Right before spring break I finished one of my personal progress projects. Something I had been working on for a long time. You can read more about that here. To find out more about personal progress in general you can do that here.
Well, back to spring break: We decided to go to Utah for spring break to visit the family there and to go to general conference. We were able to secure a few tickets to conference ahead of time so we were pretty excited about going. Kaitlin and Conner had never been before and even though the drive is long (at least there was no snow) all the miles are worth it to see family and to go to conference.
We stayed at Erin and David's house - so thank you very much - and tormented baby Tessa. I think she would wake up from her nap or each morning and hope we would be gone, but alas, there we were. We had invaded her house and it wasn't until the last couple of days that we were okay. Not great, but okay. We went to Thanksgiving Point, to the dinosaur museum, and to the aquarium and were able to watch the penguins get fed. That and the shark tank and Tessa losing her shoe in the starfish pool, were our highlights.
Conner had the opportunity to borrow Erin's bike and ride to Adobe with David one day. He kind of didn't want to ride this bike that was too big and he was unsure about the distance but he succeeded. I appreciate David taking his time and probably being late to work so Conner could go with him. I am not sure how many miles this trip is but it isn't close and there are a few busy roads too. Conner had been on a recent ten mile bike ride with his scout troop in order to earn the bicycling merit badge and according to him, he was always at the back of the pack trying to catch up. They need a couple ten mile rides, two 25 mile rides and one 50 mile ride. So on returning home and bike riding with his troop he has since always been at the front leading the way. I think this bike ride gave Conner great confidence, so I appreciate that. Thanks David.
Conner also got to spend time with his brothers when they went to a video game competition. Conner always loves hanging out with his brothers. If he lived near them, he would be really happy.
Kylee and Chas came down from Rexburg to go to conference as well so it was fun to visit with them. And of course, we ate great food, played lots of games, and stayed up really late. I got to spend a little bit of time with my sisters and brother and their family. Wish we lived closer as I always enjoying hanging out with them.
But then to the reason we actually came to on this trip. CONFERENCE!!! We had two tickets to the Saturday afternoon session so these two sisters were able to go together:
Of course they are older now, but all their older pictures together it seems like the are making faces. They were excited about going and since Chas had been before, he stayed outside, picked up food for all of them and then escorted them home on TRAX. Meanwhile, as they were making it back to Lehi, Brad was madly dashing off in our van with these three brothers:
to go to the Priesthood session. (Another older picture, but it is one of my favorites of my three boys.) Conner had been looking forward to this for a long time and to be able to go with his two brothers was a treat. Unfortunately there was an accident on the freeway and the traffic was backed up, but fortunately, they made it to the conference center in the knick of time. We drove more than 600 mile for our kids to have the opportunity to attend conference. All worth it.
We drove home on Sunday and was able to listen to the Sunday morning conference as we drove. This was on a radio station from Salt Lake. For the afternoon session we weren't quite so lucky. We were able to find a radio station from Rexburg and listened to the first half but then we got too far away - Boise - and we weren't able to get the last half. Conner was not happy and had me search all the stations a number of times. At least it was recorded so we were able to watch it upon returning home. I am glad that my kids enjoyed conference so well and that they were able to spend that time together. It brings great joy to me.
