Valentine's Day Weekend... and the Exciting Trip Home

We had an exciting weekend! First of all, can I just point out that the combined Mer and Sam cuteness factor is off the charts? They got along really well, although they could never decide that they wanted hugs and kisses from each other at the same time. We did some fun stuff, ate some good food (and some junk food) had some good talks and some great times. Mer also really loved getting to see her Aunt Elz. I love that, as she gets older, she remembers more and more from her last visit with people. She was happy to see Elz right away, and insisting that Elizabeth carry her about 5 minutes later. It makes me smile. I would have more pictures, but my camera died half way through the first day! Oops. I was sad to miss all of the photo ops, but I definitely have the memories.

I did learn an unfortunate lesson yet again... My parents are always right. They told me that the weather was terrible and that the roads would be bad on my way to their house. I didn't believe it was nearly as bad as they said it would be. In my defense, the roads were perfectly fine until I actually crossed the county line into the county in which they live. The wind came up, I could barely see the road, and I was having to drive around huge drifts in the road. Still, I was only 15 miles from their house and doing fine (Mer having been exhausted by our weekend and still sleeping after 3 1/2 hours). Then, I turned onto another road. The drifts were bigger, and it felt like we were catching some serious air going over them, even when I slowed way down. Still, only 10 miles from home... Yeah... We got stuck in a HUGE drift. Mer woke up and said, "Grammy's house?" I sighed and said, "Not for a while, babe." A very nice man came along in a 4 wheel drive pickup (also almost getting stuck in the drift). He was unsuccessful. My mom and dad saved the day, pulling us out. We did fine, my poor dad covered in icicles, crawling under the car to hook the chain onto something solid in the completely snow packed underside of the car every time we got stuck in another drift. We were only a 1/2 mile from home when we went through a drift and hit a patch of ice, spinning in about 6 circles and ending up perpendicular to the road in the middle of yet another huge drift. Poor dad pulled us out...again, but either we hit something in the snowdrift hard enough to break something or the chain flying through the underbelly of the car caught something. Our car no longer moves, although it does start and the engine revs, and there was a huge puddle of some kind of ...fluid. So, we got towed until we were safely at the end of their drive way and got stuck again, at which time we were told in no uncertain terms to get the baby and get in the truck. Poor car. No word on what is wrong yet, as they figured it would take at least a day to thaw all of the snow out of the car so they could see what was wrong with it. I guess I'm in good company, though, as the Sheriff broke his SUV busting through drifts to rescue someone else stranded on the road, and the train got stuck in the snow. Right after we got to my parents' house, a warning was issued that all of the roads in the county were closed and that no travel was allowed... about 1/2 hour to late for us, but hopefully some other people were spared! So, we're down to one car, but very thankful for cell phones and seat belts. Oh, speaking of cell phones, in all of the excitement, mine got left at my parents' house. So.... if you have been trying to call me, you better try another form of communication for a while!