Lessons Learned from Buying a Car

1. Be patient, and plan ahead. Don't let yourself get in a situation where you have to make a decision immediately. This will undoubtedly cause you to overlook some things.

Haskin Screw-up: We didn't notice that the tint on the back window was so old and low-quality that it was blurry to look out it. Cost to remove the tint to make driving safe: $45.

2. Take the car to a mechanic before you buy it. Most mechanical problems aren't evident through one or two 10 minute test drives.

Haskin Screw-up: Today (6 days after buying the car), we took it to a mechanic to get a clicking noise checked out. Cost to replace the entire front axle and CV joints: $466.

3. If your car does have a problem that you've overlooked, make sure you talk to the dealer before you get any work done. It's okay to take time to make decisions.

Haskin Screw-up: I told the mechanic to repair the axle before my dealer had responded the message I left for him (I assumed he wouldn't help me anyways). Savings missed by arranging repairs myself instead of having the dealer make arrangements with his mechanic: $226.

4. Do not beat yourself up (or your dealer or mechanic) for making a bad choice. As the saying goes, it's "water under the bridge." You can't do anything about it, so just do your best to live with the fact that you didn't make a perfect choice.

Haskin Feels good about: I didn't get mad at anybody or make any assumptions, and now that things are calmed down, I don't feel guilt over being mean to anybody. Instead of getting depressed or pouty or angry, I made myself homemade tacos and a strawberry shake, and just moved on. Cost of food: $5 or less.

This isn't just about cars, I realize...it's about learning how to make important decisions in life. Hopefully, the next "learning experience" won't be so expensive.

New Car

You guessed it...we finally got a new car.

The night that Heather wrote the post "Car Shopping," I figured out that we actually had no time to get a new car--I work during the days mostly, and most cars are in Salt Lake, so it made it much more difficult for us to both be able to go car shopping.

So we went out the next morning and bought a 2004 Hyundai Elantra.

It has 52,000 miles on it, and it's in really good shape. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's light green. We had to get the tint on the back window removed because it was a low-quality tint, so it was really blurry to look out the back. But other than that, we love it, and we feel like we got a pretty decent price for it too.

We'll be taking our Jeep back to Minnesota next Sunday (it's my dad's car, actually), and this is why we needed a car. We'll miss the nice Jeep that's way too expensive for us (thanks, Dad, for helping with the payments), but we think we picked a good one.

Yee-haw, Bluebell!

Yes, there is really a place in the world named Bluebell. Even more surprising to you, maybe, is that Bluebell is in Utah.

And we went there. Yee-haw.

It was the Brighton Family Reunion (Heather's maternal side of the family), and we went to Bluebell, Utah, to spend the night at the country home of Heather's Uncle Ben and Aunt Sherry. The wimpier group stayed in the house with the little kids, while the real troopers camped outside. Here's our awesome tent:

Among other things, we played some mad croquet. Nathan (Heather's brother) and I, of course, were the most skilled "croquetians." Don't we look like naturals?



Croquet wasn't the only game we played. Some of you may recognize this masterpiece of a game: Zooloretto. It's a specialty game (you'd find Zooloretto at the same store as Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride). In essence, you load trucks with different animals to try and fill the enclosures of your zoo and attract the most visitors. For those of you who are thinking "lame," I challenge you to a game of Zooloretto, I'll challenge you any old day, and you'll find that building a zoo is a little more strategic than you thought.

The main event of the trip, however, was not our fast-paced, grueling games of croquet or Zooloretto, but actually Nathan's wife Anna riding in the Altamont Rodeo. Unfortunately, we realized that we didn't take any pictures of any cowboys or cowgirls riding horses, so the only picture we have is of us sitting in the stands:

Anna rode in the Barrel Racing event, which is when they have these 3 barrels out in the rodeo arena, and you have to ride circles around them in a certain order and then run back to the gate. She didn't win, but it was still awesome.

I got to practice my parenting skills the next morning. Heather's cousin Ellie just didn't have a good night, and 2 year olds that don't have a good night aren't usually the most amiable people in the world.

But even a wild-child like Ellie was no challenge for Master Child-Handler, Steve the Great. I took Ellie, totally wore her out in the sun (chasing bubbles is exhausting for a tired kid!), and then lulled her to sleep in the chair (I even fell asleep...I'm just that good--my tricks even worked on myself).

On a more serious note, Ellie's dad--David--mentioned how fulfilling it can be to have a child fall asleep in your lap. He said, "It gives you a sense that you've accomplished something." I agree. Kids are awesome.

So how was our trip to Bluebell? Awesome.