Time in Tulsa (actually Owasso, but that didn't sound right)

This year the holiday rotation is Thanksgiving in Oklahoma and Christmas in SLC, but since the twins turned 2 in Aug, flying has become too expensive. As a result, we played it up that we wouldn't be able to spend the holiday season in Oklahoma with the Smiths. Little did they know, we were secretly planning to surprise them. We left on Friday 21 Nov at around 4:00 pm (1600 hours). We had planned to leave earlier but Isabelle injured herself and we had to take her to the doctor (she is fine). We drove all the way to Burlington, Co where we stayed the night, then continued our uneventful journey to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house. We arrived about 7:00 pm (1900 hours) and sent the girls to ring the doorbell. When Grandma Smith answered the door, she just stood there stunned. Finally Kim and I jumped out shouting "Surprise!" and it finally dawned on her what had happened. It was a complete surprise! The surprises continued as each member of the family arrived to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The time was great and many laughs were had by all. Thanksgiving dinner was a delight. Although our trip out to Oklahoma was uneventful, the rest of the trip did not follow suit. On Wednesday while watching the twins and their cousins, I sprained my ankle after stepping in a hole. It swelled up really big, and then when that drained it moved to my foot, so now it looks like I have elephantitis in my left foot. Then, before we were about to leave on Friday, Kim twisted her left ankle too. That was just the beginning.
The drive out of Oklahoma started innocently enough. We had pretty good weather and we made it to Limon, Co, where we stopped for the night, in good time. Before we left Oklahoma, I checked the weather along I-70 and snow was predicted for Friday morning in Denver, but clear skies for Saturday. Unbelievably, the weather predictions were wrong. Right after we left Denver, snow started to fall. Going up the Rockies was incredibly slow, and traffic even stopped at times. All the while, the snow kept coming. Luckily our van has traction control, which kicked in a couple of times and kept us from getting stuck. We pulled into Frisco, Co after traveling for a couple of hours (Frisco is only 72 miles from Denver) to eat lunch. After a brisk lunch, we got back on the road and battled the snow. Once we emerged from the Rockies, things got a whole lot better, weather wise. Just when we started moving, we had to stop again. A semi had crashed in Glenwood Canyon and spilled its load all over the road. As a result, I-70 was shut down until further notice. To make matters worse, there wasn't a detour; the police just sent people off the interstate and told them to wait. We ended up waiting for 5+ hours! In 10 hours we had only made 240 miles! During the wait we tried to keep the girls busy, which was quite a task. Luckily our DVD player and their new-found love in Dora the Explorer kept them entertained for a while. When the interstate finally opened, the police let the people waiting on the interstate go first, instead of everyone that they had told to get off. Those that were waiting the longest, had to wait longer. The people around us did not like it at all, and started to honk their horns at the police officers guarding the on-ramp. Soon, about 25 or more cars were honking their horns and people started yelling. All the while, we could see cars flying by on the interstate. I joined in on the horn honking, until the twins started to cry. After waiting another .5-1 hour, we got on the interstate. Things were moving well for a least a mile, then traffic backed up because CDOT had only opened one lane by the accident. It took us another 1.5 hours to go 8 miles. Even though we had left Limon, Co at 9:00 am on Sat, we didn't get home until around 2:00am Sun morning. It was a very long drive, but the trip was still worth it. While we were in Oklahoma, Kim and I toured a couple of Aviation Maintenance schools in Tulsa and Kim was able to accomplish one of her yearly goals, but I'll let her tell ya'll about that.