Hey everyone! I can't believe it has been 3 months since my last entry. Time sure flies when you are having fun. So much has happened since my last entry. My "oldest" baby finished Kindergarten! I can't believe it. This year just flew by so quickly. He did very well and Damon and I couldn't be more proud. Katie finished her first year of Preschool and is anxious to get back to it again this fall. Emily is growing by leaps and bounds and her vocabulary is increasing everyday, thanks to all the wonderful attention she gets from her brother and sister.
We took a vacation 3 weeks ago to Gatlinburg, TN. My mom, dad and Jason along with my mom's brother and his family met us all there and we spent a week there just having fun. We took the kids to Dollywood, which unfortunately ended a little early due to a thunderstorm that set in for most of the later afternoon and evening. The kids had fun though. We camped at Jellystone Campground in Gatlinburg and had a blast. It was by far the best campground we have ever been too. Brian made a friend named Chaz who was from Tennessee. They spent every available minute catching water creatures from the babbling creek that our camp site backed up to. Katie enjoyed tagging along and Emily seemed to go with the flow, as usual.
It was a really good vacation, that is, until we left to come home. Our day started out at 5am, we had about a 16 hour drive ahead of. We were going to try and get home instead of stopping. We were about 6 hours into our trip and then we got into an accident. We were driving along and all of a sudden the camper started swaying a little more than usual and the next thing you know we were "surfing" with a 10,000 lb. camper behind us down the interstate. The camper fell off the hitch and flipped onto its side. Some how Damon was able to keep the Expedition right side up.
To explain how smooth our part of the ride was, Emily was sound asleep for the entire ordeal. We were all fine, just a little shaken up to say the least. My parents just happened to have passed us and unfortunately saw the whole thing. We weren't even planning on driving the same way back as them, we made the decision last minute. I think it was worse for them to watch it than for us to live it. This was about a 5 hour detour and so our hopes of making it back to Ankeny were pretty much non-existing. We settled for stopping at 10:30pm in Canton, MO. This just happened to be Damon's college town and when we got up the next morning, he took the kids around the campus. We then had about a 3 1/2 hour drive left. My mom, dad and brother ended up getting back home around midnight. Damon and I are so thankful for all the help. They went to the lot where the tow truck pulled the camper and helped us load as much as we could in our Expedition and put what they could in their car. We still had to leave quite a bit behind, which was sad.
As you can tell from the pictures, the camper was a total loss. The Expedition had some cosmetic damage, which was fixed this week. We are all sad that we lost the camper though, but overjoyed for the fact that we are all home safe and sound. The kids seem to be doing just fine. We have decided not to get another camper, at least not until next summer and maybe not even until the following year. We are not sure we want to even get another travel trailer, let alone get another camper again. Time will only tell. As Damon said, it is not worth putting our family's life at risk.
We are now finishing up with our insurance. I have to say it has been quite a smooth process. A lot easier than I expected. We are hoping to continue making some fun summer memories to help put this one behind us.
Brian had Vacation Bible School last week at church. He finished up his baseball games last Saturday. Katie and I have been attending a music class for the past 4 weeks and her and Brian just finished up a 2 week stint of swimming lessons. Slowly but surely we are moving forward.
This weekend we are celebrating Katie's 4th birthday with the family. She actually turned 4 on the 16th, but this was the only time to get all of the family together. After this weekend, I will try and get some more pictures up with the kids. Katie is getting a Barbie Jeep tomorrow and she is going to be so excited. She has wanted one for a long time. I can't wait to see her face! Until next time...
