In the Land of Sea Creatures and BeAuTiFuL Temples

We debated about whether to take the free bus service down to Sea World or to drive our rental car. Tanner was leaning heavily towards taking the bus. But, I have always wanted to see the San Diego temple in some form other than pictures. That temple has always looked like the grandest of castles to me. Anyway, I ended up persuading Tanner to drive to Sea World so we could stop and spend some time on the temple grounds. Brilliant, Kristin, brilliant. Here I thought I was doing a good thing and all seemed well until our drive back to Anaheim.

Here are some highlights from our day at the temple and at Sea World. Tanner talked Lauren into going on the rafting ride (thankfully, Pai was too short so I had to wait on the sidelines with her). Anyway, they ended up getting SOAKED. And then, the day turned overcast and semi-rainy, so Lauren froze. Hence the reason she's drowning in my sweatshirt. She was such a good sport. The girls loved seeing Shamu.








We spent a fabulous day at Sea World. On the ride back to our hotel, I fell asleep. I remember waking up to a huge crashing sound and, when I looked up, our car was careening across three lanes of traffic on I-5 in Riverside, CA. All I knew was that we had hit someone and we were going to the right, to the left, to the right, to the left and finally ending up on the left shoulder of the freeway. I noticed another car swerving across the lanes of traffic, slightly ahead of us. I didn't really know what had happened, but I was scared to death!

We called the police and, because the traffic was so heavy on I-5, they made us stay in the car, with seatbelts on and the doors locked. I could see the other car off the right shoulder of the freeway, but she was ahead of us and across six lanes of traffic. We knew everyone in our car was ok, but had no idea if the other driver was ok. It seemed like forever before the cops arrived. They escorted us off the freeway and when we reached a pullover spot, one of the officers came and got Tanner and asked him to talk to the other driver. When I looked over, she was sobbing hysterically. I got out and went over to her. She kept apologizing and crying. She said she felt horrible, but once she saw "little people" in the back of our car, she lost it. We hugged and then she explained that although she knew she was too tired to drive back to LA, that night, she tried it anyway. The last thing she remembered was closing her eyes. She had fallen asleep and drifted over into our lane and into the passenger side of our car. The impact sent our car into other lanes of traffic. I will never know how we didn't hit any other cars as we were going back and forth across the freeway because the freeway was PACKED that night. I also don't know how Tanner kept from overcorrecting and rolling our car. The more I thought about the accident, the more I realized that we were definitely being watched over and protected that night. Lauren had a burn on her neck from the seatbelt but, other than that, there were no injuries. Needless to say, I don't think we'll ever forget our day at Sea World and the bumper car ride on I-5 that night. I really felt like a hero for talking Tanner into driving that day! Me and my brilliant ideas...

We'll be dealing with insurance hassels for awhile but, other than that, we're happy to put the car wreck behind us. With Tanner's big wreck 5 years ago, we're hoping we've had our fair share of car wrecks for a while. Here's to wishful thinking!