We're Coming Home Part 2

4/30 Albuquerque --> Payson

5/1 Payson --> Parker

5/2 Parker --> Palm Desert

5/3 Palm Desert

5/4 Palm Desert --> Rialto --> Fallbrook

PAYSON,AZ

We left pretty early Wednesday morning, stocked up on coffee and gasoline, and spent the rest of the day driving. It's always a long haul across the 40. In Grants and Gallup there is not much of anything and those towns aren't much to look at. It's actually depressing, really. A lot of that part of the freeway runs through Indian Reservations.... It looks more like shanty towns though. We imagined this place hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The wild horses running across the painted deserts, Indians hunting and gathering as they pleased, wild animals roaming. It probably looked much more beautiful back then......now all you see are four lanes of concrete, broken fences, broken homes, and broken spirits. You just feel sad when drive through there. And you realize how destructive man can be, not only to our planet but also to each other. 

We passed by the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park and were sad we didn't have time to drive through it again. We jumped on the 77 South, then hit the AZ-377. They were two lane highways running through open fields and rolling hills. I always wonder why no body takes these routes. The speed limit isn't that much slower and the scenery is just so much better, but hey I won't complain because we enjoy the peace of the untraveled roads. After we went over a few rolling hills we started to notice more and more trees. Each foot we climbed higher they just kept multiplying. Before we knew it we were at 5000 feet in almost the exact center of Arizona in the town of Payson. They call it the "Heart of Arizona" for that reason. We couldn't argue with it's nickname either. It was a quaint little mountain town. Reminded us of home, Lake Arrowhead, but with department stores and a Walmart. I guess the roads were a little flatter too but it had the same crisp mountain air and trees with the small town feel.

The L.A. Kings had a game that night so we called ahead and found a sports bar that would play the game for us. It was Game 7 of the Sharks series and we either had to win or be eliminated from playoffs. It was a nail-biting first period at the "Buffalo Bar." We ended up getting most of the people in the bar to watch the game and cheer our boys on! In the last period we blew them away and advanced to the next round of playoffs. After thanking the owners for letting us crash at their bar for three hours to watch the game we drove a mile down the road to the Walmart and took a celebratory shot with Ian! We fell asleep with huge smiles on our faces that night!

PARKER, AZ

It's been a couple long days of driving so before we headed to the World Help Conference we needed to shower! So Thursday morning I woke up early and started the first leg of the journey to California. We only stopped in Glendale for In'N'Out Burger. It was amazing... every bite was delicious and cooked to perfection. We savored our lunch stop, changed into desert clothes (it was getting so HOT!) and headed to river oasis. We made it in time to relax by the pool and soak in that Vitamin D that I have been missing so much. We enjoyed a couple of drinks and a nice dinner then got all cleaned up for the weekend ahead.

WORLD HELP CONFERENCE, PALM DESERT, CA

I woke up at 6:30 am to start the trek out to Palm Springs. We knew it was going to get real hot real quick so we tried to get there as fast as we could! We knew we could hide out in Amber and Bryan's air conditioned room! We made it just in time to visit with Marley and Lennix before they headed to the grandparents for the rest of the weekend. 

We spent the next three days hanging out and working. While the boys worked the conference me and Ambs worked on some props for her up coming photo shoot, went to dinner and watched the hockey game, went to the pool and relaxed and went to lunch the next day. It was nice to just be with her and get a chance to catch up. I don't think we have done that for at least four years so I enjoyed the time. I also got to meet up with a friend/mentor from high school. I haven't had coffee with her for years so we ended up talking for over three hours nonstop just trying to get caught up on life. It was a blast. 

Bryan and Jordan had some breaks in between meetings so we went thrift store shopping and coffee shop hunting. One night we blasted music like high schoolers in the car until we found ourselves at the ACE hotel. We got some drinks, found a fire and explored the funky place. 

On the last night of the conference Amber and I went over to the meeting where the Children of the World choir was performing for everyone. It was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. All these kids (probably 10 and under) from all over the world were singing and dancing. I had chills from their first note and was crying by the end of it. My heart and passion for mission work was definitely re kindled. I can't wait for that opportunity to come. We helped the boys clean up and pack up all their equipment because tomorrow we would all be heading home!

It was a great weekend and we loved the opportunity to hang out with Amb and Bryan and to make a little money. We stopped by Rialto on the way back to Fallbrook to pick up the Jetta for a week. We found that we had to start work in Yellowstone on May 20th. We were bummed because it only gives us 9 days to be home and only 5 days for travel up north. We had so many dreams for our trip this year but I guess we will have to be flexible.

my handsome feeding some baby ducks before his meeting

Tired little lovers at the ACE Hotel  

We went to grab drinks with amb and bry one night!