General Conference

I love the Fall session of General Conference.  I love that the weather has cooled down a bit, that there is little to no humidity, and that the leaves are changing colors and when I look out any of my windows I watch them falling like rain with the gentlest of winds.  I also love some of the traditions we have around conference that have evolved over time, including hiking in Mint Springs on Sunday morning, coloring mosaics while listening to the speakers (I find it's a great tactic to stay engaged), having Navajo tacos on Saturday night and Stromboli on Sunday.  But the best part of the whole weekend is gathering around the t.v. together to listen to the Prophet and Apostles inspire us to become better people each and every day. Unfortunately, Jared has missed both 2013 sessions because of academic conference commitments, so these are all the photos I texted him over the weekend to help him feel a little closer to home.

Saturday after soccer games were wrapped up we headed in for long overdue haircuts before catching the 4:00 session of conference. Gavin and Liam are hidden behind their two hairdressers in the background.

 Mosiacs

More doodling

Indian Fry Bread for Navajo Tacos with TVP

Caleb left for the evening Priesthood session and the rest of us played a rousing game of Quirkle where for the first time Gavin and I didn't come in 1st and 2nd places.  In fact, Liam set a new family record of getting 6 Quirkles in a row and 8 total over the course of the game!

Resting after the first half mile of uphill climbing in Mint Springs.  Jonah carried the map the entire hike.

Gavin was leading out and decided that he wanted to venture up to this impressive power lines tower or whatever you call that thing.

Jonah figuring out where we were and where we were going.

Gavin, as usual, was the leader of our pack and he kept a pace I had to try to keep up with.  The others were not interested in taking the extra .5 mile section that he and I wanted to explore, so we parted ways.  I love hiking with Gavin....he never complains and like me ends up wanting to push a little further because we just want to see what's around that next bend in the path.  Here is a selfie of the two of us.

I couldn't get a clear shot of all the mosaics with my phone, so this will have to do.

Jared is en route back home and the stromboli is about to be consumed as soon as the boys come down after showering and cleaning up.  I can hear Liam blowdrying his hair....this is a new fascination of his and frankly his hair looks great when he gives it that extra touch! The only other male person in the world who I know blow dries their hair every day is Uncle James, who Liam James is in part named after.......