WRECK!

Last weekend we went to Phoenix to Towanda's house for Shaylene's wedding and Mitchell's missionary homecoming.  I was not one bit excited about going and kind of tried talking Bruce into staying home.  We decided it was family stuff and we needed to go.  We hadn't seen Kyi and his family for a long time so we needed to go down and visit.  Saturday we went to Shaylene's wedding.  That evening we went to a little reception. After the reception we heard the awful news of the passing of the kids librarian, Mrs. Porter.  She was involved in a fatal 4-wheeler accident in Mexico and died instantly.  Us and Scott and kids were staying at Towanda's house.  We woke up Sunday and got ready for church.  We left Towanda's house at 8:25 so we could get to Kyi's church on time.  Towanda took her granddaughter Kayla, Kaylee, Tylinn and Megan in her suburban.  We had Bridget, Kim and Kay in with us in the van.  All in the middle seat and Scott and Rhett in the passenger seat and Dustin and Jordan in the back in his little black work car.

We were driving down the road and I thought that Sunday mornings were sure nice to drive down there because there wasn't any traffic hardly at all. 

A fire truck was coming down the road with it's lights on.  It wasn't going very fast.  We were in the fast lane and all the sudden Towanda slammed on her breaks to stop for the fire truck - Bruce slammed on ours and stopped just in time.  I was thankful we didn't hit her because it was pretty close. Next thing we know here comes Scott slammed into the back of us and we hit Towanda in front of us.

Kids were crying - airbags were everywhere.  I knew everybody in our van was OK.  Bruce and I got out and I was SOO thankful to see the boys walk out of Scotts car.  I knew the girls were OK in Towanda's suburban.  Well it was a very long emotional morning trying to get things cleaned up in the road and get kids taken care of.  Bruce and Scott went with the cars to Kyi's house. The rest of us went to Towanda's house to try to settle down.  We were very blessed there were only a few cuts and bruises and bumps and minor whiplash. 

Well our van is totaled.  We haven't heard from the insurance company yet on it for an amount.  It totaled Scotts car too.

Scott got the cars hauled home and are at his shop.  Yesterday (Sunday 1 week after) we went to the shop to take some pictures since we didn't really get any the day of.

Accidents are the pits because from what we have heard you never come out equal for what you had.  We loved loved loved our van.  It was just the perfect car for us and just what we wanted.  We took great care of it and tried not to put miles on it.  It was a 2009 Honda Odyssey.  It had 38,000 miles on it and we loved it. After the accident there weren't tons of rental car places open because of it being Sunday.  They didn't have a van for us to rent to we got a car.  Grandma and Grandpa McLaws took the boys home and the girls went with Bruce and I.  Last Friday I traded the car for a van.  It is nice to have a car big enough for our family.  I remember when we first bought our van I was talking to Tiff M. and told her we loved it and were driving it till it died.  I told her "watch this is probably the vehicle we will end up totaling".  I was joking and she didn't like my comment too much.  Well I was joking but it happened. 

 Kaylee has been SOOO sad about all of this.

We all shed some tears at the loss of our van.  I have thought ever since then why was it so upsetting about our van getting ruined because we were very blessed and no body was hurt. 

I  have come to the conclusion that our van is what took our family places.  We laughed in it, we cried in it and we fought in it.  It took us on family vacations and trips - it was part of our family.

It will be missed.  We may buy it back from the insurance co and have Premier Autobody fix it but that is a huge project and don't know if we will come out ahead in the end.