Jena finished up Youth Conference and came home on Saturday and actually got to sleep in her own bed. She was excited! She got three whole nights in her own bed and then she and I were off again. My niece, Kristen, was getting married on June 28 in the Mesa Temple and we got to be there.
We drove down in two days--spending the first night in Las Vegas and then on into Mesa on Wednesday. Gary had encouraged me to leave earlier than I planned to be able to not travel so long on Wednesday in the hot AZ sun. I was so glad because it enable me to arrive soon enough to have a special family history experience in the temple.
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| Even though it can be hot, the scenery is amazing. I love the cactus. |
Jena had taken 11 family names to Youth Conference and completed the baptisms for the women and some young men completed the four men's names. As Kristen was taken out her endowments on Wednesday evening, I hurried to get to the temple early and was able to complete 6 initiatories in time for us --Kara, Landi, Starla, and Tosha Ipson and I-- to take them "do the endowment" in their behalf. As I was starting the work for one of our Owen in-laws, I had a sweet feeling overtake me and the statement "The Owens were good people." This was a member of the Benjamin Franklin Owen clan and I have been reading about him and his family in the past few months. They were good people and we are lucky to be a part of them. It will be exciting to meet them all someday. I believe that this is the first time that I personally have done work for my relatives in which I helped in some of the research. I have done names which Valerie has prepared before but not ones that I did. It is a great feeling.
We stayed about a week at Valerie's mostly playing games and talking (just ask Jena--we did a lot of talking.)
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| Jena hanging out while we were talking. |
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| How many Ipson girls can you fit in the bathroom? Quite a few... Kara did Kristen's hair for the wedding day and it was beautiful all day long. |
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| Entrance to the reception People wrote advice to them and hung them on the trellis in the background with clothes pin. |
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| Jena with Kristen and Nate |
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| Audrey (my great niece) with her sparkler to say goodbye to the happy couple. |
And for the record, it was 117 the day they got married.
We have tried to explain to our nieces and nephews that the winter is
a great time to go to AZ, but not much luck. It is okay. We love being with them
even when it is 117.
While we were in AZ, there were a couple of dangerous wildfires and one that claimed the lives of 19 firefighters at one time. It was very sad to watch the news. There are so many people who do very dangerous jobs to protect people and property that they don't even know. As we headed back on Monday, July 1st we passed near to that fire and close enough that Jena could smell the smoke. About 2 hours later, we actually past another wildfire that was burning south of the freeway (I-40) just before Kingman. We stayed the night in Kingman and we ended up at a Marriot because our usual cheaper choices were all full. We had an interesting room--quite space age looking.
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| The sleeping area with a posing Jena |
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| When I first looked in the bathroom, I couldn't believe the sink. Turned out that this was the "toilet room" and there was another room with a tub and a nice vanity. For a minute I was wondering if we were in a cruise ship. |
It was a fun although very hot trip. We sang a LOT of Voice Mail songs coming and going. Jena is a great traveler and I enjoying driving so we are likely to do it many more times in our lives. After all we still have more nieces and nephews to get married (and then we will have great nieces and nephews...it just keeps going!)
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