Good Bye Nebraska

So on October 4th I drove with the kids to Scottsbluff Nebraska to pick up Coya and her kiddos for the last time before they moved to Arkansas! Of coarse on the day that we are supposed to pick them up it decides to snow. Brandon was going to pick them up originally but he was not going to be done with a class until later. So I decided to go pick them up so that we could be back before it was too late. We figured the roads would be fine so I decided to brave it. The kids did geat on the way to Nebraska. They watched a movie and fell asleep. Colorado had no snow on the drive, but as soon as I hit the Wyoming borderline there was snow on the ground everywhere. The roads were still pretty clear until I hit the highway going to scottsbluff. Then they got a lot worse. Luckily we still make it in good timing and were able to make it there safely. So we grabbed coya and the kiddos and any stuff they were bringing with them and headed back on the road. We wanted to get on the road as soon as possible so that we would not get stuck in Nebraska. One of the roads north of where they were was already closed. As much fun as it sounded to be stuck in Nebraska or anywhere else for that matter with 4 munchkins and not prepared for an over night stay... NO Thanks! haha So we headed out and for the first little bit it was ok but then the roads got pretty bad. Especially for a Cali girl who has never really driven in the snow. So for quite a bit of the drive I was face into the steering wheel gripping it for dear life and just hoping that we would stay on the road and not get stuck or crash anywhere. There was a couple of spots where I felt like I could not see anything. I was glad that there was a van in front of us so that I could see their break lights  every once in a while! Then after we hit highway 80 we were in the clear again. I could finally relax a little a sit back into my seat. However, because of all the snow and being scared of driving in the snow I had totally forgotten about how much gas I had. So as soon as we passed Chyenne my gas light went on. There was nothing for miles upon miles! So now we were not worried about the snow stopping us but the car not being able to make it because of running out of gas. As we got closer to Wellington me and Coya were just praying that we could make it there. I was getting really nervous!! Luckily I knew Wellington was only about 15 minutes from my house so Brandon would be able to come out and get us. The only problem was that there are not many on or off ramps after wellington so he would have had to drive pretty far just to be able to turn around and get to where we would be. Anyways, so we finally saw the exit and that the gas station was basically right off the highway. As we got closer to the off ramp the car switch to a lower gear and decreased the energy or something because we were like out of gas. We made it up the hill and down the hill but then we came to a light and of coarse the light turned red. So we had to stop. When I started to accelerate again to make the turn the car julted and then we were at a stop. No more gas to even try to get to the gas station. So I threw on my hazards lights and put the car in Nuetral and hopped out of the car to start pushing it in. I waked a car to go around us and I got to the back of the car. Coya hoped in the front seat and I started pushing. I got it going a little bit and then all of a sudden it started going more and a man from behind us had gotten out to help push. I said Thank you and then another man came on the other side of me and helped push. I Thanked them so much as they helped push the car into the gas station. Oh man did we feel blessed! The car could have stopped a few miles back but it didnt. We made it to the gas station and filled up. In the mean time Wyatt had been screaming in the back and Ethan and Mady had been making loud annoying noises in the way back. So we had a very eventful last part of the trip. haha 

The rest of the week went well and we had lots of fun with Coya and her kids staying at our house. Even if it was stressful with grumpy kids every day and fights and screaming and crying babies (anytime we were driving somewhere for more than 10 minutes). It was still fun to have them stay at our place again for one last time before there move! 

This was taken right after it cleared up a little bit! I was not a happy camper driving in this snow! haha I dont really care to do it again! 

So much fun having an in house horse to ride! :-)

They were also here over conference weekend. So we had a nice relaxing weekend eating too much food and just hanging out and listening to wonderful conference. Although having 4 little kiddos to take care of while watching conference made it difficult to hear every talk or everything in every talk. We got some good things out of it though and are excited to read through them again. 

Then one of the days we decided to do some halloween crafts. So we made some paper cup spiders and tissue paper ghosts! The kids were able to paint their spiders whatever color they wanted and they seemed to have a lot of fun. Except for the fact that the paint was taking to long to dry, which they got impatient with. But, it was fun anyways! 

Yay for Halloween crafts! 

Then we let the kids do some finger paints outside. We used vanilla pudding this time and just colored it. Wyatt was more excited about eating it this time than last time. So he really didnt paint much. haha Ethan and Mady had a blast though. 

Safe to say Decklyn HATED it!! haha He lasted about a minute! haha

Wyatt LOVED it!! Or I should say LOVED the taste of the paint! haha

Ethan and Mady had fun painting each other. Then we let them clean up the paint with a big bowl of water and some rags. So they played outside for quite a while. Until they started fighting. You know the usual cousin fighting... pushing, screaming and then hitting. Coya and I were sitting inside when it was all going down. We really didnt want to break it up because we were tired of breaking up fights. So we let them deal with it until Coya saw people outside watching what was going on. So we finally went outside and stopped the yelling and crying and all in all fighting. So we put them in the tub and I had to drain the water 3 times before they were clean! MESSY MESSY MESSY! Haha At least they had fun for the most part! Anyways, we had a lot of fun while they were here. Of coarse we didnt do too many things because of babies naps but we were able to get Mady's hair cut, go down to Denver and eat at Cheese Cake Factory and play play play at the house! Then we had to say Bye to Coya and her family as they took off to Arkansas!!