A couple weeks ago was General Conference. For those of you not of our faith, General Conference happens two times a year - April and October. It is something I look forward to each time it comes around. Basically, it is a conference that the leaders of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) speak to the entire church. It is 2 days, 4 sessions, broadcasted throughout the world, and an event I truly love and look forward to. This is also when we get to hear from our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. He is a wonderful man and I always love to hear him speak. For more info on that check out www.lds.org .
The conference itself is held at the Conference Center on Temple Square in Downtown SLC. They broadcast it locally and throughout the world, and so everyone is able to see it. We are lucky enough to be able to watch it in the comfort of our home. :)
This time around we hosted Trev's family for breakfast and the Sunday morning session. I have no pictures from the breakfast because it was well...busy. :) I think we had 17 kids and 9 adults. :) The bfast spread included eggs benedict, chocolate biscuits and gravy, homemade hashbrowns, and some sort of tropical pancakes that I can't remember the name of...but oh, I still can remember the taste...AMAZING!! :) After bfast it was time for conference...and it was a good thing too, because I think we could all hardly move from being so stuffed. :)
Not long after everyone headed back home, the afternoon session began. The house was quiet, and something truly magical happened in our home. I was able to watch conference pretty much uninterrrupted!!! This has not happened to me pretty much since I became a mother. :) In fact, I had basically resigned myself to the fact that I would always hear some, and then have to re-read the rest of the talks when the Ensign came out the following month. But this time was different...Why you might ask??? I stumbled on something GREAT...Conference Bingo!!!
Conference Bingo is simply a Bingo card with the words like, scriptures, faith, Jesus Christ, Holy Ghost, etc., in each square. The markers were dried pinto beans and the kids had to see how many bingos they could get in one session of conference. The player with the most bingos by the end was the winner and got a prize (a tootsie pop).
It was SERIOUSLY the most amazing thing. My kids were intently listening to every word the speakers said, I could listen intently to every word the speakers said, it was reverant, it was magical. Truly. These pictures are proof! :) This is Morgan with her cousins, Liberty and Saylor. Looking at this just fills up my heart. :)
I love this...seeing my sweet hubby just enjoying conference...
Maybe it got a little too relaxing... :)
These are moments worth an expression of gratitude - thank you fabulous speakers for inspiring me all throughout the year, but especially at General Conference time; thank you family for such fun memories and sinfully delish food; thank you Conference Bingo for changing my Conference experience; and lastly, THANK YOU Father in Heaven for these special experiences as a wife, mother, and thy daughter. My heart is full.
Caveat: This worked for M&J, and A&C watched a movie downstairs. But it gives me hope for the future. :)
What a great weekend.
Over the weekend, Trev and I finally did something we have talked about doing for a very long time...we hiked to the top of Mount Timpanogos! Bucket list...CHECK!
I have to begin by saying, we could not have done it without my sweet M-I-L, Jill, coming to watch our kiddos. Thanks again Gma Jill!!! :)
I'll start by telling about the hike, and then finish up this post with some sappy insight I gained along the way...feel free to skip over that part if you would like; it's mostly for me and my memories anyway. :)
So we got up at 4 am. I know. I know. But in order to be back by the time we needed to be, this was the only option. :) We headed up to the mountains and began are hike around 5:10 am.
It was still pitch-black dark outside. I was worried we would be cold, especially since we saw a few people around us with long pants, and warm jackets on. We were both in shorts. But thankfully, the weather was amazing the entire time. As long as we were moving, we were perfectly fine temperature-wise. We both had headlamps on and literally could only see the piece of earth right in front of us, and the stars above. It was a really neat experience actually. There is something spiritual about the idea of just being able to see right in front of you, and taking something difficult step-by-step.
As we hiked, we could hear (and often stepped in), water running down parts of the dark trail. We were stepping on rocks to traverse the little streams of water, that could only be heard. Not seen. We had to be really focused on what we were doing in order to avoid wet socks and shoes for the entire rest of the hike. Somehow, we made it through completely dry. As we came out of this area, dawn was just beginning to break.
As you can see, it was stunning. My emotions started going into hyper-drive. Such beauty to be seen while in a place of utter silence. I felt so lucky to be there at that moment with my sweetheart. Truly a touching moment in time for me. It sure made getting up so early WELL worth it.
In the midst of the quiet, Trev and I got to really talk. It was so nice to just have HOURS alone with him. We talked about the kids, we talked about each other, we talked about what we are interested in and working on as individuals...we just talked! In our stage of life, so much time is spent in quick conversations. And we make a great effort to talk to each other! But things get so busy with the kids and life, so it was so wonderful to just spend a large chunk of time connecting with my love. No distractions. Just us. LOVED that!
As we continued along the trail, and the sun was rising the beauty of those mountains just kept getting better and better! In fact, I kept stopping and saying, "Trev I'm sorry, just one more picture!" I wanted to capture those memories in photograph so I could look back on them and remember. I am realizing my memory doesn't hold as well as it used to...this I am certain will only get worse over time, so I DEPEND on my camera to help in the effort to remember. :)
As you can see, the more the sun came up, the better the view seemed to get! As the sun finally came over the top of the ridge we reached this beautiful meadow. It is pretty much a huge bowl sitting at the bottom of the mountain top. We stopped there to eat, and continued to enjoy the beauty.
As we continued on toward the top, it seemed like the REAL hiking began. The incline was
steep, the terrain was slippery and rocky, but we finally made it to was is called "the Saddle." This is ridge that you walk along to get over to the actual mountainside. It is the first time that you can see on both sides of the mountain range. You see all of the Utah County side, and also over into Heber on the other. It is breath-taking. Truly amazing. I took pictures of this but realized later on that my "auto-focus" had been turned off, so none of those pictures were in focus. But I remember the sights so that will have to be good enough. Hopefully it holds. :)
The last portion of the hike was a bit scary for me. This section of the hike is definately safe, but you have to really pay attention. One false move at certain points would spell trouble for sure! I also have a bit of a fear of heights, so throughout this section of the hike I put my camera away and just focused on my steps and keeping my breathing and heart rate steady. :)
Then we reached the top...
Ohhhh...the top. We were LITERALLY standing on the VERY tip top of this mountain! You could not climb higher if you tried! What an amazing sight and what an amazing accomplishment! There are SO MANY spiritual things associated with this moment. We realized once again that we can do hard things. We were able to look back over how far we had come. We supported each other along the way. We made it. We conquered. We were there TOGETHER! So amazing.
At the top, someone has constructed a tiny shack. It is just a white metal box, and people write things on it. Someone must come and paint it every so often because the oldest note we saw was dated 2010. So we of course, had to add ours. This is what we wrote (our family motto):
Love, Lift, Labor, Learn, and Laugh - Lightens 2011
How grateful I am for that moment. Words can't describe.
Now that we had made it, we had to head back. The descent was just as amazing as the climb. As we headed the long way back, I realized that even though I loved hiking in the dark, we missed some of the most beautiful parts of the hike! Remember the water we heard? Oh...it was waterfalls! I LOVE WATERFALLS! They are probably one of my most favorite things to behold in nature. LOVE them. Even though we were in a bit of a hurry to get back, I wasn't about to miss these again. ;)
After a long hike, beautiful scenery, great conversation with my sweetheart, a few falls on my part, and running into my S-I-L Amy and her family along the way, we arrived back at the car. It took us 8 hours...which sounds like a long time, but that is actually a pretty good time. :) We were sore, but so happy to have done it. I am still beaming about this 3 days later.
One day I want to do this again...except next time with the kids. I want us as a family to experience this, and what getting to the top feels like. This is what I feel like we are trying to do in this life. This life is a climb, it is hard, it is beautiful at times, and at others feels pitch-black with just a small light to follow in front of you - but with a family and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide you, it is worth it. You can reach the top. You can bring your family and others with you. This is my desire.
These last two pictures are for my memory. I want these images that my eyes were blessed to behold to be forever encased in my mind.
The path.
The goal.
Well, they are done! Hooray!!! And a big thanks to Heather (my sweet s-i-l) for taking them!
The photo shoot itself, went just about like I expected. See previous post that pretty much outline my expectations. :) Outside of Morgan falling into the little lake, things weren't too bad. :) Luckily for her, that happened right after we finished shooting. ;)
All I can say is that I am glad it's over...at least until next year. :) And, they turned out really great so it was all worth it. Hope you like...we sure do. :)
