We beat the storm to Idaho

Some of you may be wondering if we've been stuck in a snowbank somewhere between Dallas, Oregon and Nampa, Idaho for the past few days but I'm happy to report that we did in fact arrive at our destination Saturday evening around 6:30pm our time. We spent Friday morning finishing our packing and loading up the van before skating through our neighborhood towards Salem. The roads cleared about 10 minutes before we hit Salem and the snow was all but gone by the time we got up to my Mom's house in Damascus. We had a delightful afternoon celebrating with my Mom and exchanged gifts and had dinner together. From watching the weather we knew that the next big storm was coming Saturday night and that we needed to get moving to stay ahead of it. So we woke up early Saturday morning and were on the road by 8:22am making our way through snowy Portland streets to the even more snowy Gorge.
I don't think I can describe the drive between Troutdale and The Dalles other then White and Scary. David thinks that since he grew up in Idaho and knows how to drive in the snow that he's prepared and can totally disregard the signs that say "Chains or Traction Tires REQUIRED from Milepost 29 through 82". So we inched along at a grand 20mph with no chains or traction tires for a little over two hours. We got to The Dalles at 11:30 and decided to stop for lunch at McDonalds so we could pick up some Red Box movies for the kids. While I let the kids run around the Play Area David finally installed our chains which were on our van for one exit before David pulled over to take them off. After The Dalles the roads were a lot better and by the time we reached Ontario we couldn't even see snow on the sides of the road. We pulled in David's parent's driveway at 6:30pm and were very happy to have that 10 hour trip safely behind us. I think our parents were pretty glad too.
Now that we're here we're hoping that David's Aunt Diane and Uncle Ed will be able to join us as they are stuck at the Portland Airport and have been since yesterday at noon. Everyone thought we were nuts to drive instead of fly but I'd much rather spend 10 hours in a car then who knows how long at an airport. Please pray they make it here by Christmas!