We love to see the temple: Salt Lake temple and Christmas lights

The girls have been, very persistently, reminding me that we needed to visit another temple. It was high time we go check another one out, according to them. Sunday evening, we took advantage of the unseasonably warm temps and headed to Temple Square to see the conference center, the Salt Lake temple, and the Christmas lights. While crossing a street we found this plaque on a rock (go U of U, the girls were excited to have stumbled upon it):
This has to be one of my favorite pictures!:
First we stopped at the conference center. Only Casidee had been there of my girls so we slipped inside, after they raced up and down the stairs outside, to see if we could get a tour and possibly go up and see the garden on the roof.
The guy who took us on the tour was amazing with the girls. Our tour was very kid oriented, especially catered to them, and he laughed with them and teased them, making it extra special.
We took this picture with Tayler and Pres. John Taylor's bust because John Taylor is actually the great great great grandfather of the girls, through their dad. Taylor is a family name through my ex's family (his mom's side) and that's where I came up with Tayler's name.
The portical the leads to the roof garden was as far as we could go. They close the roof at dark, so I guess we'll have to go back and catch that. Afterwards we crossed the street to check out the lights at Temple Square, and anything else we could see.
The red tree has forever been my favorite:
Tayler took this picture. She has a good eye!:

We love to see the temple: Oquirrh Mountain

The circus headed to the temple open house. Except for a few unusually loud "Wow!"s from Cali, the girls did really well.
A golf cart took us from the dirt parking lot to the tent where the tours began.
At this point Cali starts talking like we're at Disneyland... I can't really say that I blame her. The gave her a pamphlet that looked just like the park maps in size and folding, and we walked in a long line to the temple after a short video. She asked if we could ride it again.
This temple has a gorgeous view. An usher told us it's the only temple in the world that you can stand at and see two other temples... the Jordan River and the Draper temples.
This picture is somewhat unimpressive, but I took it because these windows have stars etched into them. I noticed it when we were in one of the sealing rooms and I was struck by them. The usher told us that starting at the lower level and going up, the amount of stars increase.
A few weeks ago this temple was struck by lightning. They still haven't cleaned angel Moroni up from it. We (we being my neighbors (and home teacher) Mark and Karen Allred who live across the street from us) taught the girls how to thumb a ride. They're waiting for the golf cart to come and take us to the car.
Karen and me :) I couldn't ask for better neighbors.

RS General Broadcast live and in person

I'll love Audrey til the day I die... what a perfect friend for me! It had been WAY too long since we'd done anything together (I think the last time was Feb of 07 when she and her kids came out to visit me in hell, oh, I mean Vernal). I was able to get tickets to the conference center and thanks to Jason babysitting for Audrey (and my nephew babysitting for me) we headed into downtown Salt Lake with a few minor scary car mishaps (Audrey on her cell "it skips... chugga chugga chugga" Jason on the other end "yeah it does that..." Audrey a little later on her cell "it died three times while were idling" Jason "oh well now that's a new one").
We payed five bucks to park in a podunk autoshop and then hiked it (sans heels for me, I'd rather carry them than walk that fast in them!) the couple of blocks to the conference center where our purses were checked and in we went. (of course shoes back on by this point). What a beautiful building. I've been there a before, but it always amazes me. Here's just a few quick things I wrote down while I was listening. I didn't write down a lot, but these things struck me.
Pres Julie B Beck said, "It is time for the Relief Society to fullfill its purpose as never before." "We have a duty to defend our family." "If we heed personal revelational we shall not fail." Barbara Thompson, 2nd counc (she's so funny I loved her) said, "Often the help needed of us is in our own homes." And Pres Dieter F Uchtdorf said, "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." He spoke on how we as women often undervalue ourselves and what we do. My thoughts kept going to my girls and my life as a single mom in general. I have a work to do, and as hard as it absolutely is, I'm thankful for it.
After the broadcast Aud and I struck out to Baskin Robbins... it was SO good to have caught up for a night with that pretty lady Jason is always chasing in thier blog! :)