Kansas Adventures

As traveling sisters two, we had quite the adventure starting out our trip. Our last post ended in Arizona where we had a fantastic time visiting with friends and family alike. We didn't think we would need to post much about our trip to Kansas and Missouri. We knew the drives would be long and we would be hanging out with cousins. Well, I guess Heavenly Father had a different plan for us.

The first night after leaving Arizona was spent in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. This was kinda fun for us because it wasn't very far from Las Vegas New Mexico, a town we recently heard of because they visited there in one of our favorite TV shows, Hallmark's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." Nothing really noteworthy happened here though, except that we found out from a newspaper hanging on the wall in the breakfast area, that Elvis Presley once stopped at that same hotel! That basically makes it famous:).

That morning, I got up and worked. As I finished up, Chelsea made a seemingly random decision to take the day off of her work. We knew it would be our longest stretch of drive, but a few extra hours shouldn't have mattered that much. Well, I was fine with heading out early, so off we went. We made it about 140 miles in, when BOOM! We heard a huge noise, and as Chelsea slowed and pulled to the side, we knew it was a tire blowout. We took a videos for our family as it was happening so I'm going to let you hear those...

As you can see...we had quite the adventure. It didn't end there though! We ended up getting a tire from a place in Dalhart and then finished our drive to Kansas to visit with our cousins Mike and Rose. It was so fun visiting with them and their kids! We wish we could have visited a little longer. We needed to head up to Lawrence the next morning though cause we had an appointment at the Firestone there since Chelsea's tires were under warranty. We left that morning around 10AM for Lawrence and spent another 3 hours getting the tire changed. This is where our testimonies were strengthened to know that Heavenly Father truly is in the details of our lives.

                                                    This is where we met Steve...

It was so neat to us to see how, even through a seemingly inconvenient tire blowout, Heavenly Father was still able to use us to do good. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for prayer, and the peace and joy it brings into our lives. Although the tire blowout cost us 6 hours of our roadtrip altogether, the people we met and the adventures we had, and the opportunity we had to see the hand of God, all make it more than worth it.

Fortunately, we did make it safely to Missouri that day. On our way to our cousin Michelle's, we made a stop at Liberty to see Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith was held for a grueling amount of time. Chelsea and I had seen the Church history sites before, and we now knew much more history than we did when we were kids (I was 11 and Chelsea was 14). How special it has now become as we are able to feel the spirit and apply the principles into our own lives. We were never kept unlawfully in an inhumane jail like that, but with the trials we have had, we are able to see how God is always there to help us through. He has descended below it all and because of that, knows what we need to make it through anything. He will strengthen us, guide us, and lift us, and when all is said and done, all these thing shall give us experience and will be for our good. It was so neat to be able to sit in front of the Liberty Jail, hear the narrations of what happened right before us so many years ago, and feel the Spirit as the Lord spoke to Joseph Smith, "peace, be unto you."

After Liberty Jail, we were exhausted from the last few days and so we decided to skip the temple and Independence Visitor Center that day and just head back to Michelle's house. We slept really well that night.

Cedar City and Arizona

Disclaimer: Brace yourselves. This post is a bit longer than the rest because we delayed getting started with the blog longer than we had hoped and then we were delayed in posting it. We have a bit of catching up to do with this one and the one coming soon.



We began our two month adventure on Wed, Oct 4, 2017 (a.k.a. National Cinnamon Bun Day)! It just so happened that Maverick was celebrating and we got a huge, delicious cinnamon roll for $1! We were off to a great start!

We arrived in Cedar City (home of Shayla's Alma Mater, Southern Utah University, along with her old roommates) that evening. The next day, we went on a beautiful hike through the Zion Wilderness to a hidden waterfall that not many know about.

The water was a bit cold for swimming, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Shayla and Mariah were brave enough to jump in once though. Riley and Mariah both took some beautiful pictures along the way!

Before leaving Cedar City, we also had the privilege of meeting up with Mom, Tyson, and Alexa for lunch! They had been in Lakeside with Uncle Roy and Aunt Jeanne for a couple of weeks while Tyson and Alexa were receiving neurological treatment from Uncle Roy. We are SOOOOO grateful for his help with them! Anyway, they were on their way home so we met up at the Pizza Cart! SUPER yummy, by the way!
It was so nice to be able to see them all briefly! And, it was so nice of Shayla's old roommates to let us stay with them! It was fun for me to get to know them a bit better and to hang with Shayla at her old stomping grounds.

After Cedar City, on Friday, we stopped in St. George to visit our cousin, Shawnette, but we totally forgot to get pictures! We're gonna have to get better at that as this trip goes on. It was fun to catch up with her and thanks for feeding us ice cream, Shawnette! :) We also got to stop and serve in the St. George Temple. The St. George Temple is one of my favorites because I went to school in St. George 10+ years ago. I have many fond memories there.




After St. George, we arrived at Grandfather and Alba's in Mesa. It was so fun staying with them! On Saturday, one of my dearest friends, Jill, got married! I was so happy that I could be there to celebrate with her and to reconnect with friends that I haven't seen for a couple of years. The sealing was so sweet and the reception was a blast! Those of you that are reading this that have been friends with me in the past few years will be shocked at this next news... I actually danced at the reception!! It was that fun! :)

Sunday, was great fun as well! Our cousin, Bonny, came over to Grandfather and Alba's and we vandalized, I mean... decorated, the old pool table that Lynnae is inheriting. It was discovered that years ago Shayla and our cousin from the Rowley side of the family (Shelbi) had scratched their names in the bottom of the table when they were little, so we decided that we'd update it a bit for Lynnae. Lynnae, what can we
say, except, you're welcome.


After our vandalizing/decorating party, Shayla and I joined Bonny at her single's ward, which is an interesting story in and of itself, but we'll leave that one for Bonny to tell for those that are interested. :)









Sunday, night was so much fun! I had a little reunion with some good friends from high school. Shayla even had fun reconnecting with some of my old friends that had been somewhat like sisters growing up. It was very nostalgic and so much fun to reconnect with everyone, some of whom I hadn't seen for 11+ years!

Monday morning, we said goodbye to Grandfather and Alba, and went for a brief visit with Grandma Rowley and Ralph before we hit the road for our next destination. We wish we could have had more time to visit! We always love visiting with our grandparents, and it was certainly no exception this weekend. Our only regret is that we forgot to get any pictures with them! We sure do love you though!!

Well, that concludes our first six days of our adventure. Stay tuned for the next update! Thanks for joining us! :)

-Chelsea

Let us introduce you!

Once upon a time, there were two sisters who loved to travel. However, they rarely were able to travel together because of school, work, and other things that always seemed to get in the way. They would joke about someday, when Shayla (this was one of the sisters) was done with school, her and Chelsea (this was the other sister) would travel the world together. As exciting and fun as this sounded, it didn't seem very likely. Surely, when that time came, they would be at different stages of life and something would get in the way once again.

One day, Shayla finally graduated college! Friends and family rejoiced and Shayla began wondering what to do next. She worked and prayed, yet nothing seemed to be working out. When, out of nowhere it seemed, the thought of living with Chelsea in Houston came to mind and she felt so good about it! Well, one thing led to another and she was able to get a job working for VIPKID, teaching English to adorable Chinese children online. Chelsea already had an incredible accounting job, working from home. After spending some time in Houston together, it occurred to these two sisters that each of them had jobs where they could work from home, each of them were single, and each of them had nowhere in particular that they had to be. What better time to dust off the old dreams, take our work on the road, and travel together! 

So after much thinking, praying, and planning, Chelsea and Shayla (the authors of this fantastic blog) are starting out on a two month, cross-country road trip that will hopefully be full of service, fun, and bonding! We would love to take you on our journey as well (which is why we are writing this blog). It is amazing to both of us, the miracles we have seen that have come together to make this trip possible. Along with having a once in a lifetime experience of adventures, we hope to be able to accomplish whatever Heavenly Father would have us accomplish on this trip together. We plan to switch off writing this blog so sometimes you will hear from me (Shayla) and other times you will hear from Chelsea. Hopefully, that way you will be able to gain both of our perspectives of our adventures. 

That being said, welcome to our blog and we hope you will find our adventures as enjoyable and inspiring to read as we hope they will be to experience! See you on the road! 

-Shayla