Arizona & Zach's Wedding!

We left Oregon on a long drive last Friday. We stopped in Utah for a few days, and then this past Thursday we continued on down for another long drive to Mesa, AZ! I have NEVER been down this way before, and boy is it beautiful! Eric's best friend, Zach, got married this weekend and he asked Eric to be his best man, so of course we had to go! 

We started our journey around 11 in the morning and as we were driving along, we realized we had reached a stretch of area with no gas stations and our gas light turned on ... oops! We found on our phones where the nearest gas station would be and knew it was going to be tight. We instantly started saying a prayer in our hearts that we would make it to the gas station when Eric suddenly exclaimed, "Did we pack our clothes?!?" *facepalm* I set everything out for Eric to load up in the van except our hanging up things - you know, the important things ... Eric's suit, the shirt I made for the wedding (I wanted to match Eric's bowtie and unable to find something I liked, I made a shirt on Wednesday), all of Eric's shirts... I always forget something major when we take a trip... We putted into the gas station and I called my mom who quickly located the items and sent them to the post office with my dad. They over-nighted them to the hotel and all was well. phew 

Crisis averted.

The drive down to Mesa was gorgeous. Given that we didn't have kids with us, we indulged in getting out and looking at the scenery a few times! First up was this cool house made of rocks that was built in the 1930's next to all of these other rocks that were inverted. How on earth do they stay up?!?

 

 I promise, it was much more uncomfortable for us to stand under them than it is for you to look at us standing under them ... *shudder*

 We also drove across this really cool bridge that had a location for you to pull over and walk along it. Look at how deep that canyon is! Amazing!

 Next to the path was this scavenger bird (looks like a Vulture to me, but I'm no expert...)
that Eric really wanted to go see... crazy kid!

It kept looking at him all creepy like as he got closer and closer.

 

 Eric took a selfie with the bird to send to his friends who were, at that moment, trying to get him to hop online to play a game (Which, for the record, we legitimately tested our hotspot connection because how fun would it be to play a game in the middle of nowhere? Sadly, we couldn't get a good enough signal)

 Such a spooky bird.

We stopped by Outback Steak House for dinner mmmmmmmm and got to the hotel around 11:30pm.

On Friday, we literally spent the whole day resting. Eric played a few games with his friends at lunch and at one point asked if he should stop so we could get me food. I shamelessly held up the empty bag of donuts that my sister, Mikayla, purchased me and informed him I was good for the next little while...

Friday evening, instead of a bachelor party, the happy couple chose to do a family picnic at this GORGEOUS state park. Driving to the park, we saw crazy rock formations in the middle of the business district that people were hiking, haha! 

 At the end of the night, we hiked up to that big hole in the rock. Cool huh?  I promise, it's more stair-like in the back and we were perfectly safe. I was tired by the end though and Eric carried me back to the car.

 I really enjoyed seeing Eric with Zach (and Amy, of course) having fun. We all got a good laugh as they shared stories from their childhood with us.

After the park, we went back to Amy and Zach's apartment where we just talked for several hours.

The next day was the wedding. We checked out of our hotel and headed to a fun Mexican place for lunch. Afterwards, we went to a few stores to pick up some car decorations to hand off to Zach's brothers for the honeymoon car. We arrived at the wedding location (another GORGEOUS state park - Lost Dutchman) a few hours early to help coordinate, set up, and run through rehearsals. As the rehearsal began, they realized they wanted someone to escort Eric down the aisle and decided who better than his wife?!? How nice is that?!? So they last minute made me a member of the wedding party (good thing I wore the right colors!)

All of the men in the wedding party wore bowties. Zach looked on Youtube how to tie a bowtie and then taught Eric the night before the wedding. Eric attempted to teach all of the men and when it didn't seem to be clicking (they didn't have mirrors) Eric tied them all one by one, haha!

Here is a picture someone snapped of the ceremony. It was very cool and very unique. 

The bishop did a wonderful job!

 

Before the ceremony began, Eric asked me that, should I need to, that I sit down. I had worn heels and been running around helping for the last 2 hours. I agreed but figured I'd be fine.

Well, as always, Eric knew better than me. I wasn't up there long before I started to get light-headed and luckily opted to sit down before I fell down. The maid-of-honor saw how pale I was and signaled her husband to bring me some water which was just what I needed - I hadn't had anything to drink since the restaurant! I definitely scared a few people who thought I had gone into labor... oops... 

I guess I look further along than I actually am ... 

The rest of the event went well. Eric was the MC for the evening reception and I was the assistant to the bride (basically I shoved food in Amy and Zach's face and fetched everything they needed).

After Zach and Amy left, Eric and I headed out to drive back to Utah through the night. We left around 8:30 pm and thanks to daylight savings, arrived around 8:30 am this morning. We are resting up and then it's back to Oregon!

Thank you, Zach and Amy for inviting us down and allowing us to be a part of your special day!

It was such a fun trip!