The kids had a few days off a few weeks ago. Iris went to the St George temple open house, Elijah slept in, and I took the girls and Porfirio out to explore.

They were drawn to and also kinda terrified by the graffiti they found.

Watching dirt clumps explode as they threw them on the ground:

Iris' LVYO performance:

Claire came home! I didn't realize how much I missed her until she came back. 

She's a hoot to hang out with. 

Claire surprised Sybil at a neighborhood Halloween party where Sybil was actively soliciting votes for the costume contest, teaching people how to spell her name for the ballots. If any doubt was expressed about her costume, she ran home to add another wacky peice.

Cousin time! 

I took a picture of them eating my homemade breakfast. It was said that I hadn't cooked dinner in a decade. I added that it probably wouldn't happen again for a decade, so I took a picture to commemorate the rare occurrence.

How happy does Claire look that I woke her up to go hiking with me. 

At least I didn't make her wear the weighted vest.

Iris getting swagged out for the Pink Parade

Elijah and Claire with their youth group going to a haunted house:

Sibling love

Elijah's love language is back massages

The girls getting ready for the school Halloween bash. 

We came back after and invited some friends to hot tub, roast s'mores, and watch movies.

One of my longest lasting friends came in town to chill over the weekend

Saying goodbye to one of my BFFs. 

Hilariously, she ruined the moment by asking if she could get a cartilage piercing.

Red Rock is my happy place.

Sybil ran ahead and I scrambled to keep up with her. 

David got us some free tickets to PBR: a bull-riding competition.

It was quite spectacular.

 

Mission Preparation

      Last night I went to a mission preparation class with Elijah. There are 16 seniors in our ward who are potentially preparing for a mission and they were challenged to read the Book of Mormon by next conference. I am reading it at the same time. I love the beginning of 2 Nephi when Lehi, a dying parent is pleading with his sons to "awake and shake off the chains that bind" them. Now I am in the Isaiah chapters and as I read, I'm thinking about the fact the Joseph dictated all of these chapters. There's no way he could have memorized them with only 65 working days.

     Another thing I was thinking about is that no matter what language a missionary is called to, all missionaries learn a new language: the language of the spirit. Learning to be conversant and understand God's messenger is essential. Spanish was extremely useful also. Yesterday alone, I used Spanish with 3 people in addition to my immediate family. I love talking to David's grandpa about the books he reads which I'd never be able to do without having learned Spanish on my mission. 

OK, I gotta go help kids get ready for school now, but here's a little snapshot of our weekend. Claire is in town for Fall break, which is wonderful. On Sunday, Sybil created a tea party with a costume contest for the family. 

Here she is counting the votes for best-dressed. The crack is the best part of her costume.

General Conference

Hector and Marguerite flew to Vegas to go with us to General Conference. 

Before we headed out, Hector gave Elijah a beautiful patriarchal blessing.

 On our wy to SLC, we stopped in St George to visit 

some people we love and go to the temple open house.

I can't believe that this is our last parent-child trip to SLC. 

The tradition includes: 1) kid finishes reading BoM before they get baptized, 2) kid gets baptized, 3) David, kid and I travel to SLC, 4) on Friday we summit the Y in Provo and indoctrinate BYU into the soul of the child, 5) David drinks a gross number of creamery chocolate milks, 6) we eat dinner at the buffet restaurant that overlooks SLC temple and then regret it (the Jospeh Smith building is being remodeled this year so we were unable to regret the food we ate), 7) we go the the chocolate store that's owned by little people in the avenues. 

Hike to the Y: David said that Sybil was the fastest of the four children, which she rubbed in her siblings' faces. Notice the snack she insisted on bringing. Flaming Hot Cheetos. This week when I discovered that she had gone to school wearing mascara (I made her throw away the mascara bc it's too tempting for her), she explained that she did it so that she could be a woman. The next sentence out of her mouth was not very womanly: "I wish I could fart out Hot Cheetos so that I could eat them."

BYU bookstore with Cosmo

We drove from Provo to SLC via the gorgeous Alpine loop.

After dinner with Lex and Jon, Sybil gave makeovers 

because packing her ginormous makeup set 

(with contains only a fraction of her makeup collection) was absolutely necessary.

Conference was spectacular.

Between the first and second Saturday sessions, we ate in the General Authority cafeteria, where Sybil created a new dance based on several signs we passed. It was called, "restricted access." Here she is doing her dance on the escalator:

After the first 2 Saturday sessions, I asked Sybil what she wanted to do. She was insistent on going to the evening session. I took vigorous notes all day and Sybil vigorously copied my notes. I found out that it was because David  offered to pay her per page of notes.

This weekend:

Elijah: the ladies man.

 I just had to hug him because I am his self-proclaimed favorite female.

Elijah and his homecoming date

Meanwhile, although David is in England, 

we were hanging out with with some pretty spectacular people:

Iris and I hiking Turtlehead peak.

David and I went to a cocktail party/dinner where Kevin O'Keary from Shark Tank spoke. 

Interestingly, he said that he could predict with 100% accuracy who would be a winner/loser.

He said, "Confidence has an aura."

We walked through the Bellagio gardens after:

And here's my favorite eagle:

Claire occasionally volunteers to be the mascot and also works the concession stands at the university football games to raise money for her crew team. This weekend she traveled to Houston for 2 cousins' baptisms.

Right now, Iris and I are sitting on the couch watching endless skits 

performed by Masha, Mila, Sybil and a friend from the neighborhood.