A Trip to Utah

On December 28, we packed all the kids into the car and traveled to Utah. A thin layer of snow was on the ground in Grand Island, and we had reports of clear roads through most of Nebraska. We met with bad weather between Cheyenne and Rawlins in Wyoming with areas of severe blowing snow. Many times, the visibility was so bad, you could hardly make out the road. Not wanting to go forward, but also not wanting to pull off to the side and be struck from behind, we continued. Our strategy was to find a semi-truck, keep him in front of us at a safe distance, and let them guide us around problem areas. We figured, if something was to be hit, a semi would be a good warning "barricade". As it happened, we finally found mostly clear skies from Rawlins to Evanston. As we approached Weber Canyon in Utah, we encountered accumulating snow all the way to Layton.

We traveled to Utah to attend the funeral of Arnold N.P. Roberts, Becky's grandfather. We had taken the chance over Thanksgiving to drive all the way to Ontario, Canada, to visit the Roberts, and he passed away about two weeks later. The family held a funeral in Canada shortly after he died, and a second funeral and his burial in Layton, Utah. Incidentally, it is the same cemetery where Allan Rosenlund, Jon's grandfather, was buried 10 years ago. They spots are only about 50 feet away.


Today's funeral was a wonderful opportunity to remember a great man and his service to his family, his country, and God. Arnold was retired from the Canadian army where he had spent a career in public service. Following retirement, Arnold and Audrey were called as mission president to Indiana/Michigan, then temple missions in Washington DC and Toronto, Canada (where Arnold and Audrey served as its first president and matron). His children all spoke today, remembering a faithful servant of God, a proud Canadian military man, and a loving husband.

President Thomas S. Monson attended the funeral, having known the Roberts from his service in Canada as mission president. He gave wonderful words today, remembering Arnolds faithful service as branch and district president. He also spoke of the eternal nature of the human soul, of eternal families and the hope that the gospel brings regarding life after death.

Becky and the kids had the chance to meet with President Monson just prior the services. He greeted the kids warmly, offering "high fives" to the boys, and asked Daina if she liked to sing "Jesus wants me to be a Sunbeam."

All the grandsons and grandsons in law served as pallbearers. We found Grandpa Rosenlund's grave and passed by his gravestone as we carried the casket to its place. It is so wonderful to think that on resurrection morning, both the Roberts and Rosenlunds will rise from the same place.

We intend to stay in Utah until after New Years, spending two days with Mom and Dad in Riverton. With the recent funerals and work trips, we have been able to see our families on a number of occasions this year, much more than we had ever expected. The weather on Jan 2 looks much more reasonable than on our trip out here so we expect a great return.

People often ask us how our kids can stand these long trips in the car. I think the secret is practice. Trips of 10-12 hours are becoming the rule around the Rosenlunds and the kids are great at entertaining themselves. Something that really helped us this trip was a series of Bill Cosby recordings that I brought along. These are clips I had heard many times as a boy, and the kids were just as impressed as I was. Even Matthew, at 7 months old, seems to know that the trip requires extra patience and he had very few problems. Now, we can only hope that the trip back is equally as pleasant.