My trip to Arizona

Well, as some of you know, I am the youngest in a large herd of Reese's. Therefore, when my nephew sends me a wedding invitation, it actually is a good thing. So on December 17th, my Dad, Papa Lou, brother-in-law, Fred, my niece, Debbie, and I loaded up Fred's Buick Park Avenue (a very nice ride) and headed south. Brilliantly I packed light because a: I knew it was warmer down South b: everyone teases me that I always pack too much. So, we are on the road. We make our first stop in Lehi to my brother's home to get a gift they are sending for Christmas. We are back on the road and remarkably the roads were fairly good. Second stop, Fillmore, for gas. Third stop Cedar City. The sky starts looking a little menacing, but nothing that can't be handled by a few seasoned Northern Utah drivers, right? Our next stop was unplanned but very much necessary.





This my friends is Las Vegas. Yes, I was in Las Vegas the night they recieved thier record snow fall of 5 inches. It had not snowed that much in Las Vegas for 50 years. Well, a bit unprepared for the weather, the state shut down all roads leading out of Las Vegas. So we were lucky enough to find a decent hotel and we crashed at the Holiday Inn. The next morning to beat the traffic and being a bit anxious to get on the road, we awoke about 5:00 am. Needless to say the roads were still closed so we ended up at an IHOP for the morning.





We were there until about 9ish. We thought, "Surely the roads would be open now?" but to no avail they were still closed. So we headed over to my Uncle Joe's house to visit until the roads open. They had a few trees that had broken in the storm, but other than that they were unscathed. We visited for a couple of hours and then headed out of town. Well from Vegas to Mesa is about 5 or 6 hours, so we were barely going to make it in time for the wedding dinner that night.

We had the cool chance to see the progress on the new bridge spanning the Hoover Dam. It was awesome. And not just awesome as in "awesome dude" but in every real sense it was amazing the feat the are accomplishing. I have never seen such a bridge being built. It was great!







When we finally arrived in Mesa, the weather was a balmy 65*. It was great. We went to dinner, then went to the hotel to bed. It was a long day.

The next day we went to the Mesa temple to witness the wedding ceremony. It was beautiful. Here are some pics from the temple:

Johnny & Allison

Papa Lou

Johnny & Allison

The Allen Family (snap, snap)

The Reese's (Bill, the dad, is one of my older brothers)

While we were waiting for the Bride and Groom, we thought we saw President Bush and his secret serviceman.

After the ceremony, we enjoyed a wonderful reception/dance at the church.

This is my dearest friend Christi in AZ

My darling niece, Kylee. She would not go to sleep!

Until Papa Lou took over. He is so good!

We did have to rest our weary feet after the wedding. It was way too much fun!

Well, we made it to the wedding and enjoyed a few days in the fun and the sun. We made it back home safe and sound. It was a fun, quick trip, but very well worth it.

We saw the remnants of the storm we went through

We saw lots of cool things...

On our way home, Debbie and I took the back seat driving position. We are very good at it.
All in all, it was a great trip!

Happy New year, Y'all!