arizona drive

The very next weekend after Matt's graduation and Jayden's blessing, we found ourselves in the car yet again.  But this time it was for a little bit longer than just a few hours... more like the entire day, literally.  My brother Trent was getting married to the love of his life Amy down in Arizona.  I really wanted to save us hundreds of dollars by driving (instead of flying and renting a car), so we drove.  Shad's parents were gracious enough to watch Drake and Graham at their home for the three days we would be gone, so we only had Avery to worry about... well, her and Nathan, Adrienne, Jayden and Justin.  If you're gonna drive, you might as well fill up the car, right?

We left our home Thursday night, and drove to Provo, where we would be picking up my brother Justin, and my brother Nathan and his family.  We decided to sleep at Nathan's for a little while and leave early in the morning so we'd be somewhat rested.  So by 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. the next morning (I don't remember which... it was a early), we were on the road headed to Arizona.

Shad was the driver, and a very good one at that.  See how focused he is?

Justin got to sit up front with Shad.  He was so excited about that.

Nathan and Adrienne sat in back with their little boy.  Nathan's totally thrilled to be here.

And I sat in the middle with Avery.  We'd stop during the drive whenever we needed to get more gas, or when one of the two little infants needed a diaper change, was hungry, or just wanted out of their car seats, so by the time we got to the Grand Canyon, it was around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m..  While there, we got out and spent some time stretching and taking lots of pictures.  There are only so many interesting things to take pictures of inside the car.

A bridge across the canyon.

Part of the canyon.

Sweet angel Avery and her happy driver dad.

Avers and me.

Justin and Nathan.

My 4-year old just laughs when he watches this.  Nathan's got moves...

Note to Mom: the next few pictures might make you want to reprimand your sons, if you still have a stomach.  Shad couldn't watch.

After some quick, fun times, it was back to the grind.  We hadn't been on the road for more than 30 minutes, when a wild dog ran onto the highway in front of us.  It was a two-lane highway, so we couldn't go to the left lane, and we were driving 65 mph, so Shad didn't dare swerve to the right for chance of flipping.  So, very much in control, Shad said, "We're gonna hit a dog."  And we did.  For those animal lovers out there, I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that when we looked behind us, we could see the poor dog sliding down the highway, along with part of our car... I'm grateful to Shad for reacting the way he did.  When we finally stopped and pulled over, this is what we found.

So what I said earlier about saving hundreds of dollars by driving... no longer applied.  Now we just had a long drive, which we'd be paying for when we got home.  But it was fun to call it our "ghetto van" for a few weeks until we finally got it fixed.  Too bad we couldn't bill the dog.

When we finally arrived in Phoneix, Arizona that evening, we stopped at Amy's older sister's home (Katie, I think?) where the rest of my family was.  We ate dinner then headed over to the Mesa, Arizona temple, where the grounds were covered in lights and a performance was going on.  This is the pavilion where the performers did their thing.

There were lights everywhere.  It was really pretty.  I'd never been to Arizona before, so all the citrus trees (pictures in next post) were new and very cool to me.  This is the Mesa, Arizona temple, where my brother would soon be wed.

And this is sweet Avery, who happily went along with whatever we did, because she had no choice, but also because she's the sweetest little girl.

More lights.

It was neat to see all the nativity-oriented displays.  After the temple grounds, we went to the hotel, where we all ordered pizza and stayed up too late eating, talking, and watching fake wilderness survival shows on the hotel TV.