A not so QUICK TRIP to AZ!

Just as soon as U of U joined the Pac 12, David was planning his trip to Arizona to watch his SUN DEVILS whoop up on em!  As BYU fans, there is just something real satisfying about watching Utah get there trash kicked!  And get their trash kicked they did!

Our quick trip however didn't turn out to be so quick!

Since David took this new job with Crexendo he's been driving a lot of miles!  And since Crexendo gives him a car allowance he decided to get a new little car that gets good gas mileage to drive around town in.  He ended up finding a little used BMW.  It's a cute little car and drives great!  On the way to one of the Utah States football games David and I stopped in Bountiful to purchase the BMW.  After making our CASH purchase we hopped on the freeway and about 15 miles down the road it BROKE DOWN!!!  LUCKILY we just so happened to know someone who lived in Bountiful that could come rescue us.  An hour later we discovered that it was just out of gas.  The gas gauge just wasn't working right!  Okay no big deal, we can just have that fixed, or at least that's what we thought!

So before making our weekend trip to Phoenix we took the BMW into the BMW dealer and had it looked at.  A thousand dollars later, David and Talan and I were on our way to the valley of the sun!

As we were just pulling into North Las Vegas we had just over 1/4 tank of gas left.  David thought that we had better get gas at the first exit we come to with a gas station just in case.  I mean this was the first time we had gone this low since having it fixed!  And then it happened, it DIED just before we got to the next exit.  Which just so happened to be an exit that had nothing at it!  We were on the outskirts of town at an army base or something.  Once again LUCKILY we just so happen to know a few people who live in Las Vegas.  I called Heather Gibbons, but unfortunately she doesn't answer her home number anymore due to the outrageous number of political calls she receives and I didn't have her cell phone number.  Then I called my cousin Rachel Mangum, but she didn't answer either.  David called his cousins that live quite a bit further away from where we were and they were more than willing to come rescue us but then I got a brilliant idea to call my uncle to get my cousins cell phone number.  And her cell phone she answered!  So to put a positive spin to this little mishap, I got to see Rachel and Jeremy for a few minutes!  They brought us some gas and we made it to the gas station.  Funny thing though, we have a 16.6 gallon tank and it only took 11 gallons.  Wow!  Our gas gauge works after all!  So what did we just spend a thousand bucks on?

The next morning we hit the road again.  This time in search of a small one gallon gas can to fill and place in the back end of the car "just in case!"  The car ran fine but then just as we were rolling into Phoenix it started acting funny and blowing out big puffs of white smoke.  As we took a deep breath we thought, LUCKILY we know a few people in Phoenix that can rescue us!  We made it to my parents house and had my dad take a look at it.  We called the BMW dealer in town and then headed over to drop it off so they could take a look.  LUCKILY my dad has an extra truck just lying around that we could borrow for the weekend.

 Mom and Dad watched Talan and David and I ran around town enjoying our weekend.

Fifteen hundred dollars later we picked the BMW up.

On Saturday we met at Freestone park for a picnic with my family.  It was fun to see everybody and hang out for a little while.

The sisters!

Kristen, Staci and myself.

Talan and Kristen's little boy Clark.  

Clark is just a few months younger than Talan.

Kristen's Ella, Talan and Staci's Abe.

Talan and Abe are 18 hours apart in age and every time we have gotten them together in the past they have fought!  I prepped Talan about the importance of being nice.  Staci prepped Abe about being nice.  But my mom and  Kristen decided that they were going to have a 4 year old off!  So my mom prepped Talan on his addition skills in prep of the face off!  But what do you know?  They got along just fine!  As you can see from this picture, Talan is pretty entertained by Abe.

Christopher's Lani and Talan.

Lani is super shy!  She's Cheryl's little shadow!

Kristen getting a goodbye hug!

David and I went to the ASU game and ASU didn't disappoint!

It was a beautiful thing!

Talan had an absolute blast with his Grandma and Grandpa Haws.  

It was a special trip and he knew it! 

So we said our goodbyes and headed on the road for home.

We got as far as Anthem when the STUPID BMW started loosing power!  At this point our positive outlook was struggling to stay positive.  But LUCKILY we weren't too far out of town and we could be rescued once again!  My dad met us in Anthem at an auto parts store.  We changed out some spark plugs and thought that we were on our way.  My dad followed behind us as we headed back toward his house but changing the spark plugs had seemed to have done the trick so David waved him off and we exited the freeway to turn back toward home.

And then just before the Anthem exit again it started acting up.  David got off the freeway and then it lost ALL power!  David and I got out of the car and pushed it through the intersection, over the freeway and as soon as we started going downhill we both jumped back in and coasted to the nearest gas station.  We called my dad and he once again came to our rescue!

I can't remember what they did to it this time but we were able to drive it back to my parents house.  And Talan's wish came true!  We got to have another sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  But another night at Grandma and Grandpa's house would mean that we wouldn't be getting back home for Bradon's 13th birthday!  I felt so bad!  Grandpa must have felt bad too because he gave me his old Kindle to give to Bradon as a birthday present!

The next morning we took it back into the BMW dealer and several hours and $600.00 later... IT WAS FIXED!!!  No really, it was FIXED!!!  So for a grand total of $3,100.00 in repairs our cute little BMW runs like a champ! OH YEAH!

We took off late in the afternoon knowing that we would need to stop somewhere to sleep on the way home.  We decided that we would stop in Kanab.  When we got to Kanab every hotel in town was booked with no vacancy so we kept on going.  We pulled an all night drive and eventually made it home safe and sound!

So there you have it!  

A fun, yet not so quick trip to Arizona!