Genernal Conference Weekend

We had a wonderful conference weekend!  Twice a year the church broadcasts conference sessions where our church leaders and Prophet speak and share messages.  It's wonderful.  And we get to stay home!  Elden's baptism was about two weeks prior and we had a house-full of people.  I invited some siblings for conference and I was pleasantly surprised that they came!  We had 26 people at our house that weekend and everyone stayed here too.  The Friday before I spent the day baking and cooking.  I made muffins, french bread, rolls, homemade bean dip & lasagna and a chocolate mousse torte. Whew!


Our fridge was pretty full.  I love that we purchased a bigger-than-normal fridge.  The size has been great.  My dream someday is to have a side-by-side full size fridge and full freezer in a big kitchen. Probably with a cabinet layover on top too.  (Is that what it's called?)


The morning before conference Cal had a 11-year old scout activity.  They met at home depot for the build it workshop.  And after this outing, (and since then he's had his scoutmaster's conference and board of review) Cal is now 2nd class!!!  Now on to 1st class.  He has a lot to do.


















Back at the ranch....We enjoyed listening to the sessions and the kids did a great job!  Overall we were able to all hear the talks and the reverence level wasn't too bad!  My brother Darrell, brother Daniel, and sister Lois and their families all came.




In between the two sessions on Saturday we walked down to the park.  We had an awesome basketball game of adults versus kids.






The family room became messier as the sessions progressed....


That night we had Mel's Kitchen Cafe Classic Lasagna, homemade french bread and salad.  So good!  I was worried about the lasagna sitting overnight in the fridge.  I didn't want mushy noodles.  But it baked up beautifully. 


Some of the guys leaving for priesthood!  Lee and Jeff weren't in the picture, sadly. 








Saturday night the teenage girls and Stacie and Lois and I watched "Finding Normal."  After the guys came back from priesthood I pulled out the chocolate mousse torte for our treat.

Sunday afternoon in between sessions we took a walk to the cemetery.  It's a "calm" place to go on Sunday and it's not a park, which is helpful.  We were quite the procession.




Daniel has TONS of awesome games.  He pulled one out to play with some of the teenagers.


After dinner on Sunday people took off for home.  Maybe we'll get everyone back in the fall!  Our house is on the small side, so I know it's not to best place to hang out, but I'm glad that they all came!


Now for a very shocking picture....don't die.....we are babysitting a bird for three weeks.  Yes, it's true!  Someone from church went out of town and asked if we would watch their parakeet, Toby--a girl--for three weeks.  My kids were SO happy to find out we had a bird here.  I don't even realized it's here half the time.  And Shanna and Haley are so good at taking care of Toby I don't have to do anything. Elden had fun sitting by Toby and showing Toby his homework.  It was really cute.


For Family Home Evening the day after conference we did Conference Jeopardy. It was really fun!  Thanks to Lena for sending the link!


Random...out doing errands I went to the community center to pay our utility bill and saw the police car.  Love that they have "In God We Trust" on the back.  Worth every tax penny!


And super random...Lee found a HUGE carrot compared to the other baby carrots in the bag.


Some photos that I didn't get posted back from March.  Clark had a project for 8th grade called a "Mini Society".  I am not sure of all the details, but I think different groups made items to sell which other 8th graders used fake money to buy.  Clark's group made stress balls and Haley drew really cute faces on most of them.




Also, the end of March Lee, Shanna and Haley went on the big 4th grade field trip to Jamestown.  The trip ended early because of the constant rain. But they enjoyed it while they were there.




Scraping the hide to make leather.


Digging out the burnt part of a tree to make a canoe.