole trip was amazing, especially the last night by the fire pit out back and the follow up adult-time that went on until 3am. Great times with great people.
Mirna and Maximus
Before.
After.
::BUT this is where the story turns::
We left the cabin Monday afternoon, and decided to follow the Martinez' home since it had started to snow. I drove first and on our way down the mountain by Brian Head the snow started to get pretty difficult to drive in. At that point I should have stopped and put the chains on the tires, but we didn't since we were anxious to get out of there before it got worse. I will NOT make this mistake again. Because as we continued down the mountain the snow was fresh and pretty slippery so the Jeep started sliding and I started to lose control. In attempt to correct it I definitely overcorrected (big mistake that thankfully had no impact) and we brushed up against the guardrail/wall on the right hand side of the road. *HUGE GASP* I adjusted my approach at this point but continued driving, this time much slower (and now I see that this was another mistake I had made- because the wheels were probably not moving fast enough to get all the snow off). Not even five minutes later the same thing happens again and we start sliding right. This time there was no guardrail just an embankment leading to a 30+ foot drop off into a ravine. So I step on the brakes and we keep sliding and once we're about 2 feet from the embankment and I am convinced that we're going over the edge I pull the Emergency brake with as much force as I possibly could while Tyson braced himself in the passenger seat next to me... and we came to a sudden halt. Thank you, Jeep manufacturing & every brake service we've ever had done, the flippin' E-brake worked perfectly. *HUGEST GASP of my life* In fact at this time, I sort of felt like I was going to black out and I think Tyson realized that since he put the car in park as we're sitting on the edge of the road and he told me to get out so he could drive. At this point I kid you not, the voice on the radio that was still playing said "Hey, glad that you're here with us now!" which made me start bawling and breathing really fast, so I grabbed the bag of cucumbers that I had cut up before we had started driving (which had probably about 20 cucumber stalks) and started eating them without thinking one after the other until the bag was empty. Sounds ridiculous, yes - but at the time I just needed to think about/do something else. Our friends actually saw what happened and they backed up to make sure everything was okay, so Tyson assured them we were alright & that we just wanted to continue on down the mountain. Rest of the story is we [clearly] made it home safe- but that was without a doubt the ABSOLUTE. SCARIEST. MOMENT. OF. MY. LIFE. I have never been in such a panicked state with my children involved. It was absolutely horrible. Tyson and I both had nightmares about it on Monday night, and I don't know that I'll ever forget it.
A shot Tyson took of the snow starting to get bad, before 'the incident'
And as for now, I'm thinking that we'll just stay in Vegas forEVER! so that I never have to drive in the snow again. ***Sigh***
"Glad I'm here with ya now!"
~☮ & ♥ to you all~
