General Conference in Utah

One day sitting in relief society, I had the impression that our three oldest boys needed to be the Priesthood session of General Conference.  Not just go to it like always, but BE THERE.  So after a little planning, we made it happen.  We left on a Friday evening, leaving on a plane to Provo.  Provo is about 30 miles or so from Salt Lake City.  We knew we weren't going to have a car but we had checked out their train system and knew we could get where we needed to be so off we went on our adventure.

Rhett had never flown before and was a  little nervous.  The flight was only and hour so it went well and we were there in no time.  After getting off the plane and locating the train station, we realized we were 6 miles away with no car.  Guess we should have checked better.  So we took a taxi to the train station.

Boys on the plane

Once we got to the train station, we bought tickets and checked the schedule.  It's a 72 minute ride to SLC, that's longer than the flight.  AND, it doesn't run on Sundays which is when we were planning on riding it back to Lehi.  Guess we'll have to figure that one out. So we got on and headed out.  Only problem here is that we weren't really sure where to get off when we got there in relation to where our hotel was.  I guess we'll figure it out!  Our theme for this long traveling day was "well, good thing we got no where to be!"

Chillin on the train.  

Funny faces

Glades funny face.  He did business almost the whole way.

On the train we discovered Rhett had taken these bamboo sticks from the bathroom at the airport.  I didn't realize what they were until I got them in front of me and smelled them.  I exclaimed "these are smelly sticks!"  That became a joke the rest of the trip, but I knew what I meant.  You know, the diffuser reeds soaked in smelly oil to make the room smell better.  Well, I gave him the lecture about stealing, even though they were just little sticks.  We had a fun ride by ourselves to SLC.

Once we got there, we decided the Temple  stop sounded like the best bet since our hotel was just about a mile from the Temple.  We got off there, told a worker where we wanted to go and he told us we shoulda gotten off at the SLC center stop.  We jumped back on quickly and did a little back track.  We got off there and told another person where we wanted to go and they pointed us to the little train that went through town and told us where to get off that one.

 The little train.

The conductor was very sweet and at one stop let us know that we could probably get off here instead of the other one.  After talking to him for a min, we decided it was really 6's so we decided to stay on since "we got no where to be".  Not 15 seconds after leaving that stop, the train broke down in the middle of the  next intersection.  We sat there for quite some time.  We decided maybe we could just get out since that was the stop he said we could get off at anyway.  But No, he wouldn't let us off since we were in an intersection.  Good thing we had no where to be!  After finally getting off, we hiked half a mile to our hotel.  Finally!!  As I checked in with the guy and he tried to offer me a parking pass, I told him we didn't have a car.  He asked how we got there and I gave him a brief rundown of our travels.  Then he replies "did you know we have a shuttle service from the train station?"  No. No I obviously didn't know that!  We put our bags in the room and left for our gourmet dinner of McDonald's.  The kids were elated.

The next days were awesome!  We spent Saturday morning touring around Temple square and seeing everything there was to see.  We had a quick lunch of Gyros at the very swanky mall and then went to watch  the afternoon session in the old tabernacle.  I just loved being there!  The spirit on Temple Square was so awesome.  The boys had tickets to the Priesthood session so they headed there while us girls went to the mall.  By the way, Jake and Jenny Johnson went and so did Brett and Janelle Sherwood.  We tried being all girly and shop, but mostly we just dropped.  We were so tired.  We waited for the boys to come out of priesthood and were just in awe at the number of men in suits that poured out of that building.  Truly amazing.  We took the boys out for an Italian dinner and then back to the hotel.  A lot of walking when your hotel is a mile from where you need to be. Ü

 Eating Gyros

 Once we took the train instead of walking to the hotel, but it looked like this.

 Glade and I in front of the temple 

 Rhett being a "horse" in the Church history museum

Sunday morning we trekked back to Temple Square for the last two sessions.  It was a long walk in my boots!  We watched this session from the visitor center theater.  It didn't matter where we watched it, it was so awesome to be there.  Between sessions, we tried to get a quick lunch but everything is closed there on Sunday!  Seriously, the whole mall was closed!  So we had an unfortunate incident with Carl's Jr and $13 coke and cookies.  About half way back to the temple, Stephen realized he left his brand new binder with all his notes back at Carl's Jr.  Sweet Rhett offers to RUN all the way back and get it for him.  The reason there was such an urgency is that we actually had tickets to the afternoon session and you have to be in your seats by a certain time or they give them away.  It all worked out and Rhett saved the day.

We had originally gotten tickets for the Saturday afternoon session but we gave them to Whitley's friends so they could attend so now we had Sunday afternoon.   The only problem was that 3 were on one level and 2 were on another so we didn't get to sit together.  Bummer.  Stephen and Nick took the upper level and Glade, Rhett and I took the lower ones.  Even though we mostly watched it on the big screens, it was so wonderful to be there.  I highly recommend it!!

Sunday night, we had caught the little train (which luckily didn't shut down on Sunday) to Lehi where Glade's cousin picked us up and took us back to her home where we stayed for the night.  It was really neat to get to know them a little better.  We awoke Monday to a cold, rainy day.  We had planned on seeing a lot of things in Provo, but it was hard with the weather.  We were able to see the temple, BYU, the MTC, the old tabernacle they are turning into a temple and then the Quilted Bear.  That's a craft store where I bought some super cute daisy things for my house.
By the end of the day, we had seen most things we wanted and it was time to be getting on the plane.  The flight was really rough due to the weather and I hated it, but it was good to back home!

 the old tablernacle that burned down and now they are turning in to a temple

Provo temple

Oh Yah!!  At the mall, they had a Deseret Book store.  We ventured in and guess who was there???  Michael McClean!!  He wrote The Forgotten Carols and I just love love loved that.  So I got to tell him how much I loved it and appreciated his gifts and how they have blessed my life.  I was on Cloud 9.   But then......

 Gerald Lund!!  In the same day!  He has written all the Church historical fiction books that I have read repeatedly and taught me most of what I know about church history.  I can't even tell you how great that was.  I'm pretty sure I even shed a few tears telling him how much his work has blessed my life.  I'm a goof, I know.

This is the little darling I got myself at the mall.  Seriously, sparkly daisies!!

Apparently they like to eat chocolate covered cinnamon bears here in Utah.  So I got some for my good friend Leslie, who also like to eat them. ♥