Amber blew up balloons and hung them all over the house and yard. My job was to fill up the water balloons. Of course, since my job involved water, all three girls wanted to "help" me. They got a kick out of turning on the water when I was not ready and trying to get the hose to spray water all over me. I don't like wet clothes, so I used a lot of tactics to avoid getting soaked, and I remained fairly dry.
After the party decorations were up and ready to go, Eric pilled us in their minivan and dropped us off at the airport. When we announced to the girls that we were leaving, they burst into tears pleading for us to stay (that made us feel good!).
Despite one flight delay, Amber and I got to SLC around 6:30pm. We tried to hurry to Arbon to get the kids but Traffic was terrible. It took us nearly 3 hours to get up to Mom and Dad's place.
When we got there all the kids were hiding from us. Mom and Nae were part of the hiding committee I believe. The kids were excited to see us and we were excited to see them. It was a fun reunion.
Mom looked especially tired from watching three of the kids all week as well as nursing a sick little Jace over the weekend. Jen was still working on their new house and had sent Janae out with Aliece and Alayna so that we wouldn't also have to drive to Idaho Falls. Dad had a meeting, but arrived just before we left.
On our way out the door, Dad told me to be careful and watch for cows down by the curlew / Ireland Canyon area due to the open range. We had come up that way and saw the cows, so I was full aware that they were there.
On our way home, around 11:30pm, we came up over a hill to find a big black heifer crossing the road. It was smack in the middle of the road with our van on a collision course with it's side. I knew the results of that type of collision would be disastrous - especially to Amber who would catch the full brunt of the impact with the cow. I therefore swerved the car left hoping to head it off without hitting other cows on the other side of the road and maintaining all four wheels on the ground. The swerve was successful in that we did not have a cow in our laps, but we clipped the head and legs of the cow with the passenger corner of the van. I still can see the cow's head sliding eerily across the side windows of the van during the impact.
I hopped out of the van to survey the damage to both the van and the cow. The front corner of the van was smashed in pretty badly, however, the wheel well and engine parts looked intact and functioning. No airbags had gone off. The cow was in worse shape. It was kneeling in the middle of the road. I had the kids close their eyes, and with a terrible knot in my stomach, I used the van to urge the cow off the side of the road so as to not cause another accident with any other vehicle coming over the hill. The cow hopped off the road, but its front legs were not functioning well at all as they were probably broken.
We had no cell phone coverage, so we drove 20 more miles into the Malad valley and called the sheriff's office as soon as we had reception. We gave a report and gave them directions and some limited brand information from what I saw in the dark on the cow. We told them that it would be good if someone could put the cow down so as not to have it suffer long.
They had us come into town and file a report. It was a quick stop at the police station wherein an officer, Doug Williams, took a picture and jotted down our insurance information.
We opted to continue our trek home through the night. The youngest girls were pretty shaken up by the incident and had a hard time getting the events of the wreck out of their minds enough to sleep. They fell asleep shortly after we left Idaho, however. We arrived in Provo at 3AM - much later than we had anticipated.
When we went to bed finally, I made sure to pray and thank the Lord that Amber, or anyone else for that matter, was not harmed in the accident. It could have been a lot worse. I am glad that we were able to see the cow in time and swerve just enough to avoid any harm to anyone in the family.
It is now how we had hoped to end our fun vacation, but everyone was well. Our insurance will cover the 3,000 dollars worth of damages to the van and we are hoping to have it back in the nick of time so that we can start our July travels. We'll see how it goes.
Amber and I cannot end these blog entries without thanking EVERYONE who helped this past week to watch our kids while we were gone. They loved every minute of their time in Idaho. They have been talking continually of all the things that they did. I know that it took a lot of time and energy. It was not the most convenient week - probably ended up being the least convenient week for many. However, everyone pitched in and made it a fun week.
We'll try to give the Andersen clan a rest for a while from any babysitting duties. Our next victims will be the Reed clan. By the end of the summer, both sides of the family will probably be eager and relieved when we head back for Provo to start the new school year!
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