A Series of Unfortunate Events

Right after Levi was done with his Summer semester finals, we decided to drive up to Calgary, Canada to visit his brother Paul. Their family had just moved from England and it had been awhile since Levi had seen his nieces and nephews. We were excited at the prospect of leaving Provo and we rushed out after getting a rental car.
Since I am so used to traveling within the European Union, I didn't even think of taking my passport along with me. Fortunately, Levi had thought of it and grabed the folder where we keep our important documents. 12 hours and a speeding ticket (in Montana) later, we arrived at the Canadian border. After checking our IDs, the agent asks for some ID for Eve. It didn't even occur to me that I would have to prove she was my child. The only thing I had was her SS card; however, we also lacked Levi's I-94 paper that would allow him to come back into the States. The Canadian agent graciously sent us back to the US customs. At this point we were besides ourselves. We could not believe how we could have forgotten to check our documents. We drove back to Utah, our tail between our legs as they say, with no intention to sit in a motor vehicle for awhile.
After 24h ouf driving with occasional potty breaks, we crashed on our bed. We called Paul to share our shame and explain why we had not yet arrived and said that there was very little chance for us to make the same trip again. Call us crazy, but after 4 hours of sleep, we convinced ourselves to try it again --I guess we wanted to erase the stigma of our first attempt. This time, we made it through the border and arrived in Calgary at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Our story does not end here...Our second day in Calgary, we decided to go up in the mountains with Paul's family. As we got into the mountains, our car suddenly overheated and we had to stop on the motorway. It's exactly in those cases of emergency that cell phones come in handy. Yes, you guessed right: neither of us possess such a device. After awhile, a truck driver stopped his semi to lend us his cell phone and we called up the rental car agency, confident that they would provide an alternate means of transportation. Indeed they promised to send a tow trcuk to pick up our car (there was a leaking hose) and send another one immediately. I should precise that we had our baby and 2 of her cousins with us in the car. Well, the tow truck came alright, but there was no sign of the other car. The tow truck driver refused to carpool us back , saying it was against regulations...and left us stranded in Banff, 2 hours from Calgary. Fortunately, Paul had a minivan and we crammed everybody (total of 10 persons) into it.
The rest of the day was rather pleasant: we went to the summit of the mountains, and enjoyed a breathtaking view; afterwards, we relaxed in the hotsprings. Canada is beautiful; the mountains reminded me of the Swiss Alps, and the climate is temperate, milder than Utah. I made a point of running every day to keep up with my training, and there was a great trail around the neighborhood that went into the meadows and around lakes, away from traffic.
All is well that ends well, our rental company finally was able to find us a replacement. It seems that they were short on cars that week, but they provided us with a Dodge Ram...very nice to drive, but very costly gas-wise.
We got back to Utah safely, thank goodness feeling that it was totally worth it, but determined to travel by plane next time!
Here is what we have learned from this experience:
1)Always be prepared for the worst-case scenario and double check the content of your luggage;
2)We have been blessed with the most patient and good-natured baby in the world;
and 3)We must really love our family to go to such extremes!