What a day.

Today we had our nuchal translucency scheduled in Grand Rapids (about 2.5hrs away). So at 7:45am, my mom made her way over to our home to pick up the boys and Aaron and I began our journey. About 1.5hrs away from our destination, we heard a pop and my car stalled out while going about 70mph on the highway. We were able to pull over safely and I called AAA while Aaron assessed the damage - LOTS of fluids (water, antifreeze) under the vehicle. While on hold for AAA, the State Police arrived and informed us they could get a wrecker a little faster for us, so I hung up and told them to work their magic. 10 minutes later, they told us the County we were in was all busy and we needed to go through AAA to get a wrecker from the next county over... great. They were really nice though and tried hard! So back to AAA it was and after providing lots of info and a 40-ish minute wait, our wrecker arrived. The A/C was feeling great until our driver informed us he was late for his tee time and would stop at the shop to switch drivers. Seriously? Um, yes. We actually saw the guy run back out with his clubs over his shoulder! I so wish I could have gotten a picture because it was just the most surreal moment as we are sitting there alone in a wrecker with our car on the flat bed watching our driver run away with golf clubs as we wondered if anyone would really come for us. And a few minutes later the next driver arrived, COVERED in sweat, got in and abruptly turned off the air! Thankfully it wasn't much further to the shop, because the new driver did NOT smell so good!!

Once we got to the shop we learned the sad news that it wasn't just the water pump like Aaron was hoping, but also the timing belt. Sooo, for about $625 we can pick her up early next week. Then came more bad news. There are two rental car companies in Big Rapids... a mom and pop shop and Enterprise. Mom and Pop were out of cars. Enterprise, however, said that while they didn't have a car at the moment, they should very soon.

So we decided to walk towards Enterprise and restaurants near the highway. I put in Bennigans into the GPS and thought that it had said 1.9 miles, so we began on our way. It was 86 degrees and nearly all up hill - I was dying! Not to mention I only ate a small piece of toast for breakfast. Oh, and I had 4 lovely layers that I was cooking in - my maternity pants that pull all the way up, my bella band that holds my maternity pants up, and two tank tops. Hot, hot, hot. Then to top it off, I read the GPS wrong and our walked turned out to be much further than 1.9 miles (we were going to right direction, I just read the total being 1.9 miles, that was just the distance we went on ONE of the four roads we took). So I stumbled into Applebees and made my way to the bathroom while Aaron ordered drinks. When I arrived back to the table, Aaron could not stop laughing because my face was BEAT red (or is it beet?). I'm like "I told you to slow down!" He didn't realize how hard it was on me since we were walking side by side and he wasn't looking at my face! Thankfully, my face chilled out after sitting in the a/c for a bit and enjoying a cold drink.

So after a long lunch, we made our way back outside and gave another call to Enterprise who informed us that he still didn't have a car available, but didn't think it would be much longer. So we contemplated what to do and decided to get a room at Holiday Inn to rest as we were both pretty tired and I wasn't feeling very good at all. Luckily they had a "stranded" rate and we checked in and put our feet up. I then had the idea that we should try to call the Cadillac Enterprise to see if they had cars available. I called and they said they did! The lady said she was busy at the moment and would take my number and call me back. So, we called Bruce to pick us up and take us to Cadillac (about 30-40 mins north) and waited for the return call. Well, no call came so after a nap and 1.5hrs I called back and learned they actually did NOT have any cars available... Niiiiice. How can it be so difficult to rent a stinkin' car?! So not too much later Bruce arrived and rescued us from Big Rapids and we made our way north. Oh, but before that Aaron went to check out of the room (which we did sleep and shower in) and they told us no problem, free of charge! So we were pretty excited - although since we have AAA and were more than 50 miles from home we are reimbursed travel related expenses (food, car, hotel) up to $250 (I think) so we weren't really worried about the room charge anyway, but it was still super nice.

Ok, so on our way home, I called my mom to check on rental cars out of Traverse City. A much bigger town, with a handful of companies... surely a car will be available there. She tells us a rate at Alamo and asked if we wanted her to reserve it. I told her no, we were almost there that we would just do it at the counter. So we get to the stinkin' airport and every.single.rental is sold out. Are you kidding me?!?! So we make our way back to my parents to rescue my mom who has now had the boys for 11hours... a long day when she already takes care of a 9 month old 3 days a week (but thankfully not that day)! So we arrive at their house and have a fabulous home cooked meal and I get online and check out this rental car issue and find that I am perfectly able to reserve a vehicle from just about any company in Traverse. So I make my online reservation and go back to the airport to pick up my darn car! The lady at the desk seemed TOTALLY confused as to how I was able to make a reservation when they have "no cars at all" (PS - the lots are full) and completes the paperwork. Aaron is convinced that the internet has taken over the world and people just don't know how to handle a reservation in person anymore.

Finally, we went back to the parents house switched around a few car seats, packed up our kids, and made our way home at about 9:30. It was a LONG and EXHAUSTING day.

So, now we will do a take 2 on Tuesday. I'll be exactly 13weeks, hopefully the baby didn't have a growth spurt and measures much bigger than that because this particular office doesn't do them past 13w3d. We also hope our car will be complete then and fixed properly. We have some issues to work out with Aaron's work schedule and childcare, but I'm sure it will work out.

The good news about everything is that Aaron and I never got upset with each other and were constantly making the other one laugh. We kept joking that this is the way we are celebrating our 6 year anniversary (which is in like 10 days) since we got to have so much kid free time and were dropping $600... We are also SO thankful we didn't have the kids with us, that would have been miserable!! So we were majorly grateful that my mom was able to watch the kids and that Bruce was there to rescue us!

Off to bed now, I didn't re-read this, so hopefully I didn't make too many mistakes!