Weekend in Salt Lake City

A few weeks ago, March 31st to be exact, we drove to Salt Lake City for my mission reunion taking place there that weekend. 

We drove into town right as the CrossFit instructor at the gym Devan works for was starting his class. So I got to join them.  It was really nice to be able to get moving after a really long drive.  Devan did the workout with me and it was fun!  Before we left to meet back up with Todd and the kids, I helped Devan and a few of his co-workers carry out their April Fools Day joke for their boss.  April Fools Day was the next day and their boss had already left work for the day.  His daughter works there and got them all into his office to cover E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G in it with tin foil.  Tin foiled pictures on the walls and desk, all items on the desk, tin foil coated desk, chair, table, other chairs, everything.  I'm sure he had a heck of a time getting it all off! 

We stayed there in SLC with my brother, Devan, and his wife, Maura in their new home.  We were their first overnight guests!  They recently closed on their home and we're excited for them!  It's really nice with lots of space.  We had a great time with them. 

We visited Temple Square on Friday morning.  Any other day and we'd have hit serious crowds and traffic because it was General Conference weekend.  The temple visitors center was fun to explain so many paintings and scenes to the kids.  Lots of church stories talked about.  Devan kindly took some pictures for us!

SLC Temple

Cristus Statue in the Visitors Center

Conference Center

Friday evening we went to my mission reunion.  No pics of it yet, but hopefully I'll receive one soon via e-mail from a companion who was there because, as I often do, I forgot my camera at it! It was a very enjoyable meeting. My president and his wife spoke to everyone in the sacrament room and then we moved to the gym for refreshments and socializing. It blows me away how my president can still remember all of our names! I got to see several of my mission companions and their families.

  On Saturday we ate Devan's killer pancakes and listened to the first session of conference at Devan's house.  I had purchased some craft projects for the kids to do which successfully entertained Brielle and Ashton during the first session, while Lainey took a nap.  Once it ended, we ventured out.

We went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point.  I went crazy with pictures... sorry!

 Ashton's pretty sweet on Aunt Maura!

We had lunch in their cafe.

 We watched the T-Rex movie in 3D.  It was the perfect length for kids- 20 minutes.  However, it was a little violent for kids.  No complaints from them, or nightmares.  But Lainey refused to wear her 3-D glasses and Ashton took his off every time things got scary...

 The museum was filled with scientific stations on all kinds of things.

My brother, Devan, and his wife, Maura.

 This was a really fun station- Build-Your-Own-Dinosaur.

 It ended up being a Tricera-Stega-Rex once Ashton got his t-rex arms on there.

This was probably the kids' favorite station.  This little stream basin had sand throughout it and scattered dinosaur toys and toy trees.  With aprons on, the kids could create mounds and eddies for their dinosaurs to play on/in.

  Brielle and Uncle Devan built a dam.

Saturday evening we visited a "Fun Zone" type of place.  I can't remember what it was called.  But I was sold when I heard they rented scooters and had a scooter-friendly skate track going around the arena.  Brielle and Ashton LOVED that.

 They all spent some time in the bouncy gym.

We got to see my brother, Scott on Sunday.  He had been out of town until then.  We listened to a session of conference together, chatted about his music, and even listened to some of the songs he had recorded to his CD that weekend in Idaho Falls.  We had a good conversation about Brazilian Jujitsu- he's been studying it.  I'm one who would love to learn a martial art for self defence, and what I learned about it sounded fascinating.

We rolled on out during the second half of the second Sunday session of conference- to have just enough time left in it to not outlast our radio reception!  It was a great conference.  And a great weekend seeing family and old friends.

When we got home, we found this taped to the front door:

We had left through the garage when we headed to SLC so we hadn't noticed it.  Brielle had left it there to let everyone know where we were and that we'd be gone a while.  Good thing no burglars never read it!!!