Our Anniversary & Family Reunion

John and I celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary today! We have been together for 14 years and I couldn't imagine my life without him. He is absolutely amazing and we are truly blessed!

We celebrated by going to dinner and a movie last night since today was my Dad's Family Reunion.

Every year we drive out to Eureka City Park the first weekend of August for the reunion. The ride is long but we always have fun once we get there. This year there was a bike marathon and with all the road construction and already narrow roads it ended up being quite an adventure! We were following my parents when all the sudden I looked up and saw a diesel coming in the opposite direction, headed right towards us. The trucker had slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting a biker. But ended up hitting the car in front of him and clipping the side of my dad's truck. It was absolutely terrifying to see such a huge vehicle out-of-control and heading right towards us. Luckily John had quick reflexes and veered to the right where there was an open street and got us out of harms way. He turned so quickly, I thought our car was going to tip over. The diesel did hit the car behind us.

It's funny how they say that when your in a situation like that, you see your whole life flash before your eyes. It was like we were moving in slow motion. We heard all the tires screech, heard the yelling, saw people running from their vehicles, smelt the smoke, felt the sorrow for those who did get hurt. But during all the commotion, I thought to myself... is this it? Is this how we'll be spending our Anniversary? Will I be alive to see my babies get married? Our my parents okay? Is the other driver alive? Who will tell their families? My mind raced with a million questions...

After doing a quick look back at the kids and asking if everyone was okay, I now needed to find my family. We raced over to see my dad and sister running down the street in tears and frantically looking for us. The car behind us that did get hit was silver too and looked a lot like our car. So they thought for sure we were hit. I waved to get there attention, I say the look of relief on my dad's face when he saw us driving towards him. But where was my mom? My stomach dropped! Then I saw her on the other side of the road! She was hysterical! We rushed right over to her. I grabbed her and held her tight until she calmed down. Then I realized she was covered in dirt and all banged up. OH MY GOD! What happened? "She fell out of the car!" my sister said. They were all shook-up from the diesel hitting them, that when they all looked back they just saw a silver car get hit too. My dad immediately turned the truck around to get to us, and at the same time my mom opened the door to run to us and that's when she fell out of the truck and into a ditch. She landed on her shoulder but got up and went running, frantically looking for us! My mom's adrenaline kicked in and she rushed to our rescue not feeling any pain. She is so amazing! I'm so glad that we all survived and I pray for those who were injured...

After all that, we made it to the reunion! This year is was a "Hippie" theme.

The kid's went on a "Wilde Ride" on the "Wilde Wagon."

Jumped on the bouncer.

Played games and won lots of prizes.

Fishing for prizes.

The kids think the best part is when they get to play in the sawdust. They go by age groups in search for money and candy.

My favorite part is the auction! Everyone brings items to put in the auction and then we buy raffle tickets.

This year I made a few necklaces to put in the auction. I was really excited about getting rid of a few bottlecap necklaces. I made a few hundred of them. Somehow the only thing I won was my own bottlecap necklace. Damon had put his tickets in that bucket thinking I wanted them back. LOL.