Second Half of Our Trip

I am going to try and make this quick as I have a lot of homework that I need to finish. I am not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for 20 credits! I think I need to have my head examined!!

Anyway, I think I left off after leaving Pete's house on our way to AZ. The rest of the way to AZ was uneventful. We stopped at the Grand Canyon on our way into AZ. It was beautiful - as always. The only mishap we had was Nathan jumped over the protective barrier on to ice. I thought Barry and I were going to have heart attacks!! But he was safe and sound and got a thorough yelling at compliments of dad and he was sufficiently chastised and compliant for the rest of the day.
The weather wasn't to cold - for us anyway. It was a lot warmer than MN!

Then on our way down to Prescott, we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets! We don't get sunsets like this in MN.










We got there late in the evening - not as late as getting to Pete's - but late enough that I was tired. We spent a few days with my parents and then Michael and I went down and spent a day with a friend of mine that I had know in Germany. Christmas we spent with my entire family at my sister Dorothy's house. She has the cutest dog! It's name is Cleo and it is this white, curly haired, small dog and very, very adorable. Thank goodness that my dog was on her best behavior that day because there was Dorothy's dog, Pete's dog and my dog all together.

We decided to leave earlier than we had originally planned because of some bad weather that was coming across to MN, so we left on Christmas afternoon. We made great time to Pete's house in New Mexico where we spent the night. We were planning on driving straight through to MN the next day but it got really late and we got really tired so we ended up stopping in Kansas City that night. During the day, when we were driving through TX and OK, we end up turning on the air conditioning! It was 77 degrees outside and being from MN, we were not used to those temperatures that late in the year!

After leaving Kansas City we were doing great on time, until we hit Iowa where we ran into a terrible ice storm. Somewhere in Iowa, the roads changed from ok to ice in the blink of an eye. We hit the ice and lost control of the car. We spun around in at least 3 full circles on the highway. Barry was driving and managed to keep us out of the oncoming traffic, avoid hitting any other cars and signs, and kept us from flipping when the car went into the ditch. Somehow he managed to get the car pointed front end first when we went into the ditch - that kept us from flipping the car. When we came to a complete stop, he started the car and drove out of the ditch. There was no damage to the car or any thing on the road. Everybody in the car was fine - no injuries. We were definately lucky!

The rest of the way to MN was pretty easy after that. We made it home around 3 that afternoon and promptly sent the car through a car wash to try and get some of the ice off of it! The only evidence that we had gone into the ditch was the front of my car had frozen reeds in the grill - some of them are still there because it has been so cold for the ice to melt!