Our 'Wonderful' Vacay- warning its long!!

I am currently sitting in San Diego's International Airport waiting for our flight home. But wait, didn't we drive here...

Yes we did attempt to drive here and we didn't quite make it.

Friday I held my preschool graduation. I will do a seperate post on that since I don't have that camera here to get the pictures off of. But my parents came down to watch the graduation, and offered to take ALL 3 kids back with them. We had planned an anniversary vacation to San Diego. I couldn't wait because this was our first ALONE trip (just Curtis and I) since one small trip right after Cambree was born and even that was just in Phoenix. This was also my first time leaving Brecklynn over night. So this was a big deal. I had gotten us some awesome hotel deals on Mission Bay and we were just really going to relax and enjoy.

So right after the graduation, we hopped in the car and started our trip over. We stopped in Mesa and did a bit of shopping and got some lunch before heading on the long leg to San Diego. Everything was going great. About 2 1/2 hours out of making our destination, we hit the border patrol check point. As we were waiting in line the truck started to almost stutter. It freaked Curtis out but it eventually quit and seemed to start running fine again. About 10 miles outside of El Centro, the truck started making terrible gurgling and grinding noises. I pinpointed the sound coming from below the footboard in the car. My heart sank, and Curtis was visiably worried. We didn't know quite what to do. We saw a sign for El Centro and made our way there. Curtis was sure something was empty-some liquid of some kind. We pulled off and could really hear something was definitely wrong. Curtis immediately figured it was the transmission. We got to a gas station after what seemed forever, and popped the hood. He checked what he could and found out that the transmission fluid was way high. Just as we were doing that, a tow truck guy pulled in. He obviously noticed we were in some trouble. He came over and asked if he could help. We spoke with him for a bit and determined we just needed to get it to a service station. It was already 7 at night on a Friday so we were so worried about everything being closed and being stranded there for the night. He gave us directions to a Pep Boys.

We got there and by the time someone could even help us, it was 7:30 and they closed at 8:00. The guy drove it around and said something is definitely wrong and thought was the differential. He checked the transmission fluid too and said that there is 3.5 liters over the amount of fluid in there. Ironic thing is we had it checked out the day before. They ultimately said they oculdn't do anything with it that night and would need to see in the morning but if it was the differential, they probaby wouldn't even have the part and it would ahve to be ordered in. Those of you who know me, know I was literally freaking out. All kinds of scenarios and plans were going through my mind. We had no car, no idea where we were, they needed to take our truck right then so we were stuck in Pep Boys parking lot. We started calling Chad to help us get a rental car to maybe salvage our night. He looked into it and all cars and it was about $800.00 a day-yes you read that right. So that was obviously out as a choice. So I started to call our hotel that we had arranged, to get it cancelled and see if we couldn't get a refund. Called-NOPE. It was all pre-paid and without a 48 hour notice, its not refundable under any circumstance. We also had massages scheduled for 10:30 the following morning that was paid as well and needed at least a 24 notice to be cancelled without penalty.

I called my dad and explained what was going on. My dad being the awesome dad he is, immeditaley started saying he could just come down with a vehicle to help us out. Of course we didn't want to have anyone put out because of us. Eventually, it was inevitable though. I had my dad call my Uncle Mark, who we were supposed to meet up with the following day as well, to let him know we wouldn't be making it becuase of what was going on. As a mental release I also quickly facebooked the situation that was going on. Well not 5 minutes later I got a message from my Uncle Mark. We got in contact and by this point it was 9 at night. He was offering to come down and get us and take us to San Diego. I agreed but felt terrible. We got in a taxi (Curtis' first taxi ride ever) and it was a bit creepy. What taxi driver isn't? We did get to our 'destination' which was a hotel. We waited there for the next 1 1/2 hours for my Uncle Mark to show up. I knew from this point on, things were not going to be quite fun (as if they were going great to begin with). Curtis made the statement that we are going to just live it up the rest of the vacation. Money is no object. Well me and money are not good friends. We are when we stay in check but as soon as we go outside of my budget we aren't good at all. I hate spending money and I stress over every penny we go over with. We went to go eat since we hadn't eaten since lunch in Mesa. I was absolutely starving and was really an emotional wreck. We were still frantically trying to figure everything else out. The truck was still going to have to stay in El Centro and we still wouldn't have a car in San Diego.

My Uncle Mark showed up at around 10:30. Carter and Olivia and my Aunt Angie came as well. I felt so bad getting them out like that. I have to say though, I loved catching up and visiting with them for that bit. We are so in debt to them. I really don't know what would have happened if we had to stay in El Centro. They took us to our hotel.

We pulled into our hotel at around 12:00. We were so tired. The hotel looked really nice though. We went to our room and it was nice. We both crashed!! Both of us were just so relieved to get there. Still wasn't quite sure what we would do from then on.

I couldn't sleep in the next morning. As much as I wanted too, I just couldn't. My mind was going a mile a minute. We needed a car, we needed to figure out the car. Was my dad coming to get us and the truck, how much was the truck going to cost, do we just end the trip now and head home. About 8:00 Curtis called Pep Boys to figure out what was the diagnosis for the truck. They figured out that it wasn't the rear differntial, but the 4-wheel drive differential (I have no clue what these are but nothing sounds cheap). They did tell us though that they wouldn't have the part for 3 business days. That was obviously not ok. So more calls were made. My dad said he would come out with his trailer, get us from San Diego and take the truck bad). I won't go into all the options that were thrown out-and there were A LOT!!

Finally it came out that there was just no way my dad could get his trailor to hold Curtis' truck. So we called Curtis' dad. He said the same thing. He was ready to come help. He is known as the road warrior around here and loves to drive. We still hated the whole idea of putting anyone out though. The final plan came about that he would get the car and tow it back to Thatcher and Curtis and I would get a plane ride to Phoenix and his dad would come get us on Monday. What a change from our original plan.

I was starving. In the midst of going, we never had stopped to get water or food or anything. I had just planned on getting food as we went because we had a car. Well now we had no car-no way to get any food and no water. Its not a fun feeling. We had our massages at 10:30. We got there about 10:00 to get all settled. Looking back, we both wish we had pushed the massage to later on, so we could really relax. It was a nice massage-and a lot longer than we planned on but I had a hard time really relaxing. Again I was constantly thinking about the truck and our situation etc. It was a great massage, but definitely could have been better if I could just relax.

After, we got ready to go get a rental car. We had to take another taxi ride to get it. It was down town next to the airport. We get it and decide to try to enjoy the day and start to drive around. I told Curtis though that I really needed to eat. See-let me just get this out of the way. This was a HUGE frustration for me the entire trip. Curtis is apart of the Allen family-and those that came from the Allen family have their own special eating habits. Of which they feel everyone else should be following. What I mean by that is, if you had one meal a day, you should be fine. Curtis literally can and will eat no breakfast, might have a late lunch and then no dinner but maybe a late snack. He doesn't ever really get hungry. So when I am hungry, he makes me feel like the weird one. I got this the ENTIRE trip. If we had breakfast at 9:00 and I was saying I was hungry about 1-2, he would look at me like I was crazy and couldn't understand it. So food was always and issue and I never had 3 meals a day the entire trip. I just finished losing 20 pounds and he figured on my diet that I would have curbed my hunger. I have tried to explain to him that I have curbed my cravings, but not hunger. I am used to 6 meals a day. 3 meals with 2 snacks. He literally doesn't understand the whole thing. Starvation is his diet and thinks everyone else should be doing it too.

But we stumbled upon the temple as we were driving around. You can see the picture below. It was encased by the scaffolding. How many times do you see that? Well we had to check it out. We got out and walked the grounds. It was so beautiful. We spoke to someone there who told us they were trying to fix some structural damage it received from all the rain and while they were up there, they were steam cleaning it to be white again. We finally got some food about 3 and then decided to head back to our hotel. We went into the spa. It was FREEZING outside. Ok, it wasn't freezing but I was cold pretty much the whole trip. It was overcast and breezy the whole time. We didn't do the spa long. Then we made an attempt at getting some food. We asked the concierge where a place to eat would be. She gave us some ideas and directions to a place down town. We headed down town. Wrong place to be. It was prom night and there were limos and people everywhere. We waited literally 20 minutes to turn onto the street where this restaurant supposedly was, just to pass it up. Curtis was so ticked. He started driving like a maniac. I hate when he gets like that. He gets frustrated and he lets everyone know. So we didn't eat there. We drove around for like another 30 minutes. He finally decided on a place called Gordon Bierche. We had eaten there in Hawaii and loved the food. Only problem was, this place was so packed and it was LOUD. We sat literally 2 feet away from each other and we couldn't hear each other. Food was great but just made it hard to enjoy. We got home and ordered a movie in the room. It was the movie Blind Side. We still hadn't seen it. And I fell asleep watching it :).

Sunday we had decided to go to Sea World. We were both pretty excited about it since we hadn't been since our honeymoon. We get there and lo and behold we find out its La Musica weekend. There were people everywhere there for the Mexican events going on. Also, we hit ALL the shows and ALL the exhibits by 1:00. The entire time we were there we kept saying we wish we had our kids. They would love all the things we saw. It was cold too that day.

We left and tried to find a place to eat again. After driving around aimlessly for a long time- Curtis loves to drive anywhere by the way, he decided to go ask the concierge. She just has no clue what she's doing. We asked for a pizza and salad place and she gave us general directions to 2 places. We drove up and down the street 3 times to find them. We NEVER found them. We were driving for 3 hours. We ended up getting Chipotle. I didn't enjoy my meal because the lady put tomatoes all over my salad after I asked her not too. Well we drove around some more. Like always. Curtis seriously loves to drive all over. I am the type that lets get to the location and get out. We drove up and down La Jolla. It was beautiful.

We decided to go to a movie as something to do. We saw Robin Hood-good movie by the way and even better in a real theatre :). We got out of there and tried to go eat again-ha ha. We seriously should just give up right? We tried to find those same restaurants again because we had gotten some better directions. We did find them, but they were pizza or salads places. They were steaks and seafood. How she messed that up I don't know. So frustrating. So for the 3rd time in our trip, we got Denny's. My mood was very down. It had been the whole trip but after the last bit I was really down. Curtis was trying so hard to keep my happy but I had really just given up.

We shouldn't have gone on that trip. I am truly convinced. We ended up spending 3 times the amount we wanted to.

***this next part is written from home***

I finally got home from my trip. Let me finish.

Monday we got up and got ready to leave. Now taking a flight we had a ton of stuff to figure out. We weren't planning on flying when we cleared out our car so we had tons to get home.

We finally checked out and headed to the airport. We filled up the car and decided to eat...where? Denny's of course!! It was the best Denny's food yet though :) We get to the Avis parking lot to get our stuff out. We pop the trunk and we both realize something was missing...our pillow with our coats. We both thought the other got it. Again Curtis drove like a maniac. We got there and got it and made our way again to the airport. What a way to end the trip huh?

We took one more taxi driver to the airport. Yeah!! Then we started our journey inside. I hate flying. I am a worrier and I think about all the things that can but probably won't happen. I hate it. Luckily the flight wasn't long. We got to Phoenix around 3:00. Chad was sweet enough to come get us and we hung with him till Curtis' dad could come get us in his plane. That was around 6:00. So we got home here around 7:00.

Now we're home but still have to figure out the whole car situation. We are in debt to so many people and not sure how to repay them.

Here are a few pics.

This was outside our hotel room off our back porch.

This is another angle

The back porch

The pool area with 2 spas

Shows Sea World across the bay

Temple pics

Sea World