Colorado Trip

I lucked out with this post because my sister, Jenifer e mailed me a few pictures from our trip to Colorado so this post has pictures!:) Thanks Jen! My amazing grandmother smithson(aka Shima) arranged a wonderful family reunion at Ragged Mountain Ranch in Colorado. It is a LDS church camp and it is beautiful! We got to stay in cute little cabins with electricity and running water and everything!! My kind of camping! We were there for a whole 7 days and it was a lot of fun. Shima being the amazing wonderful woman she is rented a motor home for all her AZ kids to get there in comfort.(and since our car was wrecked we wouldn't have been able to go otherwise) It was a nice relaxing drive there. Shima flew my brother Will from Utah to AZ so he would be able to drive us all in the motor home. Shane had just had knee surgery and I had 2 cracked ribs from the accident so it was nice to be able to relax the whole drive. It was a lovely drive and I have decided that someday we will live in Colorado. It is gorgeous there, I LOVE IT!
We did the drive in 2 days, staying in a hotel overnight in Grand Junction. When we finally got there we were able to gaze at the beautiful scenery and visit with family who we haven't seen in a very long time! I was especially happy to see My Uncle Jim, Aunt Merrie, and favorite cousins Bradeigh and Ellie and their adorable kids. My sister Jenifer and her new husband Dave and his son Mike were there also so it was fun to spend time with them. Mylee is madly in love with Mike and their very adorable pugs Stewie and Cosmo. So thank you so much Shima for letting us ride in the motor home with you! We had so much fun. The whole trip was amazing! Here are a few pictures. Most of Mylee because she wouldn't leave Jen and Dave's side the whole time they were there!

Mylee and the adorable Stewie
Maddy, me, Cosmo, Radar, and Avah enjoying the beautiful weather!

Mylee, Cosmo, Stewie, and Mike.

Her favorite thing to do was climb all the big trees there!

I can't wait until we can go back to this wonderful place again. Totally worth the long drive! The drive back was even more beautiful than the drive up if that's possible! Thanks again Shima for the whole trip, we love you!

A Miracle!

Most of you know about the nasty car accident Shane, Avah, and I were in at the end of June. But not everyone knows about the miracle that happened to us and that because of that miracle we still have our perfect Avah with us! Here is our story...
On June 29th we were headed out camping with my sister, Jessica and her family. They already had Moriah and Mylee out there with them. As we were leaving Snowflake Avah who's car seat is on the drivers side had somehow unscrewed the lid on sippy cup and spilled juice all over her car seat. I still don't know how the heck she got that thing open, she never did it before then and she hasn't done it since. At first I was going to just let her sit in it but then I thought what the heck I might as well switch her into Moriah's seat. So I asked Shane to pull over and I switched Avah to Moriah's seat which was right behind me in the passenger's seat. I will thank god every single day for this. About 25 minuets after I had moved Avah from her carseat we were driving on highway 60 in between show low and springerville when a vehicle lost total control of the trailer they were pulling and smashed right into where Avah would have been sitting if she hadn't spilled her juice. I cannot even describe the feelings we felt after that. Everything happened so fast and all I remember is that none of our doors worked from the inside. Shane jumped out of his window that was completely shattered and ran around and got Avah out of the car. I got out and just held her and hugged her and cried. I couldn't believe that she was okay! She had a small burn on her neck from the seat belt and that was it! I went over to the side that was smashed in and cried some more. The door to the seat Avah would have been sitting was almost unrecognizable. The only thing I could think about was Avah and how grateful I was that she was smart enough to open that lid and spill her juice. I will be thankful for that for as long as I live.
So that is the story of our miracle. Not a day goes by that Shane and I don't think about that day. We find ourselves looking at the pictures of our car from our phones and just staring at them. It is amazing. The next day when we went to collect our personal belongings from our car that was sitting in a junk yard we both just could not stop looking at that door in amazement that we still had our beautiful Avah to go home to! So I am a true believer of miracles and listening to that little voice in your head telling you to do something. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I wouldn't have listened to the voice in my head telling me to switch Avah to the other car seat, or what would have happened if Avah wouldn't have been given the stregth to open up her sippy cup, or if my sister hadn't kept Mylee and Moriah with them. Our car is totaled and dealing with insurance companies is a total nightmare but we are still here and we still have our perfect girls and for that I will always be thankful!

WARNING!

There are some really long posts coming up!! And thanks to Avah's latest terrible 2's rampage my camera is on the fritz and they will all be posts without pictures. Boring I know but at least I'm updating!:)