Its just a van or is it really more than that

She's gone. She never did have a name. I almost felt like I should give her one as the tow truck drove away with her. For some reason, saying good-bye to this van has been more difficult for me than I expected. It could be that this van, our 2002 Chevrolet Venture, has been part of my adult life longer than any other.

Its just a van, but for some reason when they were preparing it for its finally journey, I couldn't stop the tears from coming as I thought of all that had taken place in that van over the last 5 years.

The first memory this van brings to mind, is bringing D. home from the hospital. It also took him to have numerous blood draws to finally find that he had a Vitamin D Deficiency that was easily fixed.

This van also took us down to Denver numerous times to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Higman. It took us to Canada at least once a year where we made special memories with our family. Our van took us twice to my favorite place in the world, Arlington Beach, where our children learned to love this special place also.

This van also took us to the funerals of our last Grandparents, Grandpa Alexander and Grandma Wassam.

This van provided transportation to numerous doctors appointments for our children where we learned how they were growing and that they were healthy. It took us to swimming lessons, skating lessons, sports camps, and VBS, where our children learned more about hiding God's word in their hearts, to visit with friends, to choir, and to church. It took the girls to Greeley everyday when they were little so they could attend school and then to Riffenburgh for home school specials. It held many of our belongings as we moved from Eaton to Fort Collins.

This summer, our van was extremely busy carrying us to places that helped us build memories as a family. It started with a hike up to Horsetooth Falls, and then a wonderful weekend together at Sky Corral, to Discovery Park, where we hiked in the rain, to two Vacation Bible Schools, sports camp, swimming lessons, to Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, and finally to Canada to visit with family and see my nephew marry a lovely young lady. It was on this trip that our van hit a deer and although our van made it home, it was to be the end for it. The damage too great to fix, it was time to let it go.

We were able to find another van that we like. It will take some time to get use to the different features, but I am sure that this van will also provide the way to many more memories with our family.

Canada Summer 2010

We had a wonderful time at home again this summer. It is always so wonderful to spend time with family.We arrived on Saturday, July 31st about mid-afternoon. We immediately raided Grandma's garden of as many peas as possible. Yum! We were excited to find that we would be having lasagna for supper. Vicky came and joined us.

Sunday, we went to church and then out for lunch. I rested in the afternoon while Grandma took the kids to the toddler pool. They had fun. That evening we went to the big pool and loved the new changes they had made. The kids enjoyed playing and M and A especially liked being able to go down the water slide.

Monday, I got up early and went for a walk. Paul and D went with Dad out to the airport and then to the farm to see all the tractors. D was a little disappointed that they didn't make it to Tim Horton's for doughnuts. We went swimming that afternoon and then headed to Tim's for a yummy doughnut!! That evening, we went over to Vicky's to celebrate Adam's birthday. Chelsea (Adam's fiance) made a yummy carrot cake. I would have loved another piece.

Tuesday, I headed to the pool bright and early to swim laps. I walked over and then did my one hour walk when I was done swimming. That was a lot of exercise for so early in the morning. The kids went swimming again in the afternoon. It was so nice that they could swim for free. I wish our city would do that!!

Wednesday, to the pool again and a quick walk home. M and A went with Grandpa to Regina to pick up my brother, Dean and his daughter. The girls were so excited to be able to play with their cousin. In the afternoon, we started to make the pies for Adam and Chelsea's reception. We made about 15 pies in 2 hours (not including bake time). We had apple, pumpkin, Saskatoon, rhubarb, and strawberry rhubarb. They looked so yummy. but they weren't for tasting yet!! That evening, we went to the shower for Adam and Chelsea at the church. It was a nice shower (aside from the MCs mixing up the brides name).

Thursday, I went to the pool again and then for a walk with Dean. He walks fast!! I don't remember too much about Thursday. I wonder if we went to look at RVs at some point. Thursday evening, we had roast turkey for supper. Yum! It was real good.

Friday was my last morning at the pool. I had enjoyed my mornings so much. We went to a pancake breakfast and then Dean and I walked again. Laurie, Marc and Tyler (my sister, brother-in-law and nephew) arrived in time to have a piece of pumpkin pie and then they had to get to Regina to meet with Chelsea and Adam. We took the kids to Heritage Village right before lunch to see a Blacksmith Demo but he wasn't ready. We looked through some of the old houses and even found a house with old Weyburn memorabilia. We went swimming and then headed back over to the Heritage Village to finish looking around. The kids got to play some games and do some crafts. We had hamburgers there and let the kids play before we headed back to the house.Saturday was the big day. Adam and Chelsea's wedding. In the morning, we walked again and then Paul and I went to pick up all our Canadian supplies to take home. We love tenderflake and chipits and dill pickle chips and whatever else we can't get in the US. We got everyone ready for the wedding and then headed for Sherwood Forest Country Club which was outside of Regina. It was a beautiful day for an outside wedding. We are so glad that Chelsea is a part of the family. At 6PM, we had supper. I had a yummy bison burger with sauted mushroom, potato salad and beans. It was a really good meal. Then Laurie and I helped serve the pies and ice cream. They also had cookies that you could decorate. The kids really enjoyed themselves and then started to get antsy. Paul took them to the park while I listened to the toasts. They started the dance at about 9:15 and we stayed for just a short time. We needed to get back to Weyburn.
Sunday, we rested and got ready for everyone to come to the house for a Steak dinner. I burned the strawberry shortcake biscuits but Vicky brought the leftover pie and we ate it instead. It was great to visit a little more with Laurie before they left for Ontario. We visited in the kitchen for quite a while as well with my Aunt Carol, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Janet. We didn't have much for supper as we were all still full from lunch. We headed to the pool for one last time, but there had been thunder so the pool was closed. We went to DQ and brought it back to Dad and Mom's. Then it was time to pack up for our trip home. Our plan was to leave at midnight. I played games with Mom and Dean until it was time to pack up the van.

We left at midnight and everything was going well. We had crossed over the border and most of us were sleeping. We had just stopped in Glendive, MT when I woke up to a thud and opened my eyes to see a leg in the air. We had hit a deer. While Paul got out to look at the van, I struggled to find my glasses which had moved in the impact. I went outside to see the front of the van with Paul. It didn't look good. There was a hissing sound and a hole in the radiator. Paul went back to check on the deer. It was dead about 50 feet off the road. Well, he assumed it was dead from the injuries he could see. He said he didn't go check its pulse. We decided we would continue driving slowly and then call our insurance when we reached Miles City. The kids were all excited to see the damage when we got there. They weren't even grossed out by the deer stuff on the van. Both of our cell phones were dead (we forgot to charge them), so we headed to Walmart so Paul could get a charger for the car. We called the insurance and they took all our information. Then they told us to call another person in Kansas City at 8:00. We hung around at the Walmart, ate our breakfast, the kids got dressed and then we called. She said she would have to call us back because she needed to pull up our file. Paul got some antifreeze and still no call so we decided to head for home. She called just as we left Miles City. She told us they had no reps in Miles City and the nearest was in Billings. We told her we would try to get home and call her when we got there.

We had no trouble getting home. We were about 3 hours later than we expected but we were home.

That's our trip in a nutshell. Hopefully that will be the only time that we ever hit a deer while we are traveling!! We are thankful that none of us got hurt and that we are able to handle the insurance from home instead of far away.

Trip home

I will post more about our week away, but I wanted to start with our accident this morning. We were about 30 miles out of Glendive, when we hit a deer head on. There is quite a bit of damage to the front grill, the hood, one set of lights and we lost air conditioning. We were able to drive the car home. The bumper has no issues and our airbags didn't go off. We talked to our insurance agent when we got to Miles City and they didn't have any adjusters in the area. We will probably call them tomorrow to find out what we need to do.

Here's a couple of pictures of the damage.