Come take a walk with me through SLC

So Friday morning at 4am we crawled out of bed and made our way to the airport. A couple hours later we were in the very snowy Salt Lake City. It was a nice easy flight and a no hassle airport experience, my favorite kind.


We went right to Temple square and DJ wasn't even out of the car for 3 minutes before he was playing in the snow :)

Then we went to the family history library to do our very first genealogy work. DJ had tons of success and he left with a print out of his great uncle Giuseppe's military registration card with his actual handwriting on it clear as day! And I was able to find the name and birth years of some of my dad's relatives who we previously have had no information. It was so much fun to search all those records and I could have easily stayed there all day.

Then we rounded the corner and I got my first look at the Salt Lake Temple. Needless to say it took my breath away.

We did the tourist thing took our photo in front of the Temple. Ugh I have put on so much weight this year and I'm so tired of being sick. But I digress...

We went to the Worldwide Church headquarters and up to the 26th floor to look at the whole valley. We had a wonderful tour guide who explained all the sites to us from Immigration Pass to Inspiration Point. We were amazed to think about Brigham Young standing up there on the Mountain plotting out the streets and the building locations. We looked at the Temple some more.

And the conference center. Did you know that the reason the plants and trees on the roof top of the conference center are laid out the way they are is to honor the traveling of the pioneers from the forested east to the more desert lands of the west. It's kind of cool to think about how symbolic every single part of the church is where most of us wouldn't even think about why the trees were planted on the east side of the roof.

DJ was a great listener.

And we were told this was a very clear day for the valley, I'm glad for that since it was our first time in SLC.

Then it was time for lunch. Yummmmmmmmmmm can you guess where we went?

That's right, we went to the Lion House. Oh the food was yummy and comforting and we sure did leave with a couple bags of rolls........yummmmmmmmmm

Next we headed to the Bee Hive House. That was so neat to see all the period clothing and furniture. We saw Brigham's cane and his desk.

Check out the bed. You had to tighten the ropes under the mattress each night to keep the bed together - hence the phrase sleep tight.

And check out the sink. Can you imagine washing dishes in this bad boy?

Then we moved on to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I kept looking up at the stained glass ceilings, they just had me mesmerized.

Then we were able to go sit in the Chapel where President Hinckley attended his Ward. Remind me and I'll tell you how my friend ended up attending Sacrament with President and Sister Hinckley and ended up getting a 10 minute private meeting with the two of them out of the blue. It's an amazing story!!!

Then it was on to the conference center. The photos are slightly blurry. I didn't have my low light lens on due to the need for a zoom lens while we were walking around. We got to walk right down to the to the very front and sit where President and Sister Hinckley sat while attending different programs. It was very moving.

The size of the confrence center was just unreal. For those of you who didn't know each level seats 7 thousand for a total of 21 thousand people. And did you know that fire code states the building must be able to be cleared in 20 minutes, and they can do it? Wow!

One of my favorite things to see was the fountain in the lobby. Our guide explained to us the significance of the fountain was to symbolize the inspiration received by the Prophet in the building. The waters leading up to the heavenly open light into the sky. These photos don't even do it justice.

We also got to see see an amazing collection of paintings. They were the original images from the Book of Mormon the missionaries hand out. They were so beautiful. And we saw the new First Presidency paintings, gave me chills. Then it was time for some shopping.

And we decided to go up to see President Hinckley's grave site. The guide at the Headquarters told us that it was open to the public and located at 4th and N. We drove up and realized as we got there that it was huge and we had no idea where the site was. So we just drove and figured if it was meant to be we'd find the grave. Well not to any of our surprise we drove right to the sight. If you enter off of N take the road up to a slight hill and make the first left. The sight is right under the huge sycamore tree. It was a wonderful part of the trip and I wish we could have had more time there. We saw so may grave sites I would have a hard time listing them all here. I can tell you the spirit was very strong on those grounds and you just had the strongest desire to sit and be peaceful.

Then it was dinner and Cafe Rio, yummmmmmmmmmmmm, some more shopping and finally we checked into the Hotel. DJ and I got to sleep in our first King size bed, and oh baby I'm buying one of those next time I come into a ton of money, that was great!!!!!!

Next morning we went up to Logan for the wedding. It was a beautiful drive.

And the Logan Temple is so beautiful I just couldn't stop thinking about coming back up and going through it as soon as possible.

Here are a few pictures of the former Sister Price. These two are so perfectly matched and I am so happy for them!!!!!!!

Then it was back in the car just before the storm came back through. It was so beautiful!!!!

We came back and went to the University mall in Provo to shop and well just hang out together. Then we went to dinner at Zupas. Might I say if you find one of these lovely little spots treat yourself to the Thai chicken salad, oh mama is it good!
Sunday we got up and enjoyed a little time together before running off to Sacrament with our friend. Yes I can officially say that I have experienced a BYU college singles ward. It was an experience for sure. I felt the Spirit and the talks were good but I missed all the sounds of a family ward and all the tiny hugs I get every Sunday, it was so not Sacrament to me.
After church we dashed to the airport and said goodbye to our friends and SLC.

And we met a wonderful Brother at 32,000 feet. He is the President of one of the Church's colleges in Virginia. We shared a nice talk and he shared wome wisdom with us. It was a great end to a great trip.

I'm glad we are home. We enjoyed our time there but the time just reaffirmed to us that AZ is our home and where we need to be right now.