Cousins, Conference and One Long Journal Entry

what was supposed to be a casual weekend home watching conference turned into a spur of the moment road trip! although, it was a lot of driving (because we did not plan well at all!) we had a lot of fun! friday, when james got home from school we packed a diaper bag and headed out the door.

first stop....Darren and Christy's! darren is james' brother and even though they don't live that far away we rarely see them. bowen had a lot of fun with JD. he's six months older than bowen and they were having a lot of fun jumpin' on the tramp.

then we were off to see Mary and Skylar, James' sister. she also has a boy, jared, five months older than bowen. (someday, we'll get all three of them together....i'm sure they would LOVE it!) we went to Rib City for dinner...Yummy!! and loved just visiting with these guys.

we then went to a wedding of a great friend...but failed to get pictures. :( take my word for it...it was BEAUTIFUL and the bride, well obviously GORGEOUS!! bowen and i especially loved the candy bar! thanks tiff. we wish you all the best!

on the long drive home, james suddenly decided it was a good weekend to visit his mother. unfortunatly, that would have been better had he thought of it an hour earlier and we could have stayed with family and drove the rest of the way on saturday. but we were to far to turn around so we drove home...pullin in near midnight only to load up the car bright and early the next morning for a trek to see his mom. we made it there without any meltdowns from bowen thanks to the laptop, baby einstein, and a whole bunch of primary songs from his mommy and daddy! one thing about it...even though we showed up completely unexpected Carolyn always has a good meal ready to eat! we were so grateful for this. Conference on saturday was so good. i loved the message of simplicity to the saints. i love the courage conference gives me to be better! we then shared a wonderful dinner before the men headed out for the priesthood session. and what do the women do while the men are away???? they keep cooking of course! parker (mary's oldest) and Grandma gathered apples in the rain from the orchard while the youngsters watched from the window!

i LOVE this picture of Jared and Bowen...priceless!

we put the apples to good use to make a yummy apple crisp for the men who were listening to the good word! we had such a good time being with family but as soon as james was back we had the long three hour drive home!

Sunday morning we had the amazing privledge to attend conference at the Conference Center. that's right, we made the drive again! my parents got tikets from a member of the tabernacle choir which put our seats only six rows back! what an experiance. it is truly amazing that with the amount of people in that room silence is acheived when the Prophet walks in. we felt so humbled to be in his presence. we were also so grateful for Jack and Tyrel that they would babysit...we LOVE you guys! sorry we had to drop him off so early. what a great weekend!! THREE drives to salt lake and farther in THREE days. but we definately had "Joy in the Journey"! needless to say i took a nap today and it felt wonderful!

thanks for the tickets mom and dad! and thanks for the babysittin' jack and ty. we LOVE you all!