Hell froze over

Boy, do I have egg on my face. So much for the forty degree heat wave. I am a Utahan through and through but I have never seen a storm like the one last night. I'm sure lots of you heard about the stranded school bus. That would be Cameron's school bus. Her school gets out at 3:30 and she's usually home by 3:48. She walked in the door last night at 11:42.
It goes without saying that it was a very stressful afternoon/evening/night. The blizzard hit really hard around 3:30, with almost zero visibility. We got an automated call from the school saying that the bus would return to the school and the kids should be picked up there. But one smart little girl had a cell phone and called and told her mom that they were not at the school, but stuck on the side of the road. The bus driver knew that they were on the highway but didn't know where.
Around 5:00 a few of the men in the neighborhood left in their SUVs to try and make it to the stranded bus. They reached the bus at about 7:30. Eric said it looked like a war zone. There were abandoned cars blocking the traffic making it impossible for the snow plows to get through. The snow drifts were as high as four feet in the middle of the road. When they got to the bus they knocked on the door and the driver opened it. The poor bus driver was a substitute and was only about 20 years old. There were no lights on the bus, but it was warm.
The kids all came to the front of the bus and wanted to go with Eric and Brad but they could only take their own kids. Some of the kids were scared but most were doing just fine.
The highway was closed so they couldn't get back home so they went to the school. The school had food and movies and other activities for the kids to do. They waited there for an hour or so then got a few more neighbor kids and headed out to McDonald's. The roads weren't really bad in American Fork so they made it to McDonald's.
At 10:30 they decided to take their chances on the back roads to try and get home. By this time Eric and Brad had 6 kids with them. All the roads were closed and everyone was trying to get to church shelters. I'm not sure how they did it, but they did get all the kids home safely before midnight. It really was a miracle.
I don't think I've ever been as stressed out as I was last night. I felt completely helpless. I couldn't get to my daughter and I didn't know if she was scared, hungry, sad or (almost the worst possibility) if she'd wet her pants! She didn't wet her pants and was appalled to find out that I'd been worried about it. I'm glad that everyone is safe and sound today. The most shocking is to see the sunshine and blue sky. It almost feels like a slap in the face for it to be such a gorgeous day after the night from hell. I guess all's well that ends well.