PTO messes with my Vacations

  Let me start with a quick preface before I give a description of our "vacation" this last weekend:

The first time I took time off using PTO hours- we were planning a cruise, but it ended up falling through because it ended up being too expensive.

The second time we were planning to go to San Diego- but then the day before we were supposed to leave, Jimmy was called into work so we had to change plans.

The third time, we were planning to go to a spring training baseball game, but it happened to be on the same day that it rains out all of the baseball games in the area. Great.

This brings us to last weekend.  Our plans were to go to Utah for one of Jimmy's childhood friend's sealing ceremony.  The plan was to hang out with a bunch of our Utah friends, see Jimmy's parents, and have the time of our lives.  We started out great!

 

See how happy we are?

Then we made it to Kanab, Utah (about half way there) when our car decided to start giving us problems. We weren't getting any power when we were going up hills, so we decided to go back into town and see a mechanic.  He told us that they can't help us until tomorrow morning.  So, we stayed the night in Kanab, UT- we don't recommend it except for the fact that the people are really nice. We saw the mechanic who changed the fuel filter, but it didn't fix the problem. So we had to go back to Page, AZ to get help, but everything was closed since it was the weekend. So we decided to cross our fingers, say a few prayers, and try to make it to Flagstaff, AZ.  We did! Barely. We barely inched into the mechanic's garage.  But he told us that he couldn't help us cause he didn't have the right parts and wouldn't get them until later in the week. He recommended we rent a car (since it was right across the street), but they were closed for the weekend too. We found another car rental place that didn't close for 20 min, so we raced over there and got a car! Then we made it home! This PTO experience was no different than the others; it went exactly the opposite of what we had planned.

 See how sad we are?

I hope I don't sound too depressed about our experience.  I just think it's kind of funny reminiscing about all of the mishaps that have happened with our vacations. The truth is, I was incredibly bummed out at first, but it ended up being a pretty fun weekend! We spent all day together at home: hiking, picnicking, laughing, watching Law and Order, driving in the rental car. It was the life! Then we also got to spend some time with my family which is always fun.

So, even though the trip didn't go according to plans, we had a good vacation! And we learned one thing: don't ever plan a vacation ever again! Just go without plans, and call into work sick! Screw PTO