The trip of misfortune...

Here is the full story for those who have not heard it.

Monday: Our trip to Arizona went fairly well and we had sessions most every day. We enjoyed the extra time to spend with family and friends. We planned on coming back on Monday instead of Tuesday because we had so much to do back at home. Well due to bad weather we ended up staying an extra day in AZ.

Tuesday: We got up at 5:30 am and left by 6:30. We drove to Vegas and stayed a couple hours visiting with my parents. We left Vegas at about 4:30pm a half hour later we broke down. We called Jeremy's Uncle in Saint George who is a mechanic and he said he would drive out to help us. We wait for an hour for him to get a new belt and drive out. He needed another part so we were towed all the way to Saint George on a 10ft. tow rope through the gorge. I don't think I have ever been so nervous in my life. We made it safe and stayed with some family that night.

Wednesday: We got up at 7:30am and Jeremy started calling around for the part that we needed. He didn't have much luck because most places would have had to order it and it would have been pricey. He called a junk yard that said they thought they might have it but would have to go check... 3 hours later they let us know that yes they did have it. It was 30 minutes away and Jeremy had his Grandma drive him over. The junk yard said that they would pull the part and ended up not pulling it. They told him that he would have to but they didn't provide any of the right tools. Jeremy tried getting it out for about 4 hours by himself (30 degrees outside and dressed for AZ still) and ended up having to call his uncle again to come help. By the time they got the part out it was 5pm. They took it back to Jeremy's uncles and got it put in the truck. Jeremy got back to the place we were staying at about 8:30pm.

Thursday: We got up at 7:00am to get back on the road. We drove a couple hours and broke down AGAIN!!! Jeremy was just about to call a tow truck when someone drove up from a tow shop and called one in for us. He said it would be about $120 we just wanted out of the cold so we took it. We thought they would take us to Fillmore which was about 30 miles away from where we were parked but instead they only towed us about 10 miles to a small service station in the middle of nowhere. :( They had a Mechanic shop, a subway, and a gas station. When they looked at the truck and figured out that it needed a new timing gear. They didn't have the part and said they could get it by 2:30 so we had waited in the subway/gas station for 3-4 hours for them to get the part.

Emma ended up with the runs and I made quite a few trips to the bathroom with her. We even ran out of diapers, I had to pay $10 for a pack of 10. Anyhow, when they did get the part it took them another 2 hours to get it on. The total wait at the gas station was 6 1/2 hours! They charged us for the FULL 6 1/2 hours!!! I thought the total labor would be only 3-4 hours because they were "waiting" on a part for half the time. PLUS they charged $220 for the part! ($120 was because they had to go "get" it from a neighboring town). Yikes! When they showed the bill I lost it. No more tears held back. When we had asked them about the price before (a couple times) they just said $80 and hour and the cost of the part. I went in and gave them a piece of my mind. (something I don't think I have EVER done before!) I felt they took complete advantage of the fact that we were at their mercy.

We were back on the road by 6pm. We were going to get to Salt Lake and get a hotel for the night because we were exhausted and didn't want to freeze in the night if there was another brake down. Well, there was. After about 40min. of driving the engine light came on and it was showing no oil. AHHH!!! So at this point we are at the end of our rope and our spirits were broken. It was about 0-5 degrees outside and pretty windy. I lost it again. Thank goodness for cell phones! What a blessing! We call the place that "fixed" the truck and told them they could come get us and that we didn't want charged. We waited for an hour for the tow truck and made sure that at least Emma was warm. They came out for free but said they would have to charge us to fix the truck again since it wasn't their fault (although it sounds like it was debris from when the old gear broke that got into the oil and plugged the oil so it couldn't get through the pump, they told us that they didn't drop the oil pan to save time but the should have in order to have cleaned it out completely) Wow! They would only tow us for free if it was back to the shop! They did offer to drop us at a hotel in Fillmore.

At this point I had called my Dad in tears and him and my mom left Vegas to bring us their car (We had to be back for a wedding Saturday). The tow truck dropped us off at the hotel and took the truck to the shop. My parents brought their car and my Dad's truck. They got to our hotel around 11pm. They got a car dolly so they could tow the truck back to Saint George in Utah to leave it with Jeremy's uncle. The heater on my dad's truck wasn't working very well so they were pretty cold. They had left Vegas in a hurry and weren't dressed much for the weather conditions. The truck almost didn't fit on the dolly, and they actually ended up sending it over the edge of the dolly.... oops! The truck was stuck and it was just my parents to try and get it back on the dolly. They worked for hours trying to get it on and finally had to call in the tow truck. God must have a sense of humor because they got more of our money after all. It was $120 for them to lift the truck back onto the dolly. My parents didn't leave there until 3am. They decided to get a hotel in Beaver because the heater on the truck wasn't working well and they were FREEZING. My dad's truck was reading -14 degrees! My mom had to call in a sick day at work for Friday.

Friday: Got up at about 7am and loaded my parents car with all of our stuff. We were on the road again by 8:30am. I realized I hadn't had a meal in over 2o hours and we had to stop in Nephi. They got our order wrong at McDonalds and ended up giving us some extra free food. I was super happy because I got my hot cakes I was craving. We drove the rest of the way to Idaho without any problems we were SOOO ready to be home! We came in and started to unload everything that was in the car. A little while later I noticed a crock pot of homemade stew and homemade bread on the counter. I lost it again. It was just what I needed after a long way home. Our landlords who were taking care of our house made it for us. I felt so blessed and happy to be home.

My parents made it home about the same time that we did. They had a safe trip back as well and spent most the day trying to warm up with warm baths and hot chocolate. I was so grateful for them for coming to our rescue. I felt so loved. While Jeremy and my Dad had been out getting the uhal dolly my mom and I were back at the hotel and I let out all my frustrations. I felt terrible for all the inconveniences I had left on everyone. My mom said the sweetest thing, "someday you will have the privilege of being able to help your little girl out. People are far more important than money or vehicles." I'm so blessed to have such wonderful parents.

Back at home while I unpacked Jeremy went into town to take checks to the bank and do some grocery shopping. When he got home he went to put some stuff in the freezer and..... it somehow got unplugged probably before we left home! Thankfully because we keep it in a back room that isn't heated we lost only about 1/4th of the food. I didn't think anything more could go wrong but it did. My favorite favorite thing is frozen peaches... I lost them all... :( But I feel blessed to have had all the meat still frozen. A little while later we noticed that our phone line wasn't working and that our internet was down... when we were out of town our landlord's son had fixed the drywall where we had taken out an old heater (we are trying to do some remodeling) he accidentally cut the phone line. We wouldn't have known what it was but Jeremy had done the SAME thing 2 weeks ago when he had taken the heater out. it wasn't a place where you would usually see a phone line. They both thought the wires were just to the heater. :) Their son came back by and put a hole in the wall that he spent so much time fixing. They got the internet back up in less than a half hour.

We are home, we are warm, we are happy. I couldn't feel more blessed. I have such a wonderful family and I couldn't be more grateful for them. Both our parents and extended family were so helpful and willing to do whatever we needed of them. We truly learned the importance of family and having each other. Worse things could have happened and I felt that we were watched over well even though there was much hardship. We got a good laugh out of the whole thing even though it was tough. We will look back on it in years from now and cherish the memories. Thanks everyone for your help and prayers.

Saturday: We have a wedding! Wish us luck!

P.S. We will be frantically working on everyone's pictures the next few days so that we can have them to you ASAP! We are so sorry for the delay!

UPDATE: 9pm Friday and our washer is broken, there is water all over on the floor... woot woot! Don't worry we are laughing!