Thanksgiving

This years Thanksgiving is one that we will talk about for years. Dinner was wonderful and it was a pretty normal Thanksgiving. We baked pies all the day before, Kids came in from out of town, we had the missionaries over and we ate later than planned. What wasn't normal is what we will remember. 

Kassey and the girls came out almost 2 weeks before, Karly flew in the Friday before and the Monday before Will flew in to town. In was also the Monday that Seattle was hit with a wonderful snow storm. It didn't seem like any big deal and we went about our day as planned and enjoyed the weather. Kloe went off to school and those of us at home ran around getting ready for the big day. By lunch time the snow was increasing, but still nothing compared to Utah or Idaho, the problem was the cold. It's wetter here and the snow had been melting during the day and around noon the temperature started to drop and so things were starting to freeze. By the time Kloe came home from school we had about one inch of snow, but it was on top of ice. Will's flight got in at 6 but just to be safe Kassey left at 4:30 to do the 30 minute drive so that she would have plenty of time knowing Seattle has poor drivers and with any weather they get over cautious. She took both the girls to greet Will and so she could use the HOV lane. Just as she was leaving Kaira and Tyler dropped off their boys and left to go on an anniversary date. The evening went great and just as we were expecting Kassey and Will to show up after having some planned family time, around 8:30, we got a call from Kassey. She was stuck on the 5 freeway heading south near Boeing and still hadn't picked up Will. The snow had gotten worse and as she reach downtown Seattle things had come to a stop and only crawling once in a while. She had been in touch with Will and he was waiting at the airport along with a lot of other people. She told us the freeway was like a parking lot and didn't know why. We looked into things and found out that there were lots of jack knifed diesel trucks. Kassey had been in the car now for 4 hours and had 2 very hungry girls and she needed to go to the bathroom. To top things off Kassey, 7 months pregnant, was having a some false labor. Kim couldn't handle sitting a waiting for things to change so being a true John Wayne kind of dad, got together a blanket, some juice boxes, cookies and donuts and went to help. As he was on the way we learned that there was no real efforts to try to get things moving on the freeway. The snow had increased and with the black ice there were cars all over the freeway that had spun causing blocks and accidents.  Drivers were having to maneuver their way around everything. The mess had started just as everyone was leaving work downtown and as Kassey reached the Seattle Boeing field there was a shift change which only made things worse. Kim drove streets to get as close as he could to her and found the best place he could hop the cement wall. He walked down the freeway talking to her until he found her. By now it was close to 10pm and Kassey had only driven about a mile since she first called home. People had started to run out of gas and were leaving their cars abandoned to go a get gas. There wouldn't have run out, but the temperature was now in the teens so you could only sit with your car heater off in the cold for a short time. Around 10:30 Kaira called and told us that they could come and pick up their boys but once they got to out house they probable wouldn't be able to drive back up the hilly streets to go home and would be stuck, so the boys stayed with us. By now everything was covered in snow, schools were closed for the next day and Kassey was still stuck. Kim had gotten her gas and helped her in every way he could, but things were just not moving and the longer things lasted the more people just abandoned their cars. There was only one lane open and Kassey was only a few miles away, but only going a foot or so every hour. Thankfully Kassey and Will had just bought a mini van with a DVD player and the girls were not completly out of controll. Kim had tried to get to Will by streets but the freeway jam had caused grid lock in the whole city and Kim couldn't get near the airport. By 1am Kim was ready to give up and just come home. We checked one last time to see if the other freeway that gets you to the airport and found that things were finally clearing on it, Kim found a route to get to Will and then came north on the 5 freeway until they saw Kassey on the southbound side. Will hopped the center wall of the freeway to Kassey and by 2:30am Will was with his girls. The whole thing felt like a movie that someone had forgotten to tell us we were part of. Kim said the freeway looked crazy; cars were all over and big trucks had jack knifed. As far as we know there were no fatal accidents. Kim made it home around 3 and Kassey and Will around 4:30am, 12 hours after she had left. Strangely there was almost no news about it that night or the next day. The boys woke up in the morning surprised to find themselves still at granny's house and as soon as the girls woke up there was a great cousin reunion. Things stayed cold and the snow continued for the next few days and Kloe got her dreamt of school snow days.

Our dog Georgia loved all the cold because it meant she got to sleep inside. Having to sleep in her kennel was no problem as long as she was in side she was a happy girl. She would walk in the house straight to her kennel and with in minutes the snoring would start.

Thanksgiving dinner was great and we enjoyed a calm day.

Kaira cooked our turkey for the first time and it was very yummy.

Kassey made the traditional sweet potatos as she always does and Karly tried her hand at pie crust and found a hidden talent.

Not everyone was here this year, but we are getting use to having to share.

Kerin and Cory were with his family, Kyle was with Megan's and Elder Kody Porterfield is in San Antonio, Texas.

By the weekend we had very little snow around and so by Sunday morning when Will and Kassey left things seemed safe to be on the road, except by the time they got to the pass it started to snow again. The rest of the drive home was done very slowly with chains on the car and took a day and a half longer than planned with a closed freeway in Idaho. Kassey told me they will never drive out to see us in the late fall through winter again.