It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Andrew and I had the pleasure of spending some time with my family this weekend. Saturday, after work, we headed east to my sister & brother-in-law's house. After an uneventful 2 1/2 hour drive, we made it to their house. Lily had just fallen asleep and Ryan was at work, so we visited with Lindsay and helped make some soup. It was a good time. Ryan came home - we all watched a lot of home shows - then it was bedtime.
The next day, brought Church in the morning. After the sermon, we went to pick Lily up from the nursery. She saw me, ran to me, and requested that I pick her up -one of my favorite moments. After Church, Lindsay and Ryan had a meeting, so that left Andrew and I as babysitters. Despite, Lily's initial sadness (she can make by far the saddest face I have every seen, just looking at it made me cry) and her lack luster appetite, she eventually decided she could have fun without her parents there. We built with bricks and blocks, read some books, and played with her doll babies. Then it was nap time. I was a little tired to, so when rocking her to sleep, I decided to just nap with her. I woke up about an hour in, and spent another 1/2 hour just watching her sleep. She is beautiful!
I heard my parents arrive, so I put Lily in her crib, and went down to visit with them. Lily went on to sleep for another 1/2 hour. Almost right after she woke up, my sister and Ryan returned from their meeting. The whole family had some great bonding over some of my Grandma Stipe's jewelry, my old baby p.j.'s and some good children's books. We then all went out to dinner. Lily showed off some of the words she knows - "Mine" and "eat" were the most used. After dinner, we all went our separate ways. All and all it was a great visit, one might say, it was the best of times...
Our drive home, however, quickly became the worst of times...on the outskirts of the town my sister and brother-in-law live in, it began snowing in almost white out conditions. As we got closer to the main highway we take to get to the toll road the snow slowed and then stopped. So as we merged onto the main highway, the air was clear as were the roads - or so it appeared. A little while after merging, we passed a jeep, a very little while after passing the jeep, we saw it loose control and run head on into the 4 foot cement median. At that point we determined, that the road conditions might not have been as okay as they seemed - so we slowed down. About 5 minutes later - we witnessed a truck, traveling in the opposite direction that we were, slip and do a 180, then crash into the median. At that point I officially started freaking out. We had cars (mainly SUV's) ZOOMING by us - you could tell they had not witnessed what we witnessed. About another 5-10 minutes, we noticed that a police car was blocking all the lanes of the highway, forcing all cars to exit. There was also a police car blocking the on ramp, back onto the highway, so we were forced to go down an unknown road. After some failed attempts to get some navigational assistance, we just decided to "head north" until we "ran into" the toll road. It ended up being about a 30-45 minute detour, but we did eventually find the toll road. At this point I considered us home free. The road seemed clear, the air seemed clear, all cars were traveling at normal toll road speeds, and there were no indications of accidents. So we traveled at normal speeds for around 20 miles - at which point Andrew decided it was now safe to use the cruise control. As it turned out, we weren't able to use it long - as it started snowing ever so slightly. Then, white out experience! Andrew made mention of "knowing what happens after this kind of snow" making reference to the previous accidents we had seen.
The snow continued - in white out conditions - and I started imagining every car that past us wiping out and crashing. This made me so nervous, I really thought I was going to throw up. But just as I thought I could take no more, the snow subsided - and eventually stopped and we had finally made it to the south side of Chicago. As we got closer to downtown, it began snowing - yet again. I could hardly believe it - hadn't we had enough already! This snow never got too hard this time, and we did eventually make it home - 3 hours and 15 minutes later - but safe.