December 1st was a memorable day in my book. I took Thatcher to preschool and picked up two younger siblings to take home with me. There wasn't a snowflake on the ground, but by the time I got everyone back in the car to take them home to their parents and pick up Thatcher, there was a small blanket of snow and more that was coming. I thought I would be fine, but then decided to call Ty and ask him to come with me because he is so much better (and calmer) when driving in the snow. He helped me get the kids back to their parents and pick up Thatcher, but we had seen a crazy car accident on the opposite side of the freeway when we were heading out to Bellemont, so we knew we would encounter some traffic on the way home. Ty decided we should fill up on gas and get some McDonalds (which I think was very inspired because at that point the news said the freeway was still open, just slow moving from the accident). We got on the freeway and maybe went a half mile when we came to a complete stop. We were stuck there for 3 hours. From where we were stuck we could see 4 accidents (most happened after we got there). The boys did incredibly well as we sat there trying to come up with fun activities to keep them occupied. We had no toys, no snacks, and one silly movie. After sitting for 3 hours on the freeway we turned around and headed back to Bellemont on the shoulder of the freeway. We had to weave through two big accidents with semis and it really freaked me out. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at the Pickups (which made Thatcher happy to get some extra play time with Simon) and the freeway finally opened up again around 8:00 at night. On our way home we passed three separate accidents with semis that looked more recent because all the accidents we had seen from earlier had been cleaned up at that point. It took us a very long hour to make it back home...but we did and we were so grateful to be able to sleep in our beds that night. Here are some pictures of the day. I thought to take a picture of Thatcher peeing out of the side of the van, but didn't take any of the storm or of the accidents we saw.
I have a friend who watched the first one happen and I don't know how she made it out of there. She said the three semis that were part of the 9-car pile up were basically surrounded her and she drove right through it as they all started sliding. One t-boned another, then a third flipped over. Crazy.
I felt so bad that Ty missed a day of work (especially because he went in at 4am that morning because he was so stressed about all he had to do), but I am so grateful he was there. I never could have turned around and gone back to Bellemont without him. I would have been stuck in that mess for 8 hours or more with no food and 1/4 tank of gas. I had slippers on and no coat, James had no shoes and no coat. We had nothing. It would have been unbelievably bad and I bet I would have slid at some point too. I feel so blessed. It was such a long day and I was pretty upset at the end thinking of all that could have happened and how scary it is to be responsible for my sweet kids, but we survived.
The last few days I have been quite the homebody and have not wanted to go anywhere in the snow. Because of that we have made our own fun here. Thatcher and James have had a blast in the snow. They love sledding with their dad, Thatcher and I made a snowman, Thatcher is an expert snow angel-maker, and he loves to ride his plastic boat down the hill like a sled too which is hilarious. I am glad there has been an upside to that awful snowstorm!
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