Arizona, California, and #40

Friday evening I flew to Phoenix to meet up with Dad and Lizzie. While they were participating in the Time Out For Women conference (Dad was a guest speaker at the conference) all day Saturday, I drove three hours east to the Gila Valley temple.

30 minutes into the drive I realized that the 2012 Ford Focus I rented did not have cruise control. Lovely. I didn't know they made cars without cruise control these days.

And what a beautiful drive it was! Mostly cloudy, perfect temperature, and a rainstorm had passed through the night before, which made everything fresh and green.......Arizona green, but still, it was pretty.

Neighborhood in Gilbert, Arizona.

Saturday night I drove back to San Diego with Lizzie and her friend, Megan, and I spent the last four days having a great time with Lizzie, Dan, and the boys.

We ate at one of the best sushi restaurants I've ever visited.

Yep, I'm an American. I eat sushi with a fork.

After sushi we visited the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. I was impressed with the high-tech displays they have inside. Definitely something I recommend seeing, and it's great for the kids.

Can you find the two heads?

Anders and Soren dressed up as soldiers from the Mormon Battalion.

Panning for gold

I'm not sure I could march the 2000 miles like they did. I'm satisfied with my honorary membership and this nice postcard.

Tuesday morning I woke up at 3:00AM and drove to the Los Angeles temple.

"...till the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard."

Love and service......forever!

Then I drove over to the Redlands temple.

If only righteousness were measured according to the number of temples you visit. :) This was number 40 for me.

Tuesday night I took Soren and Anders to the rattlesnake-infested park. Due to our sufficiently-reasonable watchfulness, we were able to avoid snakebites.

There was a group of mothers doing various exercises at the park. The last one they did consisted of hanging as long as they could from the monkey bars. Soren decided to join them. See the expression on his face? He waited patiently as they dropped like.......umm......people who don't weigh 50 pounds.

Sunset over San Diego

Veteran's Day is coming up. Oh how I love that flag. Thank you, Lizzie, Dan, and your cute boys, for another fantastic trip.

We all got our heads shaved. Lizzie likes to put a movie on during the haircuts to keep the boys from wiggling too much. It worked. I didn't move at all.

Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska

Friday morning I went to Dulles airport to catch a flight out to Kansas. We boarded the plane and waited 30 minutes before they came over the intercom and told us all we would have to get off the plane and board a different plane because the one we were on was having electrical problems. About an hour later we boarded our "new" plane, which was just as rundown as the original one (good old American Airlines still using planes from the 80s). We arrived in Dallas at 10:00AM, the exact time that my connecting flight to Manhattan (Kansas) was taking off. I went to an AA representative and asked about getting on another flight. They didn't have any until the next morning, so they paid for me to stay in the Marriott Hotel with three free meals. During this time I remembered that BYU was playing TCU in the Dallas Cowboys stadium that night. It was the first time in my life that I wasn't completely depressed about missing a flight and being stuck somewhere. I also found other BYU fans in the hotel. One of them lives in Dallas and he offered me a ride to and from the game that night (a taxi would have cost $50 one way). Three of us went to the game and had a great time despite BYU's sloppy performance.

That stadium is very impressive.

I finally made it to Kansas the next morning. Mary picked me up from the airport and we drove up to the Winter Quarters temple in Nebraska.

Howard Egan is my relative. I found this quote in the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters.

We also visited Fort Riley, passing through the town of Ogden on our way.

I hope I can be described like that when I die.

Kansas State Wildcats

When I arrived in Manhattan (they call it the Little Apple) I thought I was coming into a very small town. I didn't realize that Fort Riley AND Kansas State University are both located in Manhattan, which brings the total population of the city to around 75,000 (I think). Definitely not a small town.