Young Womens General Meeting

We had the best experience on Saturday night. Our ward had tickets to go to the Young Womens meeting at the Conference Center. I took Sidney and her friend Olivia, my mom and Alex. I was afraid that we would never have tickets again after Alex turns 12 so I took her with us. It was amazing. Our tickets were on the 10th row right in front of the First Presidencies wives. From where I was sitting I could see President Monson standing in the hall waiting to come out. I have had the chance to go to meetings in the Conference Center before but I have always been in the upper balcony. So when they started pointing us forward my heart started racing. The spirit in that building was so amazing. When you are in the presence of the Prophet there is no denying this is the true church. I know that my girls could feel that same thing. The General Young Womens Presidency did an amazing job on their talks as well. It was so uplifting and they made me want to be better. They challenged all of the girls, mothers and grandmothers to work on the new personal progress value, Virtue. Thanks Sister Eads and Sister Griffin for the tickets. It was amazing. I'm sure that this is something my girls will remember forever. Their favorite part is after the meeting when President Monson was walking out, that he turned and waved and blew them kisses, along with all the girls standing by us of course. I wish I had a picture of that.
Alex and I in the Conference Center. Waiting for the meeting to start.
Alex is on the bottom, with Sidney and Olivia on the bridge up above. Waterfall at the Conference Center.
Cute picture. This is afterwards when we were waiting in line to get out.

Our clan.

The Bean Museum part of a month of museums and Trips

It has been years since I have been down to the Bean Museum. We had so much fun seeing all of the animals and doing the scavenger hunt provided by the museum. It was very educational in a fun way. One of those that you are learning while having fun. After we went to lunch at the Brick Oven. Very Yummy, the kids ended up getting really cute balloon animals and one machine gun. Fun time. Now to see where our next adventure lies. Alex is dying to go rock hunting so as soon as the weather changes I think we will be off.
Sidney and Braydon looking at brother bear.
Alex with the butterflies. This was my favorite display. If you have never been this butterfly is made up of hundreds of other butterflies.
This is Braydon with Shasta. I wondered what happened to her when they remodeled the cat house at Hogal Zoo, now I know.

Hunter with a wolf.
Braydon explaining one of the animals to Grandma.
Alex and her elephant.
Sidney and her monkey. I wish the flash would have reflected in a different spot. This is the cutest of the balloon creations.
Braydon and his dog.
Dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.

MY New Do

When Eric called me Friday morning and told me to pick him up in Tooele and not Dugway I asked him to ask his friends wife to do my hair. I felt like I needed a change with the change in weather. So here it is. She called it a Sassy new Spring look. Me Sassy? Sure???

Another Fun Weekend

My Uncle got married in the Bountiful Temple on Saturday. So we decided to make the most of the ride to Northern Utah. We spent the morning at the temple and at the Brunch then we headed off for a little fun.
First we visited the Hill Air Force Air Plane Museum. It was a lot of fun. We haven't been here for a couple of years. Hunter was old enough to totally enjoy everything this time. The only bad part was that it was so busy. The kids weren't able to do very much in the simulator room because of all the people. After the air museum we headed over to Union Station in Ogden. They have 3 museums in one. The train museum, firearms museum, and a car museum. The kids had a blast climbing all over the trains. Now we need a new destination.
looking around outside.
Hunter and Braydon standing with the SR-71. Grandpas plane.

Looking around inside the museum.
Look at us compared to this planes landing gear. Crazy big.
Standing at the door of the Firearms museum.
Braydon with some of the old cars.
Union Station Train Museum.
These are the wheels to one of the engines that ran from 1937 to 1956. It could go up to 110 miles an hour. The engine has to be at least 65 feet long. Probably longer. It was huge.
I just thought this was a cute picture with my sweet hubby. He is learning to take advantage of the places we go.

Last Weekend

It was a busy weekend for us. Alex's birthday was on Friday and then we headed to St. George at 5:00 Saturday morning.

My moms best friends son got married in the St. George temple Saturday. We took the kids with us so that they could have a mini spring break. The weather was awesome. Sidney's favorite part of the trip was the reception was held at the same country club where High School Musical 2 was filmed. It was a very nice place.
Sunday we took our time coming home and made a bunch of stops all along the way. It took us 10and 1/2 hours to get home. It was worth it.

The first stop was looking over the St. George valley.My cute girls enjoying a little shade.
Hunter and Alex in a lizard mouth.

Our Family.
A cool little Indian house.
After we left here we started toward home. We stopped in Silver Reef and explored the little ghost town. Then we headed north again until we came to Kolob canyons. We took the short 5 mile drive into the canyons and it was beautiful. You would never believe that just a few miles away from the freeway this great hidden beauty exists.

Our next stop was in Parowan. Just 10 miles off the freeway is the Parowan Gap. There is a 1000 years of history in this short little canyonit was discovered by the Parley Pratt expidition in 1849. Cheif Walker told them that it was "God's Own House". There is a very reverent feel as you look at the history there saved in the rocks.Our last stop before we headed home was Cove Fort. Last summer Eric and I stopped for the first time and loved it. The kids wanted to go so luckily they were still open when we arrived. Here is where President Hinckleys dad grew up. The fort is neat. The stories that go along with it are great. It is a very uplifting place to visit. With a little more history mixed in.
This is the entrance to the fort. Only one shot was ever fired in the fort and it was the Hinckley children playing with a gun. Funny.
The family looking out the gun ports.

We had a very fun weekend. I have to say that it didn't last long enough. There were so many other things that we could have visited. We are starting to make a list of all the sites we need to go see and it will definatly take a while to do them all. This weekend was a good start.

Alex is 11!!

I think the weirdest part of the kids getting older is that I really don't feel any older myself.



Alex had a great birthday. She got her ears pierced. She was so excited and they look way cute. We then had a little family party for her and she got to go to the movie with the family as her activity.Happy Birthday Alex.

Diary of a Mean Mom

I guess it can't last forever. Today, I had a blow up. I can't say it was all their fault, don't we go around every day telling them that they choose how to react. Well today I reacted wrong. I just blow up. I think what light the fuse was being told that I have been angry for a month and a half now! Where did that come from. About 2 seconds later Kaboom, I was off. I think that after weeks of saying clean your room please, please please go to bed on time tonight, please practice, please get your homework done, please stop fighting, please don't touch each other, please please and please etc. I had had it.

I am here to say that I am sorry if I really have been angry for a month and a half, I really hope that was teenage exaggeration of 2 days. But I will try to take my own advise and remember that I chose to react and I made the wrong choice.

So here is putting today behind me and trying to make the next month better. :)