Aw man... darn it. We're stuck.

This past week I had been planning ALL week to go down to my friend, Amy's, house. I was sooo excited because I hadn't seen her in a while, and I wanted to see her new baby chicks. I also love to see all of her animals and Joey loves to play with her daughter Alyssa. You may remember me posting about her new place here. I was disappointed on Friday morning when Amy called and said that the blowing snow was drifting over her 1/2 mile long driveway pretty badly and that my mini van wouldn't be able to make it through. But I told her I would check with Kris to see if we could switch cars since he has a 4x4 suburban. Kris said we could switch and YAY I was so excited to go. We've had SO much snow here life has been a bit boring, so I was excited to get out.

On my way there the roads were pretty bad. It wasn't snowing real badly, but the wind was NUTS blowing all the snow that has fallen over the past month all over the road. I considered turning around and just going home a couple times, but then I thought well, I've gotten this far - if I go home now it'll just be a waste of time. I finally got to her house and the driveway was covered! But Kris' suburban got down it just fine! Given, it had just been plowed an hour beforehand by a farmer that lives close to Amy. It was still pretty snow covered, but Kris' car went through everything like a dream.

Amy and I were able to visit for a couple hours and I got to say hi to her horses and see all of her new chicks. She is such a good farm girl!! I love seeing how resourseful she is with things.

Well, at 8:30 her husband got home and said if I wanted to leave tonight, that I needed to leave right then and follow his tracks. I should have left right then, but I still sat around visiting for another 10-20 minutes. Then I loaded up my kids, gave Joey a snack, started a movie for savanna, said a little prayer I would get home safe, and headed out. I was shocked at how covered the driveway was - I could barely even see the tracks from when her husband had gotten home! But I knew if I was going to go I had to GO. Well, needless to say about 1/2 the way down her driveway, the suburban just couldn't and wouldn't go any further. The drifts were just too high. At this point I was 1/4 mile away from her house and knew the walk back w/ the kids would not be fun in the dark w/ the wind and waist high snow. So I decided to see if the car would back through the tracks we made in the snow. Thankfully it did!! I got about 1/2 way back, and was going a little too fast, and the car slipped off the driveway and into the ditch. Go figure. Amy and her family saw I was having problems, so they came out to help me get the kids back to the house. Thankfully I had all of Joey's snow gear and I had a sling and blankets to keep Savanna warm for the walk back.

Worst part of it: I had to call Kris and tell him I got his car stuck. He was not happy! He came out that night to try to get it out and to get some stuff out of his car he needed. I told him not to because he would have to walk through all of the snow to get to his car, but he was determined to try. I could have walked the kids out to the mini-van and gone home with him, but by that point it was 11 PM and it was 20 degrees and waist high snow. I don't think so!! Amy is the best friend ever and let me and the kids crash on her couches for the night. She offered her bed, but I told her the couches would be fine.

Kris came back out in the morning and Amy's wonderful neighbor farmer brought his HUGE tractor and plowed her driveway and pulled the suburban out of the ditch. Such a nice farmer! Joey had a good time with his sleep over at Alyssa's house, and he had some funny 'Joey Chatter' while we were there.

When I told him that we were going to have to stay the night and he could have a sleep over with Alyssa he said "I'm going to have to sleep in Michael's room because it smells like boy. Alyssa's room smells too girl." And then when Amy was getting us blankets to sleep on the couch with he asked her if they 'smell like boy or girl'. He wanted to make sure he wouldn't get anything that 'smelled like girl'. What a goofy boy!

In the end, I am thankful we got stuck on the driveway so close to the house vs. getting stuck on the road somewhere and being stuck w/ the kids. I am thankful that I just so happened to pack savanna's jammies and Joey's 'blanky'. I am very grateful that we didn't have any plans on Saturday. I feel bad for messing up Kris' busy busy weekend, but I'm glad he was able to come help get us home safe on Saturday.

Lesson learned for next time: Don't go to Amy's when the wind is blowing 2 1/2 feet of snow....