Twice in a row...almost

I had some good results at the Pechanga Friday AM tournament last week so decided to give it another try this week... 200 players started and they were paying the top 20. I was playing pretty well as I have been lately and before I knew it we were down to the final four tables when the key hand took place... i had been down to about $3000 in chips and tripled up to $9000 with an A3 suited that held up. The very next hand I looked down at QQ and decided to push again... this time I got two callers (one with the exact same amount as me and one with a little less) and they both turned over AJ offsuit... sweet, they had each others cards. the flop came 356 rainbow (all different suits)... looking good... the turn was a 4... ok still good... the river a 2 for a board straight and a 3 way chop... so instead of having 20,000+ and cruising into the final table I had just over the 9,000 I started with. Soon there after I had gotten my stack to about 11,000 and they broke down to 3 tables with the blinds at $1500/3000.... a couple of hands later I caught an AQ... the guy before me bet 8000 and I had to decide to lay it down and try to limp in to the final table or hope he had something like AJ, A10 or a pair lower than JJ so I had at least two over cards. I finally called and to my surprise one other player also called...oops I thought... the bettor turned over KK and the second bettor had QQ... well at least I had the ace but no go... no aces and that was it for the day ending in 23rd place, two off the money. Turns out I should have tried to limp in but still i feel good because I am playing well and getting deep in the tournaments... hopefully better finishing luck next week :)