Cars!

Cars!  We need them...and as our family is getting older...we need more of them!  This year we need Kyle to start driving.  Last year Tyler just took them to all their practices, but since he's moved on it's Kyle's turn to be the driver.  Monty has been looking for a car for him and found one last week.  Kyle says he likes it because it looks like a Stranger Things car.  It's older than any of our cars and even older than any of our kids, but they like it.  Monty has a thing for these older cars.  His first car was an older Cadillac.  He loved it, till a buddy wrecked it.  Hopefully this one lasts a little longer. 

Going to get it proved to be an interesting experience.  We went to pick it up about two hours from where we live.  As we began the drive it started to rain.  The rain just kept falling...and falling.  What we didn't know was that our GPS would later take us down a dirt road.  At first things seemed fine, but shortly into the drive the van began to swerve and the dirt road became very soft. It was so hard to drive and keep the car out of the ditches on the sides.  Thankfully, we hit a bridge and decided to stop to survey the situation.  We were stuck.  In front of us was a huge puddle of water and behind us was a road we knew we couldn't go back through.  We decided the best thing to do would be just to wait and hope the sun would dry the dirt road out enough for us to make it to the mans house.  Our phones didn't work, so we couldn't tell anyone where we were, but we knew if we went forward we'd get stuck and back we'd get stuck.  We remembered the night before Kory had given a devotional on patience.  This was a lesson in patience.  Every hour we'd walk out and check to see if the ground seemed any harder.  We'd walk on the dirt and sink in.  Finally, after about 2 and a half hours of waiting we decided to just try it.  We backed up the van, and started to drive knowing that there was no turning back once we started.  Mud was flying everywhere as I didn't dare take my foot off the gas because if I did we'd for sure get stuck and not be able to get started again.  I felt like a NASCAR driver as I tried my best to keep the car as straight as possible and keep it going.  After what seemed like 10 minutes, but was probably more like 2 we made it through.  The van had about 20lbs of mud on it and mud in every crevice, but we didn't get stuck and we were able to get the other car picked up.  Thankfully, there was a better way out.  Had we known, we'd of taken that way in, but we didn't know.  We'd never been there before.  We thought it was a great lesson in life.  Sometimes life gets messy.  Sometimes we need to just pause and access the situation, but once you make a decision you've got to just go for it.  No matter how crazy it might get.  We knew we couldn't go back.  He knew he had to go forward, but we had to wait for the right time.  If we went too soon we'd put ourselves in greater harm.  Patience payed off, but it was still messy and crazy and we didn't think we were going to make it, but we did.  Such is life...    

This van is so old.  Her left blinker doesn't work.  She has had to be resurrected more than once, (thank you Tyler) but man, when the going gets tough, she always pulls through.  One day soon I'm sure she will die.  But she's been loyal.

The Expedition however just might be dead!  We have no idea what is wrong with it, but I think it might have bit the dust.  I always thought the van would die first, but I guess Grandma is tougher than grandpa.  He won't even turn over.  Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I think he's toast!