Last pictures my P850 ever took

So, I've begun detailing the demise of my camera in my posts. Friday, our last day of our vacation, my dear camera took its very last pictures, the second to last day of our vacation. My cousin Julie was trying on my grandma's old clothes (after Alyssa, Julie, and I raided grandma's closet in the dark with flashlight while the boys slept). Grandma had a bright red set of hotpants handy, and we had to make Julie try them on. I snapped a picture, turned the camera off, and set it on the bar. It never turned back on. I charged the battery, and it was fine, but the camera was not. Sad me. Here are the pictures:

Here are those hotpants!

I never realized how hard it is for me to be without a camera. I felt incomplete, regardless of cliche that description sounds, its the truth. I saw objects, interactions, view that warranted photographing. I was in the last 48 hours of my vacation, watching my family interact and I could not take pictures. Then, Sunday morning we had family portrait time; it was all I could do not to cry because I did have my camera. I know, I know, I should get over it.

The ride home was the worst. We saw snow falling in the mountains beside us in Utah. I fell in McDonald's playland--yeah, that would have made a great picture. In Colorado we saw fall colors galore, and even the remains a huge rockslide in our lane--rocks the size of cars, people! I had no camera. It began raining, and snowing the high country through Colorado and we saw the very first complete rainbow of our lives. Incredible, both sides went all the way down, and arched all over us, and there was a third arch in the distance. The sunset in the Colorado mountains was incredible, and we were somewhat forced to stop driving b/c the roads were flooded, and it was raining to hard and was to dark for us to see where the water had pooled. In the morning, at 4am when we got up to drive again there was snow everywhere, caking the trees, roadsigns; the temperature was down to 23 at one point. Oh! And our car actually told us in words on the screen that registers gas mileage etc., "Careful, roads may be icy," when the temp dropped to a certain point. Very cool. In Iowa we drove through the worst rain I have ever seen, and found out we were in a county with a torando warning. We made the whole trip home, with all the adverse conditions we had experienced, in 2 days, one night. Theo's an awesome driver (he didn't let me drive). A great vacation, incredible. Thanks to my mom, Theo's mom, Caitlin and her whole family, and my grandparents for their help and hospitality to make it happen. Our first vacation since 2003 was one to always be remembered.

Oh, and Theo had some money he intended to use for hunting, and he let me use it to get a camera. He was even so romantic that he let me shop around for what the best deal for I needed was, and then he tried to go in and buy it for me and bring it home from work, but he forgot his wallet in our entry hall that morning. So cute he is, the most romantic man ever. I love him so much. I'm a lucky, lucky lady to live with all these Rex men.