Continuing with our
tradition of taking our children to General Conference after they turn eight, it was Taylor's turn to go with mom. Here is the low-down of our trip. We got a great deal on our plane tickets, but it required leaving Thursday night and coming back on Monday. We found a flight that worked with John's schedule and bought the tickets!
Thursday:
Our flight left at 9:15pm. We got to the airport and there was NO ONE in the security check line. That meant a lot of extra time waiting for the plane to come. Taylor loves the new app I downloaded where you can take pictures and then change them up. Here are two from that night:
We also got Taylor a strawberry shake (his favorite!)
Taylor got a window seat and loved seeing all of the lights as we flew over Phoenix. We got into Salt Lake at 12:20am. This picture was as we walked through the empty airport halls. Taylor was very excited he was going to be there.
As we were at the car rental desk, the guy said, "I upgraded you to a Mitsubishi. You had a Corolla." I thought maybe it was a Galant. I did not expect an SUV! (Mitsubishi Endeavor) If it was not so late I probably would have gone back in and asked for the Corolla, but we were both beat. We got to Grandpa Walker's at 1 am. My Uncle Bob and Aunt Amy had just arrived as well and we were all ready to hit the sack.
Friday:
My Grandpa took Taylor and I grocery shopping so I would have some food to eat this weekend. After that, we went to visit my Grandma Black. It was good to see her again. We talked for a while and then took pictures:
She is a wonderful woman! As we were leaving, I thanked Taylor for staying there so long so I could talk to my grandma. He said, "That is ok mom. Just think if it weren't for me we would not be here!" He was right. I asked where he wanted to go for lunch. He said Sweet Tomatoes. So we went there for lunch. He was thrilled to learn that when you are on vacation with mom you get to drink soda A LOT more often than when you are just with the family!
After lunch, we went to the Bingham Copper Mine. Along the way, we drove by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (as seen in canvas style):
It was beautiful weather. I was not balking at the low 90's one bit! Even Taylor said how much he was enjoying the "cooler" weather.
The copper mine was a lot of fun. We went to the visitors center and saw the movie, looked at the displays and then headed outside:
This is a copper plate that they make. It is 99% pure copper.
We even splurged the quarter so he could see the trucks in the mine.
One of the tires from the truck.
We went to the gift shop and got postcards for his brothers. Taylor got a large 5 dollar coin for only $2.99. (He was very proud that he paid less for something than the actual value on the coin.)
From here I talked Taylor into going to Gardner Village. When we got there, we noticed they had all these witches everywhere. It was really fun to look at them. I think that was the highlight for Taylor there.
Those two books on the desk were "Kissing Spells" and "Spells for Bad Children"
This witch was a firefighter and the hose was aimed at the bridge.
She was getting everyone "wet". (It was more like a mist)
This was Taylor's favorite witch.
Cannonball Witch
That night we took my Grandpa Walker out for dinner. We went to Golden Coral. I have to say for anyone who may want to get into the restaurant business...have a list of ingredients for your foods. I found that their steaks may or may not have questionable ingredients, so I decided not to have one. I then saw their version of "steamed carrots" and it was sitting in pools of butter. I discovered that their broccoli and cauliflower were also bathed in butter. So I ate what I had for lunch - salad and a potato. Taylor made a sundae and put the works on it - gumdrops, gummy bears, sprinkles, chocolate chips oh my!
Saturday:
We were up early. I told my Grandpa I wanted to leave at 7:30, but knew we would be out the door by 7:45. I was right - we left at 7:45am. We got a great parking spot and then walked to the Conference Center. Taylor got to see a few protesters and we got to talk about why they would protest in front of the Conference Center.
We stood in front of some Elders and they took our picture for us:
We sat in the balcony on the front row. The choir was practicing when we got to our seats.
One happy boy!
Taylor & Mom
This is how close we were to the camera. Taylor loved seeing the red light go on and then see the camera move. He was NOT happy about having to wait for 90 minutes before conference started.
Taylor took some pictures as well. Here we have the "Neon" version:
Or how about the "L-Tunnel version"
As conference began, President Eyring and President Uchtdorf came in, but not President Monson. His daughter was also missing from her seat. About 30 minutes in, Sister Dibbs came in and sat down and then after the congregational hymn, President Monson came in the other door and sat down. It was a wonderful conference! Here President Monson is leaving with his daughter.
And here is Taylor ready to leave :-)
We went and got some lunch. I brought mine so I knew I would not get sick. Taylor got a box lunch. I wish they had a kids version of it, but they didn't. From there we went to the Church Art Museum. Taylor had been looking forward to going there for a long time. They have a new display in the kids area. We did everything at least 2 times!
Fishing from Lehi's family boat.
Practicing his translating skills.
He loved building temples (and destroying them.)
We discovered how heavy the Golden Plates really were!
They had a mixer there with different instruments that you could play around with. It was pretty cool.
After the museum, we went to the Tabernacle for the second session of conference. There was more room there and Taylor took advantage of it. After conference, we toured the two visitors centers. I never knew we were holding back Taylor when we looked at things. He would walk about 20 feet in front of me and just look at things and he was done. It was the fastest I had ever toured ANYTHING! They have a great temple display in the South Visitors center where they show you some of the rooms inside the temple. I was able to explain them to Taylor and what they were used for. We spent a good 10 minutes there! As usual, he asked a lot of great questions.
He then wanted to go to dinner. We went to The Garden on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Here is the view:
We got a seat right by the window and snapped this picture before the sun got in our eyes and they had to lower the blinds.
Taylor got a Toasted Cheese and smoothie. "That will only cost you $7 mom. I hope that is ok." I smiled and appreciated him looking out for our bottom dollar. This was a special weekend though. Taylor enjoyed his smoothie. They ended up opening the roof as we were finishing our dinner. It was really nice!
We drove home and changed our clothes. I went and got Taylor a shake at Arctic Circle. I read him the entire menu of over 40 different shakes and then he said, "Strawberry please." I said, "We did not come all the way here for you to get a strawberry shake! Please choose a different flavor that you cannot get at a fast food place." He decided on cookie dough. It took him 2 days to eat his shake:
I'm glad my sister showed me the great section of food at Harmon's for me. I got a carton of ice cream that I knew would not make me sick.
Taylor and I played Monopoly that night. Taylor won.
Sunday:
We were up early again! Today however we sat on the Terrance level on the far side - front row again! I am glad I have short legs. There were a lot of tall men that moved because they were kissing their knees. Taylor took my picture:
That was the only one from that day. Once again it was a great session!
After it was over, we went back to my Grandpa's, ate lunch and then watched the last session of conference. I was so tired, I laid down to rest while Taylor played on the tablet. We went on a walk and then made dinner. That night we talked with Grandpa and played Chutes and Ladders.
Monday:
We said goodbye to my Grandpa.
Here is the "upgrade" car we got :-)
You can tell it was conference weekend. This was half of the line to go through security.
I was very proud of Taylor. We had a great time! If anything else, doing this allows me to have memories with each of my children. I am grateful that John stayed home with the other children so we could do this. Next conference would have been easier for us financially, but it was worth the sacrifice.
