Salt Lake Temple

After our long train ride, we stopped by Temple Square and walked around for a little while. Again, this was Elliot's idea!

I've Been Working On the Railroad

Nathan's company is working with UTA (Utah Transit Authority) to build the Frontrunner Commuter Rail from Salt Lake City south to Provo. Next weekend, UTA is opening the portion of the Frontrunner going north to Ogden. Yesterday, all UTA employees and their families were given the opportunity to ride the train for free before it's opened to the public. There were refreshments provided, which the kids loved of course. The train is nice and a really smooth ride, but the 2 hour ride to Ogden and back to Salt Lake, was a little long for us. Nevertheless, the kids were glad to get a glimpse of what dad's working on at work!

Jordan Temple

We can see the Jordan Temple from our street and from just about everywhere we go. Elliot has been asking when we're going to go see it up close. A few days ago, he said, "Mom, when we go to Home Depot, you just look over and the temple is right there!" Note: We go to Home Depot alot. I decided to take him to see the temple after school on Friday. When we were close, he looked out the window and exclaimed, "Wow, it's really big and really pretty!" Actually I've been very touched lately by the reverance in which Elliot views and speaks of the temples and General Conference and church in general. I'm happy to see that he was anxious to go see the temple!

"This is the Place"

At Samantha's school, all fifth graders do a big report on a state of their choice - as long as that state hasn't been chosen by someone else! The report is a huge deal and they work on it the whole school year. Samantha moved here right in the middle of it, so she wasn't required to do the written portion of the report. She lucked out. She was given the state of Utah, so that she could learn more about the state that she moved to. There was a "State" Fair held at the school last week, where all of the fifth graders made posters and displays about their state and then all of the students at the school come to the fair and went to each booth to learn about all of the United States. Samantha prepared for the fair all on her own - she did all of her research on the internet. I was very impressed. All she wanted me to do was write the captions on her poster. The whole family now knows all there is to know about Utah after listening to her many practice runs for the oral report that she gave to the class a week after the fair. She did a great job and I'm very proud. She got a 96% - go Sam!

Taffy Pull

We made homemade salt water taffy for Family Home Evening this week. There were two reasons - I needed something fun to do for FHE and Samantha needed a treat to hand out to her classmates after her state oral report about Utah. My candy thermometer was broken, so we had to do the hard ball test. Turns out, I'm not so good at the hard ball test. The taffy pulled well, and the kids had fun doing it, but when it was completely cooled, it was pull-the-fillings-out-of-your-teeth hard and sticky. Samantha decided that a bag of Bit O'Honey would do the trick instead (get it? - the "Beehive State"). Too bad I had to go to 7 stores at 9:30 at night to find some. Come on, who doesn't sell Bit O'Honey? Apparently, WalMart, Walgreen's, Albertson's, Blockbuster, 7-Eleven, and Holiday Gas Station.

Before and After

I've had a request for pictures of the inside of our house. The house looks alot different than it did when we bought it, so in the spirit of HGTV, here's some before and after shots of the three bedrooms. The rest of the house still needs some work.....pictures coming soon (or later).

Master Bedroom

Before

After

Boys' Room

Before

After

Girls' Room

Before

After

Let Sleeping Little Boys Lie

Doesn't Henry look sweet when he's holding still...in one spot...for more than a minute?

General Conference

Today was the Saturday sessions of General Conference. About five minutes before it started, I found Elliot in the bathroom fully dressed in a nice shirt and sport jacket - and he was combing the rooster tails out of his hair. I asked him what he was doing and he said matter-of-factly, "I want to look nice for Conference." That's my future missionary! I hope that lasts. We enjoyed Conference. I certainly felt the void left by President Hinckley, though. It's cool to think that this time we were only about 20 miles from the Conference Center and the Prophet. Maybe we'll try to go to a session in October.

Tree Hugger's Ball

Nathan and I went to a "Green" Gala last night in downtown Salt Lake. We rode the light rail to save gas - a "green" thing to do. Nathan's company was one of the event sponsors, so Nathan snagged a couple of $65 tickets for free! It was a swanky event with good food and live music. There was a raffle and a silent auction to raise money for TreeUtah, an organization that plants trees all over Utah. Nathan and I bid on a package of family tickets to the Hogle Zoo, Living Planet Aquarium, Tracy Aviary and Discovery Gateway (kind of like the AZ Science Center, but way better). We won the auction, so not only did we help plant a few trees, but our kids are thrilled with us! They have been requesting to go to all of these places. The aquarium is right by our house - Elliot saw it last Saturday and really wanted to go. Now we'll have some fun things to do over the next few weeks!

Suns