You ready for a CRAZY travel story???

Ok, so we left yesterday from our home to get to idaho for Christmas. Our journey began in Troutdale at 8:20am. My dad was driving Amandas car with a lot of the luggage, Bailey and Nate. Mom had Kenzie, Abi, Mandie and I in the van and the rest of all the luggage. Well, with the blizzard conditions at home, we put on chains just to get out of the driveway and then took them off before the freeway. Well, we got onto the freeway and were driving through THICK snow and what usually takes us about 45 minutes to get to Hood River took us 2.5 hours! So a little ways outside of Hood River, mom and us in the van hit a patch of ice... mom did everything she could, steered into the slide, she really did the best she could, but we still got in an accident. We hit the median with the front middle fender, then hit the passenger front side hard and then spun and hit the back right. by the time we stopped, we were facing oncoming traffic, thank the Lord we didn't get hit! after we checked it out, it was drivable, so we took off again (or so we thought). we made it to Pendleton 5.5 hours later (usually takes us 3 from home), we stopped for food and gas and thought we were in the clear and ahead of the storm... nice thought! so then we got back on the road and were headed up the mountain. on the first curve on the cliff up the mountain, mom, who was driving the van said, "somethings wrong! i cant", i said, "mom, what do you mean, ice?, what's wrong??? what?". She said, "I have no steering and no accelerator!" The car started smoking and we pulled over as soon as it was safe. dad and Nate pulled over too. We called AAA and got a tow truck. the lovely part was that we had one small car with heat for 1.5 hours and it was 3... yes 3 degrees outside! well, the tow came and took us back to Pendleton. we waited in the only open repair shop for an hour or so. the radiator cracked, the steering belt came loose and the damage was big. We have some friends that live in town so we called them and crowded in with them for 3 hours to eat and keep warm. In the meantime, uncle Dennis started driving from Idaho to meet us and take half of us and the rest would have Mandie's car. When Dennis came, at about 8:40, we CROWDED everyone and everything in and started our drive. It was scary and dangerous, but we THOUGHT we were in the clear, once again. well, of course, that would be too easy! All the sudden, the car with Dad, Nate and Bailey started flashing the lights over and over again. the called the cell and said, "we have a flat tire!" "you have got to be kidding me!!!???" haha (all we could do at that point was laugh! The boys got out and braved the 0 degree weather to change the tire. We got on our way, snowed all the way back and made it in finally at about 2:30am! Whew!!! 17.5 hours later!!! we are hear, safe and thankful to be!!!