First solo drive in the Jeep...

How funny to find this unfinished post on my blog! It has been too long, considering that the driver in this post is now 21!

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Miss Genevieve has been hitting so many milestones lately. Things are speeding past me as quickly as they did when she was a baby. That first year is a blur....holding up the head, smiling, sitting, crawling, talking...every time you turn around a baby in her first year is doing something new.

The same thing is happening for G...in a matter of a couple of months. The braces she's had on since 7th grade came off.

She applied for and landed her first job. Which meant she'd need a car.

So we got her a car. Which meant she'd need a driver's license.

But first she'd have to pass the road test. She accomplished this on February 15.

Unfortunately, she turned 16 on a federal holiday and had to wait to get her license. But we ended up with a snow day on the 20th, so off to the SOS we headed.

That night she had the chance to drive for the first time without an adult when I sent her to take and then pick her sister up from dance. But she couldn't use her own car since her dad was working on it.

So forward to this morning. The snow started to fall between 6:00 and 6:30. Conditions deteriorated rapidly, but I had no idea it was as bad as it was. G was nervous, but I assured her I'd follow behind and all would be well.

She left the driveway (after a minor crash into the gate) and made her way slowly (like 5mph), weaving the quarter mile to the four-way stop. She turned right at the stop sign and continued her less-than-straight path down the road.

After about half a mile, her Jeep slowed to a stop. She put it in park and turned on the hazards. She got out of the Jeep and headed back to my Suburban, crying. My poor girl. She was scared and frustrated and announced she couldn't go any further.

I convinced her to drive another corner mile to the next cross road where she could turn around, we would head back home, and I'd take her to school. So back into the Jeep she went. She climbed back in the driver's seat, closed the door, put it in gear, and drove straight off the road into the ditch. So back into my Suburban she climbed and once I got her calmed down and I turned the car around to get us back home, she commented that it was much easier to see in the Suburban than it had been in the Jeep. Which meant, she could drive home while I attempted to get the Jeep out of the ditch. Which didn't work....Jeff had to come take care of that.

And the next day was her first day of driving to school.