Back from Vacation

Well, we're back from vacation in MI. It was nice. Stayed with the in-laws and saw most of them at some point in time or another. To start the vacation out, we had been on the road for 10 1/2 hours, had 15 minutes until we got to the in-laws house, and we hit a deer. Pretty good-sized doe, too. The butt took out the passenger side headlight, and the impact spun it around so that the head bounced off the passenger side door. I thank God that James managed to swerve in time to avoid hitting it dead-on, but it still did some damage.

For those of you that think they recognize the vehicle, you're right. It is my parent's Jimmy that we're now driving. It gets better gas mileage than the van, and is running better right now.

On a different note, James and his dad went and got a load of boughs while we were there so that we could make a wreath and some garland to bring home with us. The kids loved playing in the pine pile.

In this last picture, Alex is pretending to be a moose. He's been obsessed with deer and deer-looking animals ever since the accident. He now tells James to watch out for deer, moose, and elk on his way to work so he doesn't hit them. We're honestly surprised that he hasn't asked us what happened to the deer yet. I've talked to him about death before, but he's never known anyone or anything who has died, so I don't think he gets it.