General Conference

Twice a year our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holds a church-wide, world-wide conference.  We are able to hear from our church leaders and Prophet.  We all look forward to this weekend.  It's fun staying home, eating goodies, and listening to inspiring messages and counsel.

Before we get into conference weekend, here is Cal with a skull he drew in art class.  He loves drawing and often after school shows me a little picture he drew that day.


And speaking of art, here is a picture a PTA mom drew.  I had it made into a big engineering print at Staples, traced around it and hung it for a fundraiser "meter".


For several years I've had the plan that when the boys turn 12 they would take a special trip with dad and go to their first Priesthood session live in the Conference Center at Temple Square--in Salt Lake City, UT.  Lee and Clark headed out early Saturday morning to fly to Salt Lake.




Their whole trip was a whirlwind, but it seems like they enjoyed it.




Lee was also able to meet up with my dad, brother Roger, and Lee's good friend Adam Drais for the Priesthood Session. 


Saturday night they stayed with Roger and his family.  I thought it was fun that Clark wanted to stay with Roger and Brittany.  The next morning they drove to Ely, Nevada to spend the day with Lee's parents.  Clark did his first batch of indexing!


Here is the rental car.  I was so surprised that the rentals were cheap that weekend in SLC.  I would have thought because of conference the companies would raise the rental rates.  But nope!  This baby was just $13 a day!  (Not including extra fees and stuff...)


While in Ely they saw Kent's new building for his optometrist practice.  Lee is a third generation optometrist.  And he has two brothers that are optometry doctors also--Kent and Carl.


This is the house Lee grew up in all his life.  It's always fun to visit there and I'm glad Lee's had the opportunity to see his parent a few times this year.  Usually and sadly it's only once a year.  He and Clark had a nice visit there with his parents, and some of Kent's family--his wife Saundra, and two of their sons Nathan and Seth. Of course we all know who Nathan is!


When we first moved to Virginia money was super tight.  Kids would ask for certain things and we would put them off by promising them at a later date.  Well, this is one of them.  Clark loves seafood and he asked to go to Red Lobster way back in 3rd or 4th grade.  We told him that he could go to Red Lobster when he turned 12 and went to his first Priesthood session.  Nice right?  Ha ha.  Since Saturday was so crazy, Monday before their flight home Lee and Clark went to Red Lobster in Salt Lake.  Clark LOVED it!  And we made good on our promise!








I think he is sad because it's all over.  We'll take you again sometime Clark!  Maybe right before you enter the MTC?


Back at home....the Gerla's came for a visit conference weekend!  We missed having Lois and co. here!  Little Maggie was the star of the visit. 


Conference is quite long.  There are four sessions, each two hours long.  In addition there is the two-hour Priesthood session for males ages 12 and up.  And the week before conference there is women's broadcast for females 8 and up.  During the talks we let the kids color and play with toys.  But they need to 1. be quiet, and 2. stay in the room.  Usually it works quite well.  If they do those two things, after each talk they can have a piece of candy.


Maggie let me do a little braid in her hair.





She reminds me a Shanna!


Shanna and Maggie love each other.


Cal was taking a bazillion pictures. Here is one, ha ha.











My kids love Aunt Stephanie.  She colored with them, and played games with them.


We had a nice weekend together.  Thanks for coming down!  I didn't get any pictures, but Saturday night during Priesthood, Steph, Shanna and Haley came with me to my friend's home. We had fun eating snacks, visiting and played a fun game.  Thanks for hosting that Brittany!  While Andy watched Priesthood at home, the boys snuggled on the couch and watched a Harry Potter episode.  Guess who sat in between them?  Maggie!  So cute.  I'll have to get that picture from Stephanie.

We loved Conference weekend and were thankful that Lee and Clark arrived home safely!