Wonderful weekend!

What a nice weekend we had last week!

Friday night: Aunt Ruthie + family came to stay with us on their Mormon trek vacation (which ended in Las Vegas ... hmmm ;)). So fun to catch up with them! My aunt is awesome!

Saturday morning: Made a delish crock-pot breakfast casserole. Holy Hannah, I'll never go back to doing it in a pan Christmas morning! Overnight cooking is the answer - hot and ready when you are! (Don't even go there with the "That's what she said" joke, K? :)) Then all watched conference together.

Such a great conference! The best part was how much the kids loved it. Seriously, I was hearing "When is conference starting? WHAT? 2 whole hours? Nooooo..." and "Oh, it's over. Now we have to wait 2 more hours again!" Such words have never been spoken in this house. Did my kids suddenly become spiritual child prodigies? Or did it maybe have something to do with this ...

(This is not my picture, but we did a similar thing.) Each treat or activity has a picture of one of the 12/First Presidency on it, and when they spoke they got to do or have that thing. Last year we memorized the order of the 12 apostles by learning this song, and we have a poster of the general authorities by the TV, so they did a great job of recognizing the apostles before their names flashed on the screen. I remember doing that as a kid too! Anyway, it was really fun and positive and awesome.

Saturday afternoon: Watched conference again, then went to ladies night (yes, all of us) at Roberts Craft where they had everything 50% off and the kids got to make some crafts. I slipped in a few things I've had my eye on for Christmas, so I was pleased! It got a little hairy with antsy kids at the end and I was glad to get home, but an overall success.

Sunday Morning: Got up bright and early to take Caden to his first conference session in the Conference Center! You have to be 8 to attend so this was his first opportunity, and he was very excited. The other kids went to Grandma and Grandpa Greene's house, which they were also thrilled about (except for Koen, little crybaby).

We had to drive around a bit to figure out where the parking entrance is for the Joseph Smith Memorial building now, and as we were entering I said, "Hey, is that Deiter? Nah..." Dave looked over on the sidewalk and said, "Yeah, that is! And he's talking to Bob Bennett! (Utah Senator)" We were in a line that was standing still, so a few seconds later I was like, "Caden, should we go meet President Uchtdorf?" We grabbed our tickets and scrambled out of the car and raced over. He was just going up the steps of the Relief Society building, so we called to him and he turned around and said hello. I said, "This is Caden's first conference! He just turned 8," and he said, "Welcome! Nice to see you!" and then was scuttled inside. We didn't have time to take a picture, but it was really awesome! Caden was thrilled.

So we headed up to the Conference Center, weaving through throngs of people holding signs begging for tickets (it was quite a sight and made you feel horrible for not giving yours up) and got in line. As we neared the doors they were scanning the tickets with little machines that were going "bong, bong, bong." Caden gave them his ticket and it went "uh uh uh." She scanned it again, and again the noise was not affirmative. I said, "Caden you have a fake ticket!" and he looked at me in horror (oops, sorry kid, just kidding.) After several moments she pointed out, "Oh, this ticket is for the afternoon session." WHAT???? Crud. I quickly realized there would be no mercy, with the throngs of people wanting to get in, so we made our hasty exit. We saw Dave in line and ran up, saying, "Hey, did you ever look at these tickets?" Caden was devastated. We hustled over to the standby line but the guy there said our chances were definitely not good.

We decided to watch the session in the Tabernacle, pointing out that this was where both Dave and I had also seen our first session of conference. As we sat in the Tabernacle, Caden said, "We can stay here now but we're going to the conference center for the next one." Dave said yes, we could try to come back in April for another session. Caden said, "No, I mean today!" We explained that we were about to watch 2 hours of conference, then we'd have to wait 2 more hours, then sit for the 2 hours of the last session! That was a long time, and the other kids were at Grandma's and we weren't planning on being gone all day. Caden did not budge in his opinions. I pointed out that we didn't bring lunch so it would be like he was fasting and he'd be really hungry, and he said, "That's fine. I'll do that. I really want to go to a live session!"
Well, what can you say to that. I was so proud of my boy. Grandma and Grandpa said it would be fine if we stayed, so Caden got his wish!

I had brought some grapes and animal crackers for the ride home, so we headed back to the car between sessions to eat some of that. On our way we passed a room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with cooking smells wafting out. Turned out there were several vending machines stocked with sandwiches, frozen dinners, drinks, and microwaves. After briefly considering whether it was breaking the Sabbath to purchase from a vending machine, then realizing the blessing being presented to us, we had a much nicer lunch than we had supposed! :)

Sunday Afternoon: It was wonderful to sit in our lovely seats for the afternoon session and be in that magnificent space. It was touching to see Caden stand and watch the prophet enter the room, and as it became completely silent, he whispered, "Wow." He later said you could feel the Holy Ghost at that moment when the prophet came into the room. He did so great, staying reverent and listening. It was a joy to be there with him and feel so proud of his righteous desires. What a special boy! I am blessed beyond belief to have him as my son. Sometimes I can't help but think, "How do you parent a child who is your superior in so many ways?"

Great weekend.