R.I.P. Dear, Feathered Hat

I am not positive of the whereabouts of my hat, but I am fairly sure it is floating down the Logan River. How did it get in the river? Let me tell you.

Yesterday was not the best day ever. First off, I slept in until almost 11. Most people are in bad moods if they do not get enough sleep. My body works completely opposite. If I get too much sleep, I turn into Medusa. So I was beating myself up for sleeping my whole morning away. Then I did a yoga workout and started on homework. Then I showered. Not a very eventful day. I took some of my anger out on poor Brian. He showed up at my apartment around 5:00 pm. Our parents were to meet that night for the first time. We had dinner reservations at Hamilton's at 7:30. It had started snowing about a half an hour maybe before Brian showed up. We both like the snow. We think it is pretty. So Brian had a plan to brighten my day. He wanted to take me on a ride up the canyon because it was softly snowing and it was calm and pretty. I thought that sounded like a wonderful idea. I wanted out of my apartment badly. I changed into my nice outfit for dinner, put some makeup on, and placed my feathered, black hat carefully on my head. It looked so nice, my hair was framed perfectly underneath it. Before we left I grabbed my camera and threw it into my purse.

"Just in case anything exciting happens," I had said.

So off we went. After we got up the canyon a little ways, it was no longer softly snowing. The snow was coming down hard, and the road was quickly getting covered. I started getting super paranoid. Every time we passed a car, I would flinch a little. Brian laughed at me. I told myself to stop acting ridiculous. We were going slow, like 20 or 30, and Brian knew what he was doing. Finally I said,

"Brian, maybe we should turn around and go back now."

He agreed and told me he would find a good spot to turn around at. We never turned around. At least, we didn't turn around the way we wanted to.

We hit a patch of ice and started sliding for the side of the road. Brian tried to grasp control of the vehicle and slowly turned the other way slightly. "He has got it," I thought, "we just hit a slick spot. That's all." Well, we hit an even slicker spot and started sliding quickly across the road. As we were sliding this time, I knew we were going to wreck. Not only that, but we were going to slide right into the Logan River. It all seemed to happen so slowly, like I had plenty of time for a million and one thoughts to process through my head. I watched the river getting closer and closer and thought about dreams I had as a child.

I always had reoccurring nightmares when I was little about driving off a bridge into water. In the dream, we could never get our doors open because of the water. I instantly panicked and realized my dream was going to become a reality.

As we were sliding for the river, I told myself I was probably going to die. I honestly came to terms with myself that I was about to roll to my death. I wondered if I was ready. I wondered what death would feel like. I started wondering if I would be missed. I started thinking about all the things I hadn't done yet in life. I thought about how I had just blogged the day before about the dreams and goals I had for myself. How would I accomplish them now? I wondered if I had lived a good enough life. Then I yelled to Brian,

"Brian, we are going to die."

And I sincerely meant it.

Brian was yelling commands at me that we were going to roll into the river and I needed to keep my body relaxed, but I did not hear any of it.

Danger Ranger (Brian's truck) went down the river bank. It was a fairly steep drop off. The truck began rolling. I remember having my eyes open during that amount of time too. I remember holding my purse tight against my chest and looking straight forward. I saw bushes whack against the windshield. I felt myself go upside down, like I had felt many times on amusement park rides. The happy rush didn't come to my stomach the way it did on amusement park rides though. This was the kind of rush like. . . .

'We are going to be found dead in the river and be late for our dinner reservation and our parents won't know where we are' kind of rush.

We rolled one and a half times. I think I closed my eyes after I knew we were in water. When I opened them again, I saw Brian reaching for me.

"Baby, are you okay?"

I opened my eyes, I was hanging sideways. Half my head was laying in the river water. I lifted my head and looked around frantically. I was going into shock. The glass was completely blown out of my window and water was seeping in. My foot felt cold. I realized it was because my boot covered foot was through the window, pushing on the bottom of the river bed. I carefully lifted it out. My hat was no longer on my head. It must have fallen off.

"Where is my hat? Brian, my hat is gone. Brian, I need my hat!"

I started looking around for any sign of my hat so I could place it back on my wet head. The only thing I could focus on at all was finding my hat.

Brian got me to calm down and told me we needed to get out of the truck.

"Are we going to drown?"

"No Kels, the water is not that deep. We just need to get out."

He asked if I was bleeding. If I hurt. I said I thought I was fine. He told me to take my seat belt off. Then I realized my arm was stuck behind my seat. Brian helped me pull it out and I unbuckled my seat belt. He told me to give him a little kiss. I did. It calmed me down a little bit. He hoisted me up and we stuck our heads out the passenger window, which also had no glass in it. Brian had turned the hazzard lights on, and thank goodness someone saw us. A man came over right at that moment we had stuck our heads out. I think he was preparing himself to find dead bodies. After he discovered we were both alright, he helped us out of the truck. I went first. I was going to jump on the count of three. The man had his hand out for me to grab. I jumped as hard as I could and about took the guy out.

I climbed up to the road and walked over to his vehicle to get in with his wife. I was trying to fight back the shock I was in. His wife was a gorgeous, little lady from South America. She was pretty concerned about me. She was concerned about the mess in her car too. There were three little kids in the back. She started cleaning the mess up.

"It's fine," I said, "I know how little kids are. I have younger siblings."

She smiled and calmed down a little after that. Until she looked at my hand. Then she started freaking out again.

"You are bleeding!"

I looked down to see my hand covered in blood. There were some drops of blood on my leggings too. She started dabbing at my hand with baby wipes. I only had a few small cuts on my hand. They must have bled a lot since it was the hand I had stuck in the river water.

After what seemed like forever, I was moved to a cop truck that had showed up. The cop walked me to his truck and I saw Brian directing traffic. Who is this kid? He had just rolled his truck into a river and he is out directing traffic. I hugged him. An hour passed. I sat alone in the truck. Finally I was taken to another cop car where I was told they would take my boyfriend and I home. We started out of the canyon. The cop started telling us about what a crazy night it had been. Two semi trucks off the road and two other cars besides us. The canyon was not a safe place to be tonight. He was amazed we were both alright. I looked at the clock. It was now 7.

"Brian, do you think we will make it for our reservation?"

Brian laughed, "I think so."

The cop asked what our plans were.

"Our parents are meeting for the first time tonight. We had dinner plans," I told him.

The cop smiled, "At least you'll have something to talk about then. Nice ice breaker."

We all shared a laugh.

Here are two pictures I managed to take of Danger Ranger being baptized by the Logan River:

After we had cell service, Brian and I both called our parents, informing them we would be a bit late to dinner since we rolled into the river. We got back to my apartment. I combed the glass out of my now frizzy hair and put a headband on. I also changed my wet socks and boots into dry ones. Then we were off. Our parents were a little freaked out I think, but a steak dinner was just what I needed. It was comforting to fall into my mom and dad's arms as well.


I am proud of myself that I didn't shed a single tear during this whole ordeal. But mostly I am grateful. I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I am so happy I am here today. A little sore and tired, but still here and well. It really is a miracle that Brian and I are both fine. I am grateful that Brian had such good control and composure, for my sake. I am grateful for seatbelts. I am grateful for helpful people. I am grateful for police officers. I am grateful for snow tires. I am grateful for my parents. I am grateful for medium rare steak. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching out for us.


I will never drive up the canyon ever again during a snow storm. I will also never again take things for granted. Okay, I probably will because I am not perfect. But I will try and remind myself of how valuable life is. How short it is. How quickly it can be taken away from you. I want to live every minute like it could be my last, because you never know what will happen. And when the moment comes that life is over for me, I want to know that I have lived life well. Let's just hope that moment does not come for me in a very, very, VERY long time.


Happy Thanksgiving week and count your many blessings!

A picture of us after the wreck. Just to let everyone know we are doing great. The sad part is that Brian is kinda faking this freaked out face and I am attempting to mask my shock with this pathetic smile. Don't mind my frizzy, crazy hair. Remember, my head got dunked in the river a little bit.