Home coming, September 17

Traveling home was pretty much what you would expect. Long flights, custom lines, and just general waiting.

The only really notable thing about any of the actual traveling coming home would be as we were coming in for a landing in Salt Lake City.

The last hour of ANY traveling time for me takes for.ev.er. It seems as if the minutes are hours. I try not to look at the clock, but inevitably I cave and no time whatsoever will have passed. ARGH. So when I heard the landing gear on the plan come out I started getting really anxious to get off the plane.

The ground came closer and closer. Just a few more seconds now and the plane's wheels will touch the ground and I will be home! Just at the last possible second before the wheels made contact with the runway the pilot increased the engine speed and pulled us straight up!

He aborted the landing!

Now I REALLY wanted to get off the plane and for more reasons than just being done with traveling. It was so scary. The winds were pretty strong and was causing the plane to bounce all over the place as we tried to land. I'm grateful the pilot listened to his gut, but it was super scary.

We flew around for a bit and took another shot at it. This time success!

Turning his cell phone on Kevin called his mom (she was the one picking us up) to let her know we had landed and would be outside just as soon as we could get our luggage. But instead of answering, "Hello" she said "Kevin". That's when we knew something was wrong.

She had been coming to pick us up with all the kids in the van, except Karaia who had the flu and was at home while  neighbor checked up on her (Thank you, Lori!). The freeway was completely backed up so she decided to get off and go the back way around the airport. Then she would be able to kill some time and show the kids the runways.

As she was coming down the off ramp, going West, she met up with an intersection. She did not have a stop sign and proceeded through. However, someone from the left turn lane waved a motorcycle, heading North, through at the same time. The motorcyclist did not stop to check and see if there was any on coming traffic (which he should have because he was the one with the stop sign) and hit the van.

He flew off of his bike, made a body print in the windshield, and flew a few yards away.

There was nothing Candace could have done to avoid it.

When we found all this out, obviously our first concern was everyone's health. Gratefully, no one, other than the motorcyclist, had any notable injuries. Beckham was pretty scared and Candace was very shook up, but the two little boys where pretty oblivious.

The new problem was we now needed a new ride home and Candace and the kids also need a ride home.

Thankfully, Jeremy, our brother-in-law, was kind enough to come get us and then half the crew at the accident. There was a nice man who saw the whole accident who took the rest of the crew home.

It was quite the thing to come home to.

We are just so grateful everyone was watched over and it was only our van that needed medical attention.

The van is back and is wonderful.

The End.

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE THIS VACATION POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!