I'm BACK.

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Geepers! I have been trying to type this post ALL day long! It is now almost 10:30 Wed night and I am going to try to finish!

After getting home late last night and realizing I was supposed to be at a meeting at 8am with the reading specialist at Lena's school, I then realized that Mark had to work so I would have to go to the meeting with ALL the kids along. Needless to say, after the girlscout meeting fiasco, I called the school early this morning and politely declined to come, knowing it would probably become more of a kid-circus than a "meeting". Hopefully they will be understanding.

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Utah was great. My mom had frequent flyer miles and since it is her tradition to go to fall conference every year with someone, this year it worked out for me to go with Elsie. Mark got the days off, and took the time to take Dane and Lena down to visit his Brother's family,as well as gather some very needed family preparedness stuff. (Kerosene heater(for heating rooms in an emergency),a double burner thingy(for cooking in an emergency) and also a 2 month supply of water for each of us. Pretty awesome in a couple of days. ~

We touched down in Utah late Friday night, and after picking up a kind of cool rental car (new Nissan Ultima) that was turned on by the push of a button(no keys!!) we headed to Mark's parents house where we stayed and enjoyed some much needed family bonding time!

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On Saturday morning my Mom watched Baby at the Joseph Smith Building during conference so I could go with my little sis Natalie, and her friend David. It was so memorable, as I have never experienced the conference center before!! When we walked in, the children's choir was performing and it sounded so angelic it brought tears immediately to my eyes. The speakers were wonderful as well, but definitely what touched me the most was the greatness and massive nature of the entire group there, and when we all sang for the hymn, again I was moved to near tears. Beautiful. The collective spirit of the large group was almost tangible, and it was a surreal feeling to be a part of. Really amazing.

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That evening my mom treated us to dinner at The Roof which was quite fun. We were talking about how much of our vacations is based around wanting/searching for/and eating tasty treats and foods. Although I tried to go light on the main course, I swear I tasted like 12 different desserts (my ultimate weakness). I had a stomach ache that night but it was all worth it-haha.

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Sunday we listened to conference while my Sister In Law made the yummiest crepes ever! I must've eaten like 6 of them...alternating between organic blueberries & bananas, or nutella and caramel (together!) all topped w/whipped cream. YUM. Then later we went for a hike up Mt. Timpanogas and it was beautiful out. It was really fun, but I forgot how scared I am of heights!! I was kinda freaked out the entire time. We didn't go the whole way either.

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We decided it would be fun to take the rail system downtown and walk around temple square yet again. Unfortunately what wasn't fun was not being able to find the stupid train station, and it taking SO long that by the time we DID find it, we could have driven to SLC and back. DUH! But we were there, so we took it, and we got to see some rather creepy random night riders (haha) that stared us down and freaked us out, giving us the similar thrill that riding the subway in NYC does sometimes..haha.
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This is taking way too long now, but we also went to the Y, (for old time's sake) and visited my best old roomie who still lives in Provo. We stopped at the shops at Thanksgiving Point, and they were SO great! I seriously figured they'd be boring pioneery shops, but they were actually really cool.

All in all, it was a great weekend - and hopefully I can find time for my sweet DH to take a turn to go out there next!