Roberts go to Arizona!

Married life can just be so crazy somedays! Between work, school, family, and finals coming up it’s easy to get caught up on everything else and put “fun” on hold. So naturally I was so excited when we started planning our road trip to Arizona for some other important family events. It was our niece Danika’s wedding and her little sister Arianna’s baptism!

The trip to Gilbert was 10 hours, we wanted a head start, so we left Wednesday as soon as Travis got out of work and stayed at my mission companion’s parents house in Panguitch. (Thank you Amy for opening your home to us!) We rolled in around 10 p.m. and just crashed, it wasn’t hard because there’s hardly any cell phone reception or wifi connection out there to do our usual bed routine of binge-watching House until we fall asleep.

The next day we were up bright and early to drive the rest of the 7 hours. Travis was so excited to see his sibblings that he drove the whole way there! On the way we passed by a ton of little obscure towns I’ve never heard of, like Orderville, Glendale, Mt. Carmel, and Tuba city! For fun I would look them up on wikipedia and read out the history of the town, who settled the area, and whatever fun facts I could find. No surprise that most were established by Mormon pioneers ;) After a couple of naps, gas stations, and snacks, we finally made it to Gilbert at 3 p.m. And just in time too because Danika’s endowment was at 5 p.m.! We unpacked, greeted the family, and got ready for the session. As we were getting ready, Travis was worried because he doesn’t own any temple shoes and this temple doesn’t rent, what he didn’t know was that that was the least of his concerns! As he searched his wallet he realized that he didn’t have his recommend! Aaaaaaaaah! Of course this would happen on a very important day when we were a state away from home! I told him to call our bishop, that he could call the temple and get him cleared to go in. Neither him nor his councilors answered so we decided to get to the temple early to see what we could do.

The brother at the temple desk took his name down and started making some calls. I went to the lobby area to let his family know the situation, when two men walked into the temple. They were dressed in shorts and sneakers and looked around in awe at the foyer. It was obvious to me that they were not members so I immediately went into missionary mode and greeted them. I asked them if they knew what this place was, if they’ve been here before, and where they came from. Apparently they were in town from Minnesota, they were amazed at the beauty of the building and were so intrigued that Mormonism is the only and fastest growing religion in the world, so they decided to check it out. I explained to them what the temple was and what we did there. I shared that I was there for my husband’s nieces wedding, one man asked, “Your husband’s wedding?!” I said, “No, my husband’s niece! I’m his only wife.” he laughed and said, “Yeah, I heard about that!” Hahaha, a really funny moment! The two fella’s thanked me for what I was able to share with them and left. I had such a warm feeling inside me after that, a feeling I once felt everyday when in Chile. How I miss it...

Eventually everything got cleared up with Trav’s recommend and we were all able to attend the session. The session coordinator invited us to be the witness couple which was so special and fun! The only other time we had that opportunity was when we went to Florida, and it really makes it a more personal experience as we make these covenants with our heavenly father directly from the alter. After the session we went to eat at a restaurant called Rancho de Tia Rosa. I’m not a huge fan of Mexican food, but this place was AMAZING! It was a party of 30 so they had the entire porch reserved for us and we ate, laughed, and had such a good night in preparation for the wedding.

The next day we were up bright and early for the sealing. Travis had to go early to the temple again to take care of the whole recommend situation. This time was easier now that the bishop was expecting his call. The ceremony was so special, and a lot of what the sealer said made me so grateful and reminisce my sealing to Travis. I don’t remember a lot of what our sealer told us word for word. But something this sealer said as he spoke to Danika and Savio was that wedding bands are a great reminder that no matter how bad things get, there is someone there who loves you and is there to support you. And that’s exactly how I feel about Travis, I’ve had some pretty overwhelming days at school, been sick, had issues with my family, etc. but Travis was there for me each of those days and his love means everything to me. Marriage is such a blessing in so many ways, temporal and spiritual, and I’m so excited for Danika and Savio as they discover these blessings throughout their new life together.

After the sealing and pictures we went to the chapel for a luncheon and then home to nap before the reception at night. The reception was so adorable, it was at a stable in a neighbors backyard, and had lights and a rustic victorian feel to it. They had chik-fil-a nuggets and frozen yogurt with all sorts of toppings and sauces. The cake was made by my amazing sister-in-law Katie who made our wedding cake and tasted amazing! In fact we took several frozen slices home to relive our wedding day! The rest of the night we mingled and danced until it was time to go home. It was back to bed early because the following day was Arianna’s baptism!

The baptism started at 10, and thinking back, the last baptism I attended was that of my own investigator Carolina & Benjamin over a year ago. Such a sweet spirit was felt at her baptism, especially as she went up to share her testimony after the ordinance, all on her own. All the testimonies shared there were just so powerful, including the bishop’s, and it was just such a spirit-filled weekend for the family!

After the baptism we went to the park and had pizza and all the wedding leftovers from the night before. Ari opened her presents and we all sat in the sun eating frozen yogurt and enjoying the perfect Arizona weather. That night we went to a hot air balloon expo and they had booths set up and all sorts of amazing hot air balloons were up for display and taking people on rides. After walking around and taking the kids on some bounce houses we went back to Tia Rosa's for dinner and enjoyed our last night in Arizona. In the morning we had everything packed and ready to go and got up early to take Melissa, Trav’s sister, to the airport with her little girl, Vivian, who follows Trav everywhere. Trav and I have entertained the thought of moving to Arizona once we graduate, and after this trip I was so sold! The sun, the palm trees, the clay tiled roofed homes, all reminded me so much of my home in FL! We’ll see where life takes us, but for now we’re back in Provo, our home sweet home.