Summer Trip (Wednesday)

On Wednesday we took the cousin crew to temple square in downtown salt lake. 

It was a hot day but we hardly noticed. Utah does summer SO well. (Read: no humidity.) it was a lovely day to spend downtown. 

Lunch was at Blue Lemon...which is all I've heard about for years from friends who live out west and have been wanting to try forevvverrrr.  It was a bust. Still a treat to dine out with a fine group of Willardsons, but utah: Y'all don't know real mac n cheese until you've been to the south. Keep your velveeta sauce.  So there's my review to remind myself not to go back again (seriously, future Meg. Ever.) 

The kids loved the fountains outside. I pulled up a chair and fed Sloane while the littles ran around and splashed each other with delight until mall cop came and told them not to. Oopsie! It was only then that I noticed all the little signs reminding people not to play with the fountains. They really are SO tempting though. The water shoots out in the shape of an umbrella. What child could resist? Especially one who can't read the pretty signs? 

Temple square was such a good experience for the children. We let our kids talk to as many missionaries as they wanted and they asked all of them where they are from. Cousin Ella is in a Chinese integration program at school and got to practice her mandarin with a sister missionary.  We also ran into a few friends from Arkansas there Heidi Stewart family (who moved back to utah a couple years ago), and Jamie Grace, who had just adopted his newborn baby boy so that was fun. 

Funny kids being funny. 

And our attempts at a nice photo with non cooperative crew. It's a lot funnier now than it was then. ;)

From the roof of the conference center. That was an amazing building, too! 

All of the good pics are on aarons phone. I'll come back and add them later. 

I've seen this print many times, but the actual painting is massive and the WOW factor is indescribable. It was a real treat to see/experience it personally. 

The old tabernacle building, family history center, Joseph Smith memorial building, reflection pool, and large Christus were all stops on our tour. 

I would love to take them back when they're older during general conference to attend a session. It's a powerfully uplifting experience. In their young age I think just being in the place where there conference takes place and witnessing 20K empty chairs, the stand where the great choir sings, and the podium where the prophet of the world speaks to us, made it all so much more real to them. Sometimes, when we read the scriptures, the children will ask why the people did not listen to Noah, or Abraham, or other prophets in the holy scriptures. "Why didn't they follow Lehi into the wilderness when Jerusalem was about to be destroyed? Why wouldn't they get on Noah's ark?" We point out that the people rejected them as true prophets of God. Every 6 months, a prophet speaks to the world at general conference and many people who don't believe still gather outside the temple to protest his words, too. History repeats itself in many ways. Actually being in the conference center where it all happens gave them something tangible vs the visual they see on tv or Internet when we tune in to watch conference weekend. Church leaders are real people, and we really believe they commune with God, bear witness of Christ, and give counsel to us. I hope the experience of touring the conference center sticks with them until the next LDS General Conference in October. 

My favorite part of the tour was the room with paintings of every latter-day apostle.

Aarons favorite part was the rooftop garden tour (our tour guide was an awesome sweet senior missionary, who was a twin for Mountain Man on Duck Dynasty. Minus the beard. "MmmmHmmm.") 

We got home just in time for the girls to go to Activity Days with Auntie Jana, and the boys to go drive their remote control boats at grandma's lake.  Aaron and I took Sloane with us and went to dinner with old college roommates, (aarons roommates and mine, that all married  each other) Dave and Leisha and Kurt and Tessa. All of their kids are school aged now, and we were traded a bit for "resetting the freedom clock" once again. ;) We know it, guys! Sloane had s tough time all through dinner and reminded us of our clock reset. We're ok with it. Crazy to think of how different our lives will be when they're all in school though.  What will I do with myself without a baby on one hip and a toddler on the other?  School? Run? Volunteer in their classes? Go to lunch with friends? Read books? Have clean floors? Sleep more than 4 hours a night? Cry? Probably all of the above.