General Conference Weekend

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 We had a great General Conference weekend! Generally I dread them because of the struggle to keep unruly kids at bay and also try to get something out of the messages, but this time it went really well. We didn't do a lot of sitting and watching, and I think that was a key to success for us. We canned applesauce, cut grass (Addison and I shared headphones), rode in the car, and the kids did great.

In between sessions on Saturday we had a picnic lunch at the park. The weather was perfect.

 It's not conference weekend without these babies!



 On Sunday we headed up the canyon between sessions in hopes of finding some fall foliage. We missed the first round and were too early for the second. But it was still beautiful. And the aspens were yellow here and there. We did a little mini-hike to break in our new baby backpack and were all sad to go when the time came.

Asa absolutely LOVED the pack! He did spontaneous squeals of delight here and there just to let us know that he was digging. This opens up a whole world of possibilities . . .

 I love this picture!



 We found some leaves to crunch, even if we did miss the main show.

One of those squeals of delight.


Fun activities aside, I loved the messages we heard this time around. Several were tailor-fitted to me, I think. I am looking forward to getting the next Ensign in the mail and marking it up with Nate and making personal and family goals that are in line with the teachings we received.

And I was pleasantly surprised at how much the kids got out of Conference. They enjoyed doing their Conference worksheets from Primary. Also, we had candy bowls set out and they had to listen for certain key words in each talk (Jesus, family, blessings, etc.) and they could have a piece of candy each time they heard one. They made sure to listen! Even Leah started excitedly repeating words that she recognized, "Joseph Smith!" or "Holy Ghost!" And I found this page of notes that Addison took all on his own.

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