Perspective

First of all, let me start off this entry by saying that I had a blast at the cabin!! I had so much fun spending time with my family and I LOVED seeing my new nephew for an ENTIRE week!!! I am going to miss being with everyone, but I am grateful that I got to be with my family for a short time. . . .
Now let me tell you about our trip home. . .
The drive to our cabin consists of a 5 hour car ride followed by a 15 - 20 minute boat ride across the lake. This isn't too bad and it is always exciting when we get to ride the boat. Well our ride home was DEFINITELY an adventure for not only my little family, but my parents, Kristin and Amanda and her family, as well. We started off by leaving the cabin earlier than we had originally wanted to because the weather was rainy and yucky. We loaded all of our stuff into the boat and all 13 of us (including an infant and a baby) made our way across the lake. Because it was so rainy we had decided to load our luggage into the front of the boat and cover it, and put all of the people in the back of the boat. Well, the boat wouldn't plane, so Otto (being the heaviest) decided to go up to the front of the boat and lay across all of the luggage so he ended up being higher than the boat. This did work and the boat did plane, but I was furious because there were some pretty big waves and we were bouncing around A LOT and my dad wasn't slowing down and Otto wasn't wearing a life jacket and so I was soooooo scared that I would become a widow. Well, finally Otto decided that it was too bumpy and so he finally came off of the bow of the boat. THANK GOODNESS!!!
Once we got to the marina, we loaded up our vehicles and started on our way home. It's pretty easy to get home from Sicamous because all you do is get on the Trans Canada Highway and drive home. We got into our car at about 1:45 and so Otto and I thought that we would be home by 7 pm. I had some sandwiches and a bunch of fruit and snacks in the car so we knew that we could feed the children snacks and sandwiches and then they would be good until we got home and we would have a late dinner. We also had just enough formula for Lee to have his one bottle and be good until we got home and we had just enough gas to get us home. All in all it would be a good drive.
Well, we had a bit of a hard time getting onto the highway from Sicamous, but we finally got on but traffic was INCHING down the highway. That was okay because the kids were good and we figured that it was just a semi or something that was driving slow. It was kind of rainy anyways so we didn't mind it too much that we had to go slow. We were basically stopped for a long time and we just kept on inching down the highway. I was reading a book that my dad lent to me and so I didn't really notice where we were. And then we FINALLY got to 3 Valley Gap. . . . 2 hours later!!! For those of you who don't know, 3 Valley Gap is about 1/2 an hour away from Sicamous and it had taken us 2 HOURS!!! We were still inching along but we FINALLY reached the cause of the traffic problem. It was a semi truck which had basically run into the mountain. We could see people starting to unload the back of the truck and we could see that the cab of the truck had disconnected from the trailer and there were pieces of the cab scattered all along the mountain until we saw the cab which was COMPLETELY demolished!!! I don't think that the driver survived that accident. . . and if he did and he had a passenger, they DEFINITELY didn't survive it!!!
After we got past the accident we were finally able to start going. We decided that because it was now 4:30 and Revelstoke was coming up that we would stop and feed the kids at McDonalds. I am glad that we did! They were much happier and it was a nice break. After we were all fed and had a potty break, we started driving again and about 2 minutes outside of Revelstoke we saw a bear that was lying on the road. He looked to be about 2 or 3 years old and we felt bad that a bear had been hit, but then the bear started to move and it was really traumatic because he had obviously been clipped in the behind and he was still alive and trying to crawl to the side of the road. I started freaking out because there was no other vehicle in sight. So I called the local police and reported the bear because it must have just happened and the bear was STILL ALIVE!!! Who does that???? Who hits a BEAR and then just drives off???? My parents and sisters said that by the time they drove by it the bear was dead. I felt grateful for that but I was still really shaken up because of the fact that I knew that the bear didn't die instantly.
I finally calmed down when we got to Golden. We stopped and got a bit of gas (our funds were low because of some cheques that had gone through without our knowledge) and had a quick potty break again and then started on our way home. I was pretty much calm and now it was about 6 pm. The kids were happy and still full from dinner and so I was happy about that. So, we headed home and then we saw another lineup of cars just outside of Field. We were in a spot where we could see for a ways and we couldn't see a lineup on the other side of Field, so we were optimistic that we would be able to get through this traffic jam without to much waiting. Well we sat there and people just kept on turning around and waving for us to all turn around. We didn't know what was going on, so we decided that Otto would jump out of the car and walk up the highway for a bit and see if he could find out what was happening. He just disappeared. While I was waiting for him, I noticed that a Lexus had turned around and it was my mom! I stuck my head out of the window and I saw her pull over. I was so glad, but now I was torn. . .. do I turn around and talk to my mom or do I pull ahead a pick up Otto who had disappeared? I figured that Otto would start walking back when he found out what was going on and my mom obviously knew something, so I turned around and started talking to my family. My parents and my sister, Amanda were all caravaning together so we were all together again. I talked to my mom and she told me that there was a mud slide on the other side of Field and that the road had been shut down. They were going to drive back to Golden because that was what they were told to do. I told them that Otto had gotten out and was walking along the highway and so we all waited for him to come back. We waited about 1/2 an hour and when he didn't show up, my brother-in-law went and picked him up. We all decided that we would drive into Field and stop and go to the bathroom and then maybe we could get some more information there. When we got to Field, it was 8:10pm and I had a 1/4 of a tank of gas. We were told that the road would be open at 9 pm and so we decided to let the kids out and play and have another potty break. We only were going to be waiting for 50 minutes for the road to open so we decided that instead of driving back to Golden and driving through Radium to go home that we would just wait for the road to reopen. It was fun and we all visited and ate my snacks that I had brought and the kids played on the playground. I got to see my nephew again and so that was pretty nice too. At about 8:45 we all got back into our cars and lined up for when the road would reopen. Well, we waited, and waited, and so I got out of my car and went and visited with my parents and Dayln and Amanda. At about 9:30 a lady walked down and told us that they had told her that the EARLIEST that the road would be reopened was in about an hour and a half but that it would probably be longer. My parents, Kristin and Amanda and Dayln had all not eaten dinner and so we had decided that we had chosen poorly. We should have driven back to Golden and gone through Radium. We decided that that was going to be what we were going to do. I was really nervous now because I had less than a 1/4 of a tank of gas and Lee only had his one bottle left. But I needed to keep on going. So we got to Golden and went to the McDonalds so that my parents and sisters could eat. My kids were asleep and Otto and I were full and it was 10 pm and pitch black. My dad helped us out with our little gas problem and he had even called one of his friends who owns Kicking Horse Mountain Lodge in Golden to see if we could all just sleep in Golden. He was able to get two rooms, but no more. My family had come to the consensus that we would take the rooms and just sleep over. I just had the tiny problem of the lack of formula to get Lee through the night and all of the grocery stores were closed. So we decided that we would try and find it at a convenience store. The first one didn't have any, and so we were about to head to the 7-11 when we saw that the road was reopened to get home. We all pulled over and discussed about what we wanted to do. My sister was in a lot of pain because she was still healing from having a baby (such a cute baby), but Otto and I thought it would be best if we just drove home because we only had the one bottle and the kids were still asleep. I don't know for certain, but I think that my parents ended up staying in Golden with Amanda so that they would have someone to drive home with if they needed anything.
We continued on and drove home without any more incidents. We finally pulled into our driveway at 2:15 am. It had taken us more than 12 hours to drive home from the cabin.
Now, there are two ways that this situation could be looked at. Yes it was long, and yes and it was scary. We almost ran out of gas and we almost didn't have enough food for our baby. It was annoying to be inching along the highway and it was the longest drive home from the cabin that I have ever been on. But what if I look at it from another perspective? We had prayed before we left that we would be safe and that everything would work well with our vehicle. Do you think that we got an answer to our prayer? I truly believe we did. If we had left even earlier from the cabin, we might have been a part of the crash that totalled the semi truck. If we hadn't stopped in Revelstoke to feed our kids we might have been the ones to hit the bear. If we hadn't gotten gas in Golden we may have been caught up in the mudslide. And wasn't it amazing that my parents just happened to be stuck on the highway in the exact spot that we were? They had shut down the highway all the way back in Golden and the mudslide had happened 30 minutes before we had gotten there. What are the odds that they were stuck in the exact same spot as us so that we could have the way to refill our tank with gas and we could all be together as a family? In the end we were safe and there were no problems with our cars. I KNOW that this was a direct answer to my prayer. I also know that it wasn't they way that I expected it to be answered, but it turned out well and it was fun to be able to go through this entire adventure with my family. I don't know what I would do without them. This was a drive home that I will NEVER forget!