Weekend Getaway

Mike and I decided to take one last trip before the baby comes and before he started ASU at the end of August. When you fly for free, why not?! Not to mention, he worked his butt off this summer (192 hours in 2 weeks at the end of July is just one example) and he we totally deserved a vaca. We went the weekend of August 11-12.

We booked a hotel and rental car in Los Angeles before deciding to go to Sea World. Ha. Ha. Ha. Mike had never been to Sea World and we got discounted tickets through Southwest, so we hopped on a plane early Saturday morning, landed in L.A., got our rental car, and stopped at the Newport Beach Temple before driving to San Diego. We wore dress clothes ahead of time so we didn't have to change and my Dad happened to be working our flight so he got to board us! #perks

Note to self: When you visit a smaller temple, they don't run like the Mesa, AZ Temple. We planned on doing a session only to find out they only had one session every two hours and we missed the 10am session by 5-10 minutes. So then we decided to do sealings, but the next sealing time was 12pm. Initiatories it was! And even that was at least a half hour wait. So we changed back into our dress clothes and left. I heard someone say that the Los Angeles Temple was closed for renovations so it was good we chose the Newport Beach Temple even though we only saw the foyer and the dressing rooms :)

 

This experience made me realize how spoiled we are to have a temple so close at home and one that has multiple sessions going on at a time. Although we were not able to have the kind of temple experience we wanted, it was beautiful inside and we took lots of pictures outside! And we've kept our goal of attending the temple together whenever we go out of town.

 

 What eternity looks like with the baby bump above! 

Okay, I have to say my husband is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. And I PROMISE I'm not just saying that because he's my husband. Even though he's shy (he'll disagree with me on that), he's so kind to everyone he meets and always looks at the positive side of things. It's almost annoying, haha! However, I WISH I was more like him and really hope our children take after him. BUT.....(you knew there was going to be a "but", right?) when it comes to California traffic he loses his temper. I was sitting in the passenger seat listening to the radio and playing on my iPhone when I heard, "I just wanna lay down on my horn for the next hour!" and "I don't think I've ever been so impatient in my life!!!" I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face!!! CALIFORNIA TRAFFIC IS RIDIC! I wouldn't move there for that reason alone, but the nights cool down. It's a toss up folks!

It took us about an hour to drive from Los Angeles to the Newport Beach Temple and then it was another hour to get to Sea World, but it took over two hours because of traffic. We should have just flown into San Diego, but we couldn't cancel our hotel or rental car in L.A. Lesson learned.

Sea World was fun! It was only 90 degrees yet this little whitey still got sunburned. Mike did too, but not as bad as I did. We did everything there was to do and we took a ton of pictures but I will spare you the 100 photos of Shamu, dolphins, turtles, and sharks...

 

 

Dolphins can splash too!

 SHAMU Rocks Night Show

My feet and ankles were done by the end of the night...

Before making the 2 hour trip back to L.A. we stopped by the San Diego Temple and took some photos. I absolutely love this temple! It's so beautifully majestic and the inside is just as gorgeous. I wish we would have gotten married in this temple. It has been my favorite since I was 14 yrs old.

Before heading home on Sunday, we stopped at Venice Beach and walked out on the pier. The weather was beautiful and it was fun to watch people try and catch some waves, but they were nothing like the waves in Hawaii :)

We obviously didn't get in the water, but we love the beach and want to go back one day.

 

I love this airline, but flying for free can be the pits as you fly standby. Growing up, my parents always had Plans A, B, and C in case the flight we wanted to get on was full. Mike and I didn't really have a backup plan to get home because the night before we were supposed to leave there was 30+ seats available on our flight. 

We got to the airport over 2 hours early and checked in. We were told that we were the first and second employees listed on the flight, which means we go first over any other employees and those that have a pass, but the flight boarded and they didn't call our names. Then a different agent told us there were 50+ people ahead of us because all flights were overbooked out of L.A. to PHX that day and those flying standby were purchasing tickets just to get home. Panic set in as there were only two flight left to Phoenix.

Burbank had wide open flights to Phoenix and that was our only option of getting home. We called every car rental place we could to see how much it would cost to drive from L.A. to Burbank, a 30-45 minute drive depending on traffic, and it was over $100 mainly because there was an additional fee for dropping the car off at a different location/city. We even called a cab and shuttle service and either it was too expensive or they couldn't get us there in time. I began to cry. Mike felt so bad. I felt totally helpless; I was 7 months pregnant with swollen feet sitting at the airport for over 4 hours and all I wanted to do was get home and lay in my own bed.

 

$80 later, thanks to my Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Discount, we finally rented a car from Hertz and drove to Burbank. They gave us an ugly, yellow, piece of poop Chevy that sounded like a machine gun when you started it. They knew we were dropping it off at another location, maybe that's why they gave us this car?! Ha. 

I drove like Cruella De Vil and weaved in and out of traffic just to get us there (I so could live in CA!). Took us less than 40 minutes AND that includes a $3 gas stop! I had enough guts to ask the Hertz guy at Burbank for a discount (since we paid $80 for a car we had in our possession for less than an hour) and to our surprise he took off the additional fee for dropping it off at another location! IT MADE OUR TRIP!! $36 and 6 hours later, we had boarding passes in Burbank! Woot Woot! We paid $1 for every minute we had the car. Just goes to show, it never hurts to ask. And prayers are answered :)

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I love Mike more than anything. I waited a long time for him and I'm so glad we met when we did. I still can't believe we're having a baby at times. I've never wanted anything more than to be married and have children. My dreams are finally coming true and I have so much to be grateful for!

Many people have said to me, "Enjoy it now because when the baby comes everything changes..." and "You'll never have alone time once she's born..." and "You think you're tired now? Wait until you have a newborn up at all hours of the night..." and you know what I say to myself? BRING IT ON! Obviously life will be different, but I've had my single life and I'm ready to be a mother. I've never been more excited for anything in my life.

I'm so happy we were able to get away for a few days and spend time with each other. It's hard when I work days and he works nights, but we manage and any time I get to spend with him, I treasure. 10 MORE WEEKS PEOPLE! We can't wait!!