The kids and I drove the Camry to Alabama to visit Mimi and Papa for the 4th of July which has been our tradition for the past few years. Unfortunately we were in a wreck on the way there. It happened just east of Tuscaloosa. We had passed through a really bad downpour and traffic had been crawling. Then the sun came out and the speed of the traffic increased so I was going with the flow. It was still raining lightly and the sun was out and we saw a rainbow on the horizon in front of us. The kids had never seen a "real" rainbow before. They had only seen rainbows from prisms in the past and were excited to see a real one in the sky. I had never seen one on the horizon before. So we were talking about rainbows and just as it seemed like we were passing through the rainbow, brake lights went on in front of us. I applied the brakes but I didn't slow down at all. The brakes were depressed but it was like I was slipping on ice. I knew I wasn't going to be able to stop in time so I tried to steer to the left to avoid the car in front of me but the tires never gripped the pavement so I continued to go straight and smashed into the rear of a 1999 Honda Civic. As soon as the cars collided our car jolted to the left and into the grassy ravine and I was then able to steer it in a better path and come to a stop. I immediately checked on the kids and then dialed 9-1-1. Morgan had a scrape on her upper arm from the seat belt and Adrian's stomach hurt a little from the lap belt. As for myself I had a sore neck for a few days. Luckily the guy and girl in the other car were not injured at all. (It was the guy's 21st birthday.) I am so grateful that everyone was wearing their seatbelts or else the outcome may not have been as good. I wasn't speeding, tailgating, talking on a cell phone, eating, drinking, fiddling with the radio or anything when it happened but I still feel so responsible. I don't know what else I could have done differently. Morgan summed it up by saying, "Well, I guess rainbows aren't lucky after all."



Of course it sucked to start the vacation on that note but we did manage to have a great visit. On Saturday we spent a lot of time in Helena for the 4th of July festivities. They had some inflatable things for the kids to climb and jump on. They also enjoyed listening to and dancing on stage with Elvis. Then we went up the hill to watch the fireworks.





On Sunday some of the family came over for a cookout. Morgan and Adrian got to play with a couple of cousins and had a good time.

Monday we went to Joe Tucker Park and let the kids run around for a while.




We went to the Birmingham Zoo on Tuesday and were surprised to see how much it had changed. The zoo is much better than before.



Wednesday we went to the warehouse and found treasures. There were so many things that I thought had been thrown away long ago. Adrian found what he thought was a popcorn popper but it was really an old hair dryer that you sit under. We finally found my old My Little Pony castle and we brought it back to Texas for Morgan.

On Thursday we drove Mom's XTerra back to Texas. She is using the rental car until the Camry is fixed and then she and Dad will drive it out in August when they come for Morgan's birthday. It is good to be back home with Andy. When we got home he had baked a dish of brownies and topped it with 2 Matchbox cars. He had a blue one ramming into the back of a gray one. He is sooooo funny.