josh & annie: vacation

Well our vacation got off to a great start. My sister picked us up at 0 dark thirty and took us to the Colorado Springs Airport. Frontier had just started flying from COS the previous week so check-in was a little slow although we had previously done it online we had to go through the whole process again. I don’t know. J
So we finally get checked in and get to security—one lane open. Our pilot and crew come up to the line asking people if they can go ahead because really we can’t go anywhere until they get through so of course everyone is fine with that. We get through with no problems…or so I think. I waltz through and get my carry-on bag and every personal item that has now been made public and hear the TSA person say wait bring that bag back. Thankfully they were talking about a bag that had just gone through the x-ray, not mine. But of course since Josh is a gentleman and I have gone through before him, the bag must belong to him. I sit down to put my clothes back on…excuse me, my shoes, belt and jacket. While 2 more TSA employees are called to look at the computer screen that is still examining Josh’s carry-on bag.

They finally release the bag from the machine and a man tells Josh not to touch the bag because they need to search it. Josh starts to look kind of interested. I am sitting watching this whole thing.

TSA Agent-“Do you have any sharp objects in here?”

Josh-“Um, no, not that I know of.”

TSA Agent-“Well it looks like you do.”

Josh-“Well….uh…uh…hmm…OH, maybe I left my Swiss Army Knife
on my key ring?”

TSA Agent-“Um no, it’s a little bigger than that sir.”

TSA Agent continues to search through the bag. I am thinking obviously he has searched the whole bag, there is really just one big opening where you throw everything in.

Josh’s face is continuing to turn a nice shade of red, as the TSA Agent continues rummaging through the bag. Now I am totally intrigued, the thoughts that are going through my head are things like oh my word is there a gun in there? Is he in trouble? What could possibly be in there?!

I am looking from the bag to Josh’s face to the TSA guy’s hands and eventually he finds it. Neatly hidden behind the back padded panel and the back side of the bag from the last time we went camping was a nice, shiny, black, recon hunting knife. This is not some little boy’s pocket knife, no, this is a 12-inch long hunting knife in a very nice shade of black with a fancy handle and sheath to hold it. The TSA Agent pulls the knife out ever so slowly and shows it to Josh who by now has covered his face with his hands and is saying, “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I did not know that was in there. How did that get in there? Oh my word. Oh man!” I am still watching from the side and I am thinking, “Oh my word, he is going to get arrested and I’m going to go on vacation by myself. What should I do? Tell them his dad works for the president? Oh my life. This is bad.”

So they had to confiscate the knife which was a very nice knife and would cost you a pretty penny so I felt so bad for Josh but he just felt so bad for bringing that to the airport. Not to mention the hundreds of other places he then realized he had taken that bag in the past 8 months…think libraries, coffee shops, parks…oh my life. They let him go right through after that which I was kind of surprised by. There were uniformed police officers there and they didn’t even bat an eye.

That was the start of our vacation and the first thing Josh did when we got to Denver for our layover, buy a coffee. The napkin that came with the coffee said it best,

We finally arrived in Michigan and my mom had planned a get together with tons of people who wanted to meet Josh. That was a lot of fun because some of the people I had not seen in like 3 years! A few days later we drove to Ohio to see some of Josh’s relatives. It was really nice to meet them and his aunt cooked up an amazing dinner along with a wild turkey that his uncle
had shot recently. It was great for both of us to get to meet so many new people because we hear their names from each other but now we have faces with the names in our minds. Then we had some more time with my parents and we went to a Detroit Tigers’ game. That was a lot of fun! We then went to see one of my friends from college who lives in Traverse City, MI with her husband. Josh had never seen northern Michigan so he really enjoyed it. Then we came back to my parent’s house again and helped with a church workday to clean up the yard around their church and also went to a wedding for my friend Stephanie.

All in all it was a great trip; we did a lot of driving, but saw a lot of people and that was the reason we went. Our next trip will definitely be a relaxing vacation! Click on any of the pictures to see more of our travels!