CO to CA

leaving bright and early

starting out with some of dad's old comic books
the day before leaving colorado had gotten A LOT of snow. We had to get very creative in our exit of CO- there were road closures as well as chain required roads to the north and south. We had to head west through Salida and then south through Alamosa.

These were the "good" roads! Not so good. Snowy & icy and made for some stressful slow going. Beautiful though. and strange since we had our flip flops and bathing suits packed:)

Finally made it out of Colorado and stopped in Santa Fe for lunch. Lexi sucking on an icycle found at the playground.

these would be 3 of the most awesome-est kid travelers I know! They do so well at just hanging out and entertaining themselves- for hours.

this photo of some minor scratches and dent does not do justice to the frightening episode we encountered near Kingman, Arizona at about 10:30pm. Our original plan had been to drive all the way through to CA in one day but the forever route out of CO and a bit longer stops for kids meant we were still about 6 hrs. from Santa Clarita by 10 ish at night. We had just decided to stop for the night in kingman when not 10 min. later we were going about 65mph and hit from behind/side. We swerved around and for moments seemed like we were about to crash. Dave luckily was able to keep the car on the road and as we slowed down the car that had hit us zoomed past us- swerving then doing a couple of 360's and landing against the middle median facing the wrong direction. There were then more scary moments as Dave ran across the highway to help the other couple out of their car (it would not start)- getting stuff they needed (they were an older couple) and putting hazards on. Meanwhile I called 911 and the other couple came and sat in our van while we waited an hour for the highway patrol to show up, then another hour while they did their paperwork, and got the tow truck for the other car. We then drove another 30 miles into kingman- dropped them off at a hotel and finally got to our hotel about 1 a.m.! So much for a good night's sleep and early start the next day. We were and are just so grateful that the Lord had protected us and the other couple and that our car was fine to continue the drive to CA.

So finally on our way the next day. Had to stop for a picture of our Joshua with a joshua tree. (we have one of a baby Josh there too) Lexi then wanted to know where the Lexi tree was:)

Quite a taxing trip, but thankful to have made it there safe and sound.