the one about 2-Wheeled vehicles

Hip Hip Hooray!!! Brett FINALLY got his motorcycle back. Some of you know this story, and some of you don't, so I will tell it anyway. To those of you who know already, I am sorry.

K, here goes. Brett's dad passed away last August. The 29th to be exact. That was on a Wednesday. Quayd's Birthday is on the 30th. (Sad huh, and totally irrelevant to this story.) Mike's funeral was Monday, September 3rd. The very next Monday, the 10th, Brett was driving home from work on his motorcycle, and was hit by a truck. It is complicated to explain in words, but I will try my best. He was coming home and he was on a road with 5 lanes, the middle lane being a turning lane. He was on the outside lane heading North. A truck with a trailer was in the lane next to him, also heading north. A car or van or something was pulling out of a store and wanted to get in the same lane as the truck. I don't know if she didn't see the truck or what, but she nearly hit him. The truck swerved to miss the lady, and smacked Brett. The mirror on his truck hit Brett in the head giving him a MAJOR concussion, among other minor injuries. Of course, the impact knocked him down, he laid down his bike and totally messed it up. He was pretty banged up, knocked out for a few minutes and got to have a ride in the ambulance to the hospital which was only about a block away. He has still been having terrible headaches, memory loss, back aches, etc. It has been a total NIGHTMARE! I have decided that our insurance and the other people's insurance have done everything possible to make our lives a living hell over the last 7 1/2 months. The motorcycle was undriveable after the accident. I am not even sure what all had to be done, but it is finally ready. Now, I know what you are wondering, so lets just get it out there. No he was not wearing a helmet. Does he wear one now? ABSOLUTELY! He was actually pretty good about wearing it, but there was a reason he didn't have it on that day. When we found out that Mike has passed away, Brett was in SLC for a work training thing. He had taken the motorcycle. I was so worried for him to ride the bike home being so upset, so his little brother Cory and I met him halfway with a trailer. We loaded the bike and came the rest of the way home. Brett left his helmet in the truck and the truck disappeared. That is all I am going to say about the truck, so don't ask. But for the record, he was somehow able to get his stuff out of the truck after it was "taken," and we have recently received the helmet. Yes, he learned his lesson, so no lectures, PLEASE!

Anyway, Brett has been so happy to have his bike, and the weather has been perfect for riding. He loves his motorcycle so much. He had wanted one for years, and when we finally decided we could afford it and stuff, I was all for it. I knew it would be something he would love and use a lot. It is his primary means of transportation. It is such a great looking bike and he looks pretty good on it! Quayd LOVES it! When we first got the bike, Quayd was pretty little so he would ride in front of Brett, but now he is big enough he has to ride on back and hold on tight. It freaks me out to see him ride on the back. This picture was taken the first day Brett got his bike. He is pulling it off the lot in May of 2006.

So on Saturday, Brett was going to the local race track to watch the car races and to be on standby for the fire department. Quayd loves to go watch, so off they went. On the motorcycle. Aren't they cute?
They have matching leather jackets! Look how much Quayd has grown! Crazy. Brett said that when they were coming home, Quayd was SO sleepy! Brett was pretty sure Quayd was dozing off on the back of the bike, which is scary, cuz he could fall off! So Brett kept talking to him and making sure he was holding on tight. He just gets so comfortable! Cute huh!

Ok, now for the second part of my two wheeled vehicle story. Obviously there must be something else or else I would have called it "the one about the motorcycle."

So I have mentioned before that my friend Jamie has a scooter, and so does her daughter, Brandi. Well sweet little Brandi lets me ride her scooter from time to time and this Saturday was the perfect day! My boys were gone, Jamie's boys were gone so we hit the town. We are such losers, though and we didn't have any money between us. Jamie was hungry and I wanted a diet Pepsi, so we scrounged through our husbands change jars and gathered enough to cover a burger, large fries and 2 diet Pepsi's. We rode to Wendy's, then went "browsing," (not shopping, remember we had NO money!) at all of the scrapbook stores in town. We were just silly and crazy and I had more fun than I have had in a long time. On our way back to her house, we took the scenic route. We just drove through a few nice little neighborhoods. We would stop and visit, take pictures, laugh and then drive some more. By the way, it was still just a tiny bit cold. We really had to bundle up. Our hands were like ice. We were joking about scrounging up some more change and going to the dollar store to buy gloves!

We weren't on any kind of a time schedule, so we just lived in the moment. It was a blast. Thanks again Jamie for all of the fun! As we were cruising, we came to an intersection and saw this huge, scary, python-like, man-eating snake. (Ok, maybe I exaggerated on the size.) It was probably just a water snake, but equally scary. We were pretty sure it was dead, but it scared us so bad. Jamie told me to take a picture, but there was NO WAY I was getting close to it, so she did. She is so brave. As she was snapping the photo, I yelled, "EWWWWWWW! GET BACK!" I thought I was so funny. She called me some colorful names and then we laughed it off. Then we look back at the "dead" snake and it started to move. We were screaming like little babies. It was so funny! A little while later when we drove by there in the car, we looked and the snake had slithered away. EWWWWW!

The road up to Jamie's house is pretty steep. Well these little scooters are only like 50cc, so they really don't go much over 45 on a flat road. You really have to get a run at it and it is still tough to make it up there. Once you get about half way up the hill you really lose all of your speed, so we were taking pictures on the way up.

We were such dorks and it was so much fun. What a fun day, and a great memory. Thanks Jamie, Brandi, Brett, Casey, Honda, Weatherman, Wendy's and everyone else who contributed to out crazy fun day!