Beefy Tires

BEFORE THE NEW LIFT AND TIRES

AFTER


My hubby loves cars. He is constantly looking at cars and accessories. On our way back from the Grand Canyon, we decided to check in on the status of the tires Jared purchased for our Armada. They were in. We decided to go straight there to get them put on.

The situation:

When I was told the wait time was 3 hours, I thought I would croak over and die. So, when 4 hours passed us by, I didn't ever think I would see the light. We spent hours cooped up in a small, sweaty, dirty and smelly mechanic shop. What the heck were we to do with three small kids in tow? We went walking around in old school Phoenix to keep them entertained. Let me remind you that it was 105 degrees! I did not last too long, let alone my little boys who were red in the face and begging to sit down. We had water bottles to help us out, and I kept going from shade spot to shade spot to give Isaac some relief on his naked legs. Even poor Jared had on long pants and shoes on that hot pavement. We found a Harley Davidson store to rest inside, change a diaper, go potty and recover. Back to the heat we then went. Dairy Queen was the last stop where we tried our best to eat slowly and let our boys enjoy the a/c.

That was only 1 full hour. The last 3 hours were spent entertaining our boys on the black floors, asking them to stop hitting each other, nursing Isaac, chatting with another annoyed customers and practicing patience as we watched the poor employees run around short staffed to answer questions, phone calls, as well as work on our vehicle.

That was only one shop. They fixed our alignment and gave us the lift kit. We still had one place more to go!

We were so frazzled by the experience, but knew that we had to get the tires on and just deal with the situation head on. I definitely didn't want to come and do it on my own! Better that Jared was here with me. I can't stand doing all this car stuff; extended warranty info, oil changes, tires, tow packages, etc. It's hard enough to do it on my own, let alone with three kids!

Discount Tire, here we come. Another 3 hours! We spent 2 hours at the local Costco where I tried to have the boys watch whatever movie was playing in their front lobby. That lasted for a good 30 min, and then the boys wanted out of the cart. Not too many free samples that day (shoot!), although they did fill up on some chimichanga hand outs and craisins.

We were WHITE TRASH as we then pushed the Costco cart all the way back to Discount Tire and then sat in the shaded parking lot (only 95 degrees), with our food melting, as we waited for our turn. The tires look great, but they had to strip off our running boards b/c they rubbed on the bigger tires. My boys now call it a "Monster Truck" and can barely get in. They love it. Our boys were super filthy from all the greasy pit stops, with black feet and stained Dairy Queen as proof of a long afternoon. Sweet Isaac looked especially worn out in his t-shirt and diaper only, a stained carrot covered mouth and head, slobber all over his shirt and gumming cheese sticks for dinner.

The result:

New tires and rims on our Armada. Frazzled and worn out parents. Overly tired, but pleasant baby. Dirty and hungry toddlers. A late evening with yogurt for dinner. A bunch of unpacking left to do and laundry to wash. Crashed in bed by 10:30pm with lights still on!