The trip we shouldn't have taken

We got home from visiting Levi's dad in Pagosa Springs yesterday. In a way, the 5-day trip felt like a blip on the radar of life and in another it felt like an eternity. This juxtaposition of feelings was made possible by our relaxing and having fun mixed with lots going wrong at home while we were away, making it "the trip we shouldn't have taken."

The week leading up to our trip didn't go well. My car battery died, the internet went out in our house and the downstairs heater stopped working. Levi replaced the car battery, the internet magically fixed itself and we did all we could to fix the heater. After 7 days, 3 technicians, 4 service calls and $275, we gave up and left town. I guess we should have taken a hint from the foreshadowing, but we were ready to get away.

We got to the airport on Monday only to find out our flight was delayed two hours (effectively screwing up our nap-on-the-plane plan for Nora), but we eventually made it to Pagosa and enjoyed a nice dinner before heading to bed. We were exhausted from the long travel day and were looking forward to sleeping in. Unfortunately, we were awoken early Tuesday morning with a call from Levi's mom, who was kind enough to keep Molly for us while we were gone. She had discovered a large wound in Molly's "armpit" area and needed to take her to the vet. It's still a mystery as to how she got hurt, but her wound required stitches and surgery to put in a drain tube, as well as antibiotics, pain killers and a cone (or, as Levi's mom calls it, her "party hat").

Fast forward to Wednesday when Levi got a call from his work asking if he was home. Apparently the mailman found our front door open when he dropped off a package that day and he then asked the neighbor if he knew us to let us know. Our neighbor didn't have our phone numbers but he had noticed we had been gone for a few days, so he went out of his way to call the fire department to try to track down Levi. I guess we failed to lock the front door when we left (very unlike us!) and the strong Oklahoma wind blew the door open! Thankfully, my sister was able to go by to lock up and check out the house and nothing had been taken.

Remember that broken heater we left at home? Well, since the door blew open on the coldest day we've had this winter, our house was now 36 degrees. We wouldn't normally care since we weren't home to be cold, but this was at 3 p.m. and we were worried it might get colder and freeze the pipes overnight. Now, the heater would kick on about every hour for a few minutes, so we had a little hope. Our friend Andrew was kind enough to stop by after to work to check the temperature and we were elated to hear it had gone up to 40 degrees (heat wave!). He checked on it again in the morning and my dad stopped by to drip the faucets, so we were relieved. Another crisis averted.

We enjoyed the rest of our trip and headed to the airport Friday morning. After a smooth trip home, we gathered our bags from baggage claim and trucked everything to the car. There was just one problem: Levi didn't have the keys. He swore he put them in his pocket that morning and he had no explanation as to how they could have disappeared. We tore apart our bags looking and couldn't find them. It became clear we would have to find another way home.

Miraculously, Levi's mom happened to be parking at the airport to leave for work (she's a captain for Southwest) at the same time we were trying to find our keys. She was so gracious to let us take her car! So after we loaded everything up, we headed home from the airport discussing how we would troubleshoot our missing key situation.

After dropping Nora off with my dad, who was waiting for us near the airport, so she could spend the night at my parents' house to stay warm (did you forget in the mess of everything else that our heater still doesn't work?) we called the car dealership to see if they could make us a new key (it was 5 p.m. on a Friday and the service department closes at 6 for the weekend - of course!). They told us the car would have to be present, which would mean we would have to have it towed from the airport parking garage to the dealership. No thanks! We would tear apart our house looking for the spare keys (that were also lost, amazingly) before we would do that. We also called United to see if the key possibly fell out of Levi's pocket on the plane.

And that's when it hit me. I suddenly remembered that the tray Levi put his pockets' contents in when he went through security at the Durango airport had tipped over when it hit the roller section at the end of the conveyor belt. I thought I put everything back in, but the keys must have slipped through the rollers unbeknownst to me. I quickly called the airport and was relieved when they called back to tell me the great news that they had found our keys. There was only one problem, the administration office closed for the weekend and they wouldn't be able to mail them to me until Monday. So, we're paying for a few more days of airport parking, but at least we don't have to pay for towing and a new key!

Whew. I'm exhausted from just writing about what a mess this week's been. We're home now and trying to get our life back to normal. We've worked all day today (with the help of another HVAC person who is very knowledgeable) to get our heater working and we may have just successfully done so. We don't want to trust it yet, though! Tomorrow I'll pick up Nora and Molly and then Tuesday I'll have my car back. Soon enough all will be well.

Though we had a rough week, we realize these "problems" have really just been inconveniences and that we are still so blessed. We're thankful for and humbled by all the friends and family who love us enough to help during times like these. We counted 12 people that worked to keep our home life together this week. That's amazing! While it seems as though we shouldn't have taken this trip, we're sure glad we did.