Trip to Utah

The first week in April, for my spring break, we travled to Utah to see family. We didn't have any travel disasters this time, but we did have an enjoyable time visiting with family, going to the zoo, and going to general conference.
We arrived in Utah on Thursday night. Friday morning, we attended a 10 year mission reuinion. It had been 10 years since the dedication of the madrid temple, half way through Bruce's mission president's service. Bruce didn't know many of the people who attended and was one of the younger ones. I also put a damper on any prospective conversations when I continually had to respond that we don't currently have any children. Needless to say, I found myself sitting apart from others and listening to others conversations which were limited to children and "the mission." The highlight of the night was listening to President Mask brag about the quality of the missionaries in the Spain Barcelona mission. Right before we left, Presdient Mask gave me a hug and told me that it was very brave of me to attend a mission reunion to support my husband, and that I must be a pretty special wife.

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to the Sunday afternoon session of Conference from our stake in Illinois. I had never attended a session of Conference in the Conference center despite all of my efforts. It was really neat to sit in the presence of the apostles and prophets and hear their words of council and guidance. We parked a couple of blocks away from the conference center, so we avoided all of the traffic and went through security really quickly. General Conference is a special time of the year and something I look forward to. I marvel how everyone who listens gets something completely different out of the same conference talk. That proves that the spirit is the one doing the teaching, and the speaker is just the messenger. It was a neat opportunity.

We went to Hogle Zoo with Bruce's younger brothers and sisters and my neice, Linda.
Judging from this picture, Linda needs to grow a lot more in order to be as big as a gorilla.

Seth and Linda loved the merry-go-round.


I had a narrow escape from the treacherous lion.


A train took us by buffalo and sheep - a true delight for 4 year old Seth. Finally, we posed as a family with what some would call our very distant relatives.



I beg to differ - I do not come from a gorilla.

We enjoyed playing Killer Bunnies and other various games with my family. We stayed up late, tried to sleep in, and sadly the week went by way too fast. We had to fly home in order to go back to work.