Exciting, scary, sad and more exciting news!!

First of all Nick and I decided to take advantage of the day after Christmas sales on Friday and we bought ourselves a new camera!! We bought a Nikon D-40. I've been wanting this one for a while based on pictures I've seen on others blogs as well as price. This camera seemed to have everything the comparable Cannon had, but for less. Everyone at Best Buy kept telling me that this was a good camera to start out with. I'm not sure what else I would need though, this one already has more than I can figure out!

Later that night my dad invited us to go to my aunt and uncles cabin for the weekend in Shaver!! I promptly accepted his invitation and thought of how much fun it would be to take pictures of my kids in the snow.

Here are some shots of the vies on our drive up.

We all had a really relaxing weekend of doing NOTHING!!! It was so nice to just lay around and enjoy each others company rather than go to work or clean the house or run errands!

Yes, that is Elsie running around naked. We are potty training and I was nervous but she did very well!

I love icicles! All of the cabins were covered in them!! Our kids had tons of fun playing in the snow, having snowball fights, sledding and exploring.

The next two are the last pictures I was able to take of our weekend.

Nick and Elsie were about to race Charlotte, but they started to get too close so Nick slowed down to avoid a collision. Some how Charlotte veered off course.While I was trying to get pictures of Charlotte, Nick said that she was going to crash. I thought he meant into me so I snapped a shot and got out of her way. Then he yelled "Stop her!" I turned to see that she was headed trait for our car. I knew it was too late but I ran anyway only to watch her hit the front bumper face first. I don't know how fast she was going, but her little limbs went limp and flew back just like when you watch car crashes in slow motion. It was the most terrifying moment I think I have ever experienced. (Probably even more so than the time she got locked in the bathroom by Aaron, then fell and hit her head on the tile and was screaming while I was helplessly locked out!!) Just writing about it is making my eyes water. I felt a slight sense of relief when she started screaming, and then even more when I was able to pull her out from under the car and see that other than some swelling and a small cut on her lip she was alright. She does have a nice bruise on her cheek, but no broken nose, teeth, skin, or bones. As I started to take her inside I saw Nick pick up our new camera and I realized I had dropped it in the snow. I didn't think anything of it other than to wonder when I had let it go. Later that night I was still shaken up, but I was able to understand that my brand new camera was broken and that we had turned down the warranty.

When we got back into town Nick went back to Best Buy to try to purchase the warranty so we could get a new one but they said we couldn't because it was already broken. The lens was the part that broke and a new one would cost a few hundred dollars. Nick called me to ask if we should let them send the lens out to be fixed. I said to wait and I would try to find someone to fix it that wouldn't charge us just to ship it to another company who was also going to charge us.

Nick went to the car and hit the steering wheel. I went to change a diaper and prayed.

A few minutes later he called me again and told me that the camera had started working! He than drove to the other Best Buy in town and purchased the warranty! The camera is still working but if in the next two years it stops, we will get a replacement!

Lessons learned:

1. Pray always

2.Wear your camera strap