the sand box story

side view of our expedition


side rear view of our expedition


picture of side airbags that deployed



picture of the car seat that kept our little brady safe


Let me start my story by saying that we are all okay, not a cut, scratch or bruise. Now, I am sure you are wondering what this has to do with a sand box, let me tell you. Labor Day started out like any other day in the Smith house. Mommy had a bright idea to go get some supplies to make brady a little sand box like she had read about in parent's magazine the night before. We all had breakfast and then headed out to our favorite store Home Depot. As we were driving down Grant Ranch Boulevard we noticed a minivan slowly starting to veer into our lane. It was coming at us head on. Brian and I both kept thinking that the driver would eventually swerve back to their side of the road, but it quickly became evident that it was not going to happen so Brian started to veer the car as far over on our side of the road as possible, but there was not a lot of room given that we would soon hit the curb. Before any of that could happen the minivan slammed into the driver rear door of our expedition and spun us around 180 degrees. I don't remember much about the crash, except for getting hit in the side of my face with the air bag and then turning around to see how Brady was doing. He was crying and I could not get out of the car fast enough to get to the back seat. Needless to say that the Britax side impact rated car seat did it's job and Brady escaped with absolutely nothing wrong with him but a little bruise on the bottom of his chin, he stopped crying as soon as mommy did. We were lucky enough to have a neighbor behind us, who just happens to be a police officer. He witnessed the whole accident and was kind enough to stop and try to calm me down. Just so you other parents know when you get in an accident, do not remove your child from the car seat until the EMT's arrive. I would have taken Brady out, but our neighbor (the off duty police man) instructed me not too. We are so lucky he was there. Brian and I were both taken to the hospital. Brian for his back and neck pain and myself for the little man in my belly to make sure he was doing okay, after having a seat belt tighten across my tummy. We were all discharged and all okay. Thank you Brad St. Clair for running down kids and all to try to help us with Brady. Thank you to my Aunt Ree for coming to the hospital only to have me send her away immediately to go purchase another car seat. Thank you to Grammy Sherri for coming down to hang with little man while mommy and daddy got checked out. Thank you to all the West Metro Fire Department EMT's who took such good care of my family, thank you to the Lakewood police officer's that took care of all the little details.) The biggest thank you I saved for last............................. Thank you GOD for watching over my family yesterday. I guess it wasn't our time to go and we have more to do on this earth.

A little side note to the story, daddy made sure Brady got his sand box yesterday, he went and got the stuff later in the afternoon and put it together. He wanted to make sure all of this didn't ruin our day. Brady is so lucky to have a daddy like him.