Conference Weekend

 We had a beautiful conference weekend this year. General Conference is always such an uplifting, enjoyable experience. I love having the excuse to spend the entire weekend together as a family with no distractions and nothing to do, but listen to conference and enjoy the time together. This year was no different, and I was so grateful for the many beautiful messages that were shared. There was a man in our ward who was killed in a plane accident just days before conference. He left behind a wife and five children. It was such a shock and a very sobering time. Watching conference seemed to bring about a whole new level of meaning and comfort in the words of the leaders of the church. As always, it is a very testimony strengthening experience and also brings about a great desire for self-improvement.

We've made some new conference traditions- just a little something extra to make the kids more excited for conference.  The first tradition is cinnamon rolls! Not only are they delicious, but one batch of cinnamon rolls provides more than enough for everyone to enjoy over the two days of conference. (No, our family of 6 did not eat the entire batch- Jeff took almost half to families that he home teaches.) It's amazing how happy a batch of cinnamon rolls can make everyone.

Another fun tradition/game that I found was this cute idea on pinterest. Our bowls didn't look as cute as these buckets from the 'brown-paper packages' blog, but it was the same idea. You have key words, ours were, Jesus Christ, temple, faith, scripture/Book of Mormon, prayer, and one other that I just can't  remember. Every time the kids heard a word, they could get one piece of candy from that bowl. You could only get one per talk, so they really didn't get all that much candy, but it sure kept their attention! If you weren't paying attention, or if you weren't in the room, you didn't get a piece and I was amazed how well it worked. All the kids watched all four sessions of conference and I never heard a single complaint. They were excited and attentive the entire time. (Matthew & Emily did miss the very last 30 minutes of the last session, but they're 4 & 2) This was such a great idea and it will definitely be a tradition we'll keep up!

We lucked out with an absolutely gorgeous, warm weekend and sure didn't want to let it go to waste. I was able to get in a 13-mile run on Saturday morning before conference started, and we went for a walk together as a family on Sunday afternoon between the sessions. Both my run, and our walk were down along the river. They have a nice paved bike/running path, and there are also some trails. It's not quite Wissahickon park in Philadelphia, but it is still beautiful and a lot of fun, and we had a good time together. Matthew was in heaven with all the stick 'swords' and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him bring about 15 sticks back with him in the car! Silly kid.

 While throwing rocks into the water, the kids even spotted a turtle in the river and had fun watching it for a while.

It was a perfect weekend with our little family. We did miss our families who were all together for the weekend, but we were able to visit with them and we're looking forward to seeing them this summer.