Top of Zion - Getting ready

Amy has a friend that decorates store windows professionally.  She offered to help us decorate our vans!  The process was so interesting!  She would draw on the windows with a crayon first!  Then she gave Amy and I some craft paint and we filled in the lines with paint.  I was to nervous to attempt the writing though, so I had Amy's friend do it.

I loved all the looks we received driving around town doing errands after the van was painted.  After we would get out of a store, it made it really easy for the kids to spot where we parked.

I brought Eric, Aubrey and Jennifer with me to Amy's house while we painted.  The kids mostly played in the backyard.  Jennifer went inside to play with Cami.  We were pretty close to finishing painting the vans when Aubrey came out and told me that Eric needed help - he was stuck in the sand.  I thought they were pretending to be stuck.  Aubrey was persistent that he really needed help so I set down the paint and went to the backyard.

I was not prepared for what I saw.  There was a void in the sand or something, and all I could see was Eric's head and part of one arm sticking straight up in the air.  You could see where the sand had dropped.  I know Heavenly Father was there helping me to stay calm and think quickly.  I normally would be freaking out and frantic. 

I softly asked Aubrey to grab Amy and Becky and tell them to stop painting and come help me.  I didn't know where to step to help Eric.  I didn't want to step on him, or cause more sand to fall.  I asked if he could breathe okay, and he could.  I asked about his chest and he said it was fine, a little heavy but fine.  While I'm talking to him and the kids I was frantically scooping sand out from him.  Amy and Becky came out to the back and didn't say a word.  They just grabbed shovels and started digging.  I am so glad, I didn't want the kids to be scared.  I was able to uncover his other arm, but it wasn't far enough yet for me to grab him and pull him up.  I was afraid of dislocating his shoulders. 

Amy and Becky were able to dig far enough down that Eric could start wiggling a little bit.  I was able to get my hands under his armpits and it took me several tries, but we got him out.  The boys were digging a tunnel in the sand, and I think that it disrupted the sand enough to collapse.  I am so lucky it was Eric that fell in, and not Jennifer, Cami or Brooklyn!  I'm grateful the little girls happened to go inside and play.  They were out there earlier playing.  They would have suffocated!  It was a little scary, but everyone is okay.  Eric has learned to never build tunnels in the sand again.