Conference Traditions

WOW!! Conference was AMAZING!!! So many wonderful talks that have inspired, motivated, and encouraged me. I think my very favorite talk was the one about parenting with courage....okay I can't leave it at one favorite. I tried, I promise I did. I also loved Elder Arnold's talk, Pres. Uchtdorf, and Pres. Monson's talks. Okay, they were all good. But, my very favorite session was Sunday afternoon, which is unusual because my favorite session is usually on Saturday.

Anyways, on to traditions. I love hearing about people's conference traditions. I have a friend who makes cinnamon rolls with her kids during Saturday conference. I thought about doing that...but then I thought about my past cinnamon roll experiences...not so good. Growing up, we would always restock our 72 hour emergency backpacks. Well, we decided to go with traditions that may not be as domestic or or as practical, but they are perfect for our family. On Saturday, we play tennis (the girls play on a playground right next to the courts and Hailey has our own little set up...I'll have to take a pic next time we go, it's pretty hilarious). The weather seems to always be perfect on conference weekend and so we LOVE to do outdoor stuff. Cory and I actually started this tradition when we were first married. The next tradition we do is on Sunday. We have a picnic. We have gone to different places to do this (places without a playground as a temptation), but this year I think we found the perfect place. It is actually a church history site that is like 20 minutes from our house. It is the Joseph Standing Monument. Joseph Standing was serving a mission out here and was martyred. You can click here to find out more. It was a beautiful monument and it had such a peaceful reverent feeling about it. In fact, Katelund asked me if we were in the sacred grove.

So we were loving every second of our picnic....until....scroll down to the very last picture (by the way, don't look too closely at the pics...lots of mismatched clothes, messy hair, and no make-up)......






...along came a spider!! Cory freaked out (yes, he acts like a little girl when it comes to spiders) and so did everyone else (except me...I was laughing hysterically at Cory). So that pretty much ended our perfect picnic.

Sunday conference also means candy, coloring, puzzles, and anything else that keeps the girls quiet and busy. As I was searching online for ideas, I found some cute conference workbooks and one of the things they had were blank ties for the kids to color in for each speaker. I loved this idea...but not nearly as much as my girls did. I didn't even print anything off. I just drew a tie on a piece of paper and the girls colored it in to make an exact replica of the speaker's. Notice the necklace Katelund drew for Sister Cook. They even cut them out and everything. They had SO MUCH fun doing this!!! It will definitely be a must for next conference.