Home Again, Barely

We stopped by Grandpa's house one last time before we headed home.

What a beautiful family, wait a minute, someone's missing...

Doh, almost caught him. Austin was being a little camera shy.

Well, we headed back to Utah around 10 am California time. I will say right now, we were warned. We were told there was a big storm headed for Utah but Ryan felt confident it wouldn't be that bad. To prove his point he wore shorts.

When we got to Nevada the wind was ridiculous. Every time we stopped, which was more often than we liked, it felt like a hurricane. Ryan slowed down to keep from being blown off the road and we gradually made our way to St. George. It was cold there but the rain had already passed through and we figured it would be clear the rest of the way home. Boy, were we ever wrong!

About 10 miles before Cedar City we hit the snow. The further we went the worse it got. We had about four mountain passes to get over before home and my stomach started churning at the thought. We were making progress at about 40 mph when the two cars in front of us spun out. Fortunately no one was hit and we all got back on the road but then we were going 20 mph. The snow started to pile up on the freeway and on our windshield. At one point we came to a stop as the cars in front of us creeped past two stuck BMW roadsters. Ryan jumped out, in his shorts, to try to clean the ice off the windshield wipers. Then we were off again, peering through the windshield and the thickening snow to find the posts on the side of the road to make sure we didn't go off the highway. The kids had fallen asleep and I was glad because it was terrifying. Especially around I70. A semi trailer was completely off the road and several other semis had just pulled over in the right hand lane with their parking lights on as if to say "I quit."

So why did we keep going? Because Breanne was blessing her beautiful baby girl on Sunday morning and we didn't want to miss it. Four hours later we reached Scipio and clearer weather. In all it took us 5 1/2 hours to get home from St. George when it usually takes 3 1/2. We got home at 12 am, Utah time, but it was Daylight savings so it was actually 1 am. Then, we got up at 6:30 am to get ready for this...

But isn't she beautiful?