Utah Trip- Day 4, 5, & 6

On Friday morning, we left Jackie and Dan's house.  Tierra became quite attached to a little doll there and even cried when she had to leave it because she thought it was just like an American Doll look-a-like, for her.  I told her we will buy one just like it for her, maybe on Ebay or something.  Next, we had a yummy brunch with Cade and Laura (and their children, Tyler and Emery), who used to live in our ward.  It was so nice to see them and visit with them.  But it was not long enough (are you sensing a pattern for our trip??  LOL!)  After brunch, we drove to Salt Lake and checked into our hotel.  I talked to my cousin, Randy, who lives in Utah, to see if we could stop by for a visit, but he had a very crazy weekend and week ahead... but that was okay because so did we.

Then we walked around Temple Square and showed our girls the Salt Lake Temple (the gates were even open- so lucky!), showed them the Tabernacle and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (our girls especially liked the revolving door!), spent some time taking advantage of the great deals in the Distribution Center, and went to the huge, brand new Deseret Book. 

On our walk back to the hotel, an incredible miracle happened!  We were walking down a main street in Salt Lake, with three lanes each way.  It was pretty windy and all of a sudden, Riana's brand new hat (that she was completely in love with!) flew off.  I said, "Riana, your hat."  Then the wind blew it again, out into the busy street.  My calm words quickly changed to panic, and I began to scream, "RIANA STOP!!", over and over!!  A city bus was coming in the lane that her hat was in.  Miraculously, she was able to grab it, as the city bus driver quickly braked (with a serious look of panic on his face.)  It was such a helpless feeling to watch her taking those impulsive steps and not being able to do a thing!  At first, my logic kicked in and I started to ask her just what she was thinking.  She said, she didn't think we could replace the hat, and I said, that I knew we couldn't replace her.  We hugged and then kept on walking.  About 3 minutes down the road, the opposite outcome played over and over in my head and I started to bawl!  If the wind had blown her hat off 3 seconds later or the bus would've been 5 seconds faster...  I grabbed Riana and held her.  We both cried and cried.  We talked, as a family, about all the lessons we could learn from this experience.  For example, when they were teenagers and wanted to do something and we tried to stop them, that they should listen to us because we know how to keep them safe.  When we got back to the hotel, we all knelt in prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for our miracle because there was no doubt in my mind that He was the reason Riana was still with us.  (This experience truly made me appreciate every little moment with Riana, on the whole trip, and all the girls.  I can not even imagine how hard it would be to lose a child- the most heartbreaking thing EVER, I'm sure!) 

For dinner, we went to a really fun restaurant, a Brazilian Grill, named Tuscanos.  (We ran into some family friends from my ward growing up, Grant and Becky Warren.  It was fun to see them.)  They had an all you can eat salad bar that had 3 huge sides to it.  But the main attraction was the meat.  They would bring around different meats to your table and let you try as much as you'd like.  It was so yummy but wow, were we full!!  After dinner, we walked through the outdoor mall, back to our hotel, when a second miracle occured!  Our hotel room door was not quite shut!!  We quickly did a inventory of all of our cameras, computers, etc.  Ahh!!  Not one was taken!  What a blessing!  Karina must have heard Grant and I talking about it because right before prayer, she said, "We'd better pray for safety because we left our guns at home!"  LOL!!  We all laughed!  (I had no idea she even knew we owned guns.  Funny girl!)

Saturday morning, Riana, Sariah, and I had the opportunity to go into conference.  I have been a couple of times but they have never been.  It was really neat to experience it with them.  We had tickets in the terrace level, along with some other families from our stake.  At one point, everyone stood up because they thought the Prophet was coming in but he never did.  It was interesting because I didn't feel the same feeling that I usually did.  About 10 minutes later, everyone in the entire conference center stood again.  This time, I was filled with the spirit from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes, just as our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson walked in.  I was reminded, yet again, that this man is called of God.  I have no doubt that he is the Lord's representative on this earth, who has been called to lead God's church.  All the talks were incredible but my favorite was the talk by M. Russell Ballard about Mothers and Daughters.  He talked about his 5 daughters.  :)  It was so neat to be there, sitting with 2 of my daughters, while he talked about this special relationship.

For lunch, we went to the Lion House.  We had to wait in line, in the cold, for about 45 minutes but we actually had a lot of fun.  The girls found a heating vent to play on.  We made friends with several people in line.  I ran into my friend, Chanda's, mom and little sister, Tia.  Also, one of the chefs kept coming out and saying hi and giving us candy.  When we finally got in, it was set up very similar to a really big temple cafeteria.  The food was great but the thing I was most impressed by, was the kindness of the workers there.  They were truly wonderful and extremely helpful. 

During the second session of conference, (since we were already running late from the wait for lunch) we just decided to walk around temple square, while listening to conference.  We also took a few pictures, while it wasn't so crowded.  I was quite thankful that Grant had picked up tights and leggings for the girls, early that morning because it was pretty cold.  (A lot colder than the forecast had said it was going to be, when we packed for our trip.)

Next we went to see the Christus.  (On the way, we ran into the camera crews that were taking videos for conference.  That was pretty cool to see.)  The girls really enjoyed seeing the Christus, especially Rori, who loved seeing "Jesus."  I also ran into another family friend, David Burton.  Afterwards, Grant took off for the Priesthood Session because he didn't have tickets and thought he would need to wait in line for a couple of hours, to get in.  Within 5 minutes of Grant leaving, Aurora decided to throw her pacifier down 3 stories to the bottom of the building.  I had to gather the 5 girls and make our way down.  I was feeling quite overwhelmed when Grant showed up again.  Someone had just given him 2 tickets.  I was so thankful for that blessing, so he could be around for another hour or so.  (Heavenly Father knows what we can handle, right?)  We found the pacifier and then decided to walk around and look at some of the displays in the bottom of the building.

Then Grant helped us take the Trolley back to our hotel.  The girls were so excited to take this free trolley ride.  They had been begging and begging.  I was so excited too because it meant that I didn't have to walk as long.  My feet were killing me due to my high heel boots.  When we arrived back at the hotel, he left to go to the Priesthood Session with his friend, Jeremy.  After resting for a while, and changing into comfy clothes and tennis shoes, we decided to go shopping.  The girls and I went shopping for 3+ hours (scoring some great deals at Gap Kids and Gymboree) and it was so much fun!!  It made me really look forward to many more shopping trips with them.  We even ran into some more of my family friends, Gloria and Kaela Moss.  They were on a Mom/Daughter shopping spree too.  Later, Grant met up with us for a late dinner at Subway.  When we got back to the hotel, Grant left to pull (practically) an all nighter with one of his favorite mission buddies, Dave Hibbert.  They talked about everything under the sun.  But Grant was really touched when Dave shared his feelings about losing his 1 1/2 year old son, less than two years before.  Grant just really enjoyed spending time with Dave.  (Unforunately, I don't have a picture of them together because they are quite the sight to see.  Grant is 5 foot 6 and Dave is about 7 feet tall!  When they were companions on the mission, they used to count how many people were starring at them.  LOL!)

On Sunday morning, we went downstairs in the hotel for a little egg hunt.  Each of our girls found 3 eggs and Riana even had a coupon for any item out of the hotel goodies, in one of her eggs.  She chose a really big, soft, chocolate chip cookie.

Then the girls were able to find all the goodies that the Easter Bunny left in our hotel room.  Each girl had her own color of eggs (Riana- blue, Sariah- purple, Tierra- pink, Karina- yellow, and Aurora- orange.)  Then the green eggs were for anyone to find, bonus eggs.  Their eggs were full of candy and cash, plus they each were able to find a chocolate bunny and a carton of mini bubble gum eggs.  Then we packed, while watching the 1st session of conference.  After it was over, we checked out of the hotel and left.

When we arrived at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Parking Garage, with our free pass, we were not able to park there because someone had broken the clearance bar and it was hanging by one thread.  The man said that they would not be fixing it because it was Sunday and then mentioned a few places we could park.  We went over and checked the other parking garage and they said they would send someone to fix it but when we drove back over, they said no.  I decided to drop Grant, Riana, and Sariah off, so they could get to the Conference Center, with their tickets.  Then I drove around for 45+ minutes looking for parking, including all the places the guy had mentioned.  Every single one was full or wouldn't allow Conference Parking.  When I only had about 5-10 minutes until conference would start, I was feeling quite frustrated and overwhelmed, so I decided to say a little prayer.  I felt that I should go back to the JS Parking Garage, even though I had been there twice already.  When I drove up, the same man was there and I explained my situation and totally started crying.  (It was quite embarrasing!)  He was so sweet!  He called over to the parking lot (mostly reserved for handicap people), right next to the Conference Center, and asked if they had room.  They did and so he told them that he had a woman that he felt they should make a special case for and sent me over.  It was so nice- truly an answer to my prayers!

Tierra, Karina, Aurora, and I were able to watch the last session of conference in the Tabernacle.  Karina fell asleep on the bench, Tierra drew pictures on a notepad, and Aurora played with my Ipod, while I listened.  It was wonderful.  Afterwards, we met up with Riana, Sariah, and Grant.  They told us how they ended up with some pretty incredible seats!  They were able to stand at the front, while the apostles came in.  They were 5 ft. from L. Tom Perry and 30 feet from the Prophet and all the other Apostles.  They were so excited!!  How awesome!!  While we were standing there talking, a really neat thing happened!  A newspaper/magazine photographer had us pose and took several pictures of our family.  It was pretty neat!

Next, we drove past our old apartment, that we lived at for almost a year, when Riana and Sariah were little, and the Jordan River Temple, which was a few miles from our old apartment.  (We passed about 10 LDS churchs in those few blocks- only in Utah!  LOL!)  Then we went to Tim and Wendy's house.  (Tim was one of Grant's college roomates and Tim and Wendy were our first married friends.  We spent a lot of time hanging out with them, when we were engaged and first married.  We have taken turns visiting each other, over the years.)  They were so sweet to have us over for Easter dinner-- roast with potatoes and carrots, salad with sweet pecans, craisins, and raspberry vinagrette dressing, homemade rolls, and peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert.  It was absolutely incredible!!  (We always gain 10 pounds when we visit with them!  They are both excellent cooks!)

I asked about a reward chart on their 'fridge.  Wendy said that when they fill it, they give the kids a big reward, like swimming as a family or going out to ice cream, and then Ben said, "Or we get haircuts!"  Unforunately, I was drinking water at the time and that is never a good time to laugh that hard!  LOL!  It was so funny and adorable!  Nathan, Ben, and Riley went to bed and then Wendy read stories to our girls (she is such a good story teller!) and became buddies with Aurora.  Grant, Tim, Wendy, and I stayed up talking, singing around the piano together, and watching funny things on YouTube, like our favorite, "Charlie Bit Me" and the autotune version of it.

To Be Continued...