The Wood Between the Worlds

Or the vacation to Coeur d'aLAME!

Last October when Brent and I took a little trip to Seattle without the kids, we sat in a time share sales pitch in exchange for a $50 visa card and two free nights in Coeur D'Alene.  We were hoping to go as part of our summer vacation.  But we couldn't find two nights that weren't too close to Oliver's due date, so we scheduled the dates at the end of September...for Brent's birthday!

9/28/10
We took off to drive up to Coeur D'Alene!  And to see our friends the Fox family in Spokane!  We had a beautiful forecast for a last Indian Summer vacation.  Yay!

we stopped at this lookout point before heading north through Hermiston

  Then, about 30 miles north of Hermiston...something happened!  Our car kept running, but a BIG check engine light came on.  Brent knew from reading the owners manual that we should NOT keep driving after this light comes on.  DANG!  So we called the local dealership in Hermiston and had them send up a tow truck...hoping to get on our way that night, if possible.  As it turned out, they weren't able to look at our car until the next day...so we had to stay over in Hermiston.

 Stranded in Hermiston:
At least we had a cute baby to entertain us.  And a nice hotel to be stranded at...in Hermiston (yay.).  We actually had a lot of fun watching movies, eating at the hotel's buffet and swimming as a family in the indoor pool.  How long has it been since we've done that as a whole family??   

what a cutie!

both boys have gotten to be good swimmers!

Now the lame part of the story comes after we waited around in Hermiston for quite some time.  The dealership finally told us what was wrong and how long it would take to fix it.  Turns out it was going to be at least 5 days until they could even get the part in!!  So we made some quick decisions and decided to take our car back to our dealership in the Portland area.  Only problem: the hundreds of dollars it would cost to have the car towed back.  Thankfully we were able to rent a u-haul instead, and for $150 Brent was able to tow our car back.  Another problem: the u-haul cannot hold 5 people in the cab!  Arghy!  One problem after another.  Thankfully my sister who also lives in the Portland area was able to come to our rescue.  We waited around at the hotel all day while Brent was towing our car back...and by 9pm (the day after we left for our trip) we were home.  Nice trip.

At least the expensive part that broke in our car was covered by the warranty.  And then it took over a week for us to get the car back and I got to do a lot of running the boys to and from school!  There's a silver lining to every dark cloud.  And our prayers are often answered in ways that are unexpected.