General Conference- Women's Session

My sweet friend Della drove all the way up from Southern Utah with her cute kiddos to meet us for brunch. Even though the little ones distracted here and there from the conversation, I'm so glad we were able to meet them and get to know them a little. 

Her oldest was really fun to talk to, the middle one is just adorable and the youngest one sized me up a bit which reminded me so much of Sydney. This is only the second time in my life I've seen Della in person as our friendship has been forged over the years through Voxer. Man, I didn't realize until I just typed that... we have been voxing for YEARS! It all started around the time her little one was born. Crazy.

I once again tried Swig and once again was so blown away with the sugar I could hardly handle my "Texas Tab" which is Dr. Pepper + Vanilla + Coconut Cream. Ireland managed to finish her "Shark Attack" of Sprite + Lemonade + Blue Raspberry + Gummy Shark but it took several hours.

Between conference sessions, we found a pretty sweet parking spot. 

First we did a little shopping at the City Creek Center. I found a couple of crazy good deals at Lululemon where there was a flash sale. Nothing makes me smile more than discounts on top of reduced-price items! We stopped in at Restoration Hardware which is something I would never do if I had all the girls along. Ireland actually loved it there and dragged her feet when it was time to leave.

There are lots of fountains scattered around City Creek but there's one that is particularly big. 

Side note: Ireland spotted that ruffly green scripture bag and I just couldn't say no! I love that she embraces her name so much. 

Just as we started to walk away from this fountain, a very cool water show began.

It was celebrity hour at the flagship Deseret Book! We saw Gerald Lund (I've read the entire Work and the Glory series):

John Bytheway (I absolutely love his talks):

Jericho Road was playing at the back of the store and it was so jam packed, we had to squeeze around people so Ireland could pick out her CTR ring.

Temple Square was likewise busy, but we managed to get some photos at the iconic spots like this one:

I received so many compliments on my skirt!

This is one of my favorite photos- Ireland had just touched where the reflection of the angel Moroni was on the water.

There were a lot of people waiting to get their picture with the Christus so Ireland popped in super fast. We will have to go back someday and enjoy it when it's not so loud and crowded because it's one of my favorite places on Temple Square.

As the Saturday afternoon session wound down, we headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to have an early dinner on The Roof.

I know lots and lots of couples who were engaged here (including my sister, college roommates, mission companions), and I really wanted to go. It was pricey but the food was amazing. The honey was the most decadent honey I've ever tasted in my life. Ireland had an entire plate of salmon. She was a little disappointed no one got engaged while we were there. Ha!

Ireland was positively enchanted with the little bottles of Martinelli's. She insisted I take a picture.

If you look carefully, you can see all the people spilling out from the conference center behind Ireland.

I dared Ireland to request they play Dvorak's Humoresque. With a few bucks clutched in her little hand, she marched right over to the piano and put in her request. The violinist knew it by heart but the pianist struggled a bit. Even so, I will always think of our dinner in that lovely place every time I hear it from now on.

The Women's Session was pretty spectacular and physically being in the Conference Center made it feel so much more intimate. It's de rigueur to stand and be silent when the prophet enters the room (same for the apostles in a local meeting). Ireland had never seen it before as they don't show it on TV so I was really glad she could see what it's like to have a place buzzing with chatter and excitement and then everything stands still for a moment. It's good to just stand still... just for a moment.

There were other things I appreciated about being in the Conference Center for Women's Session. When President Nelson said people ask him why he's a doctor and he tells them it's because he can't be a mother, everyone said, "Awwwwwwe!" and you could just feel the love for our prophet rolling towards that pulpit. When we stood for the rest hymn, I told Ireland to remember that moment because she may never sing with that large of a group of women again in her lifetime.

President Eyring mentioned a scripture in his talk, "It will be given you in the very moment that which you should say" which hit me as so applicable to motherhood! It was especially poignant in that moment in the Conference Center with Ireland. I have often felt like I need to be better about preparing for those moments when she becomes overwhelmed with emotion. In my mind, I'd been working on a plan. Oh how I love a plan! The Spirit gave me a gentle nudge right then, telling me to not worry so much; He'll help me in the moment.

I think Ireland's favorite part of Women's Session is that she was able to rapidly check off the I-Spy list she'd received from her Primary Leaders. Any of the kids who complete it get a full-sized candy bar and she had that thing complete within about 5 minutes.

If we hadn't eaten so much at The Roof, we probably would have floated back to the hotel. This was the one night we didn't take advantage of the pool or hot tub because we were just exhausted but we slept oh so well!!!