The Spring Break that Broke Me

Alright, so I haven’t blogged in months.  Between the Holidays, the release of our CD/website and everything else going on in our lives, the blog is a tell-tale sign of us being way too busy.

Last week we spent Sping Break in Spokane with Kate’s family.  The family side of things was great, we got to see Oma, Opa, Nana, Popy and stayed with Chris and Mandy (thanks guys).  It was the barrage of weird, things-that-only-happen-to-Brent kind of stuff that about killed the trip for me.  It all started with the rainy, snowy, windy, briefly sunny, cold weather that Spokane is famous for this time of year, which drove us inside for most activities.  The second day of the trip we went to the new YMCA which has a great swimming pool and we had a great (indoor) time, that is until we were leaving and needed the keys to the Suburban.  As many of you know, we recently traded in our Jeep for a MASSIVE Suburban that the girls affectionately call GYNORMICA!  We like it a lot, the only problem is that it was a trade-in that only came with one key and no remote.  You can see where this is going.  Not having hundreds of dollars just laying around to spring for a new complete key set this month, we ventured off to Spokane with one solitary key to Gynormica.  Flash back to the lobby of the YMCA… that one key had been locked (by me of course) into Gynormica out in the parking lot, while we stood around – late for dinner.  45 agonizing minutes, 50 hard-earned dollars, and several "mommy/daddy conversations" later, we hit the rode, determined not to let this minor setback destroy our Springbreak.

The next day we decided to go to Mobius, cool children’s museum in Spokane.  We were having an awesome time and spent two hours there with the kids.  Just as we were leaving I noticed that my phone (which I had pulled out to answer a call) was no longer with me.  "No big deal" I thought, as I searched the toddler reading area where I had just been.  Not there.  Of course.  This was the point in the trip where I won the award for "Best Springbreak Dad Ever".  I asked at the front desk, and then went mommy-by-mommy through the museum asking if anyone had seen a phone.  Then lady walked up to us a said "are you looking for a phone?"  "Yes" I said excitedly, "well I saw a lady pick it up and say she was taking it to the front desk.  It was in a green case"  That was it!  I thanked her and ran off to the desk where the lady said she was taking it.  They searched there, but to no avail, nothing had been turned in.  We called it and called it, nothing.  Later that day I drove back to the museum at closing time and they graciously aloud me to walk around while no one was there and listen for it as I called it.  Still nothing.  Thinking she must have forgotten it in her diaper bag (the lady who picked it up had kids and was quite pregnant) and would call later when she discovered it, we kept calling it and calling the museum.(did I mention they were gracious?)  Long story-short, we left Spokane Friday with no phone and no call back.  Awesome.  Somewhere along the road we called Sprint to disconnect the line and order a replacement, reporting it lost.  Only to have the Sprint guy tell us that it had been used by someone since I lost it!  Not lost… STOLEN!!!  Before disconnecting it, we sent one last text to it begging for this person to at least mail us the memory card insid ethe phone which had over 400 pictures of my kids on it. ("Best Springbreak Dad Ever")  We prayed again and tried to just move on.  But moving on was hindered by the extreme weather conditions which closed the road home! 

When they opened the road we took it slow, going 30-40 most of the trip, watching semi-trucks sliding off the road and saw 7 accidents, but we pressed on and over 11 hours later (3am)we were home.  Go thing neither of us had to work the next day,  oh wait, we both did!  Sweet.

We gave it a few days to see if someone would contact us about the phone, who knows, maybe out of GUILT.  Nothing.  So Monday we headed to the Sprint store to get a new phone.  (sprint stores are too small for all three of your kids by the way)  Hours later Kate got a text asking if we had lost a phone!  Sure enough, there it was!  It had been purchased by someone off of Craiglist!  I still can’t belive that a mommy stole my phone and then SOLD IT!  They saw our text after they bought it and did the right thing.  We have to pick it up today from them and see what we can do about this new phone. 

So that was our Springbreak adventure.