A Young Women's Weekend

"One virtuous young woman, lead by the spirit, can change the world." Pres. Elaine Dalton
I always want to remember this: mother/daughters only, weekend away. We started off in a rented car. It wasn't much to brag about but it worked, despite the audio tech problems. And it saved us a lot in gas $. { More money for shopping.} That was motivation enough for us to drive the smoker rental. Smoker because it smelt of cigarettes. I'll try not to complain any more about that. Anyway...

We finally arrived at Laura's on Thursday after dinner. We drove through wind, dust, and a little snow, singing & talking the whole way. We all feel in love with Harrison. What a sweetie pie. He never cries. Never. I've never had a baby like him. Laura is one lucky mother.

Friday, after spending the morning babysitting Harrison, we started the shopping. So fun. The best deal of the weekend {of our lifetime} was found at the outlet mall in Park City. Meagan bought three pair of skinny jeans for $1 each. Unbelievable! That was a success. Addie found some really cute green converse type shoes & outfit to match.

We visited Uncle Monte & Aunt Diane. I love visiting them. They always make me laugh. They gave us YW Conference tickets- A big thank you to John's cousin, Debbie, for that.

Saturday went by so quickly. We started with a tour of the Prophets grave sites at the SLC cemetery. (Meagan is working on the Faith value for personal progress and learning about the prophets is part of her project)Thirteenish of them are buried there. I loved the site at Pres. Hinckley's grave. Fresh flowers were on display with one big snow ball with sunflowers coming out of it. So sweet. We could picture grand children or great grandchildren bringing him & his wife flowers and playing in the snow. We stopped at Brigham Young's grave, which is at a different location. Then we toured the Beehive house. B.Y. was a very busy man. He was the prophet, the governor of the Utah territory, the superintendent of the Indian Affairs, had 25 wives, and who knows how many children. At the very end of the tour the sister missionaries told us something that has stuck with me. "Out of all his important and busy duties, he said that his most important responsibility was his children and family." I loved that.

Then to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, one of my favorite places. We had lunch in the Garden Restaurant on the 10th floor, overlooking the Temple. Beautiful day and view and delicious food. The girls loved it.

I took the girls to our old little home on Windsor Street. I loved living in Salt Lake. It was a simple, sweet life. We visited with an old neighbor, Brother Eldredge. He doesn't remember us anymore. He's 91 yrs old. He has 119 great grandchildren. He remembered that. He was such a good neighbor.

After a short rest at Laura's we were off again to the conference. We had to park half a mile away and walk fast to get to our seats. So much traffic. Poor Addie had to take off her shoes and walk barefooted because her shoes were not the best for race walking in. We made it. We had wonderful seats and found John's other cousin, Mindy, and her daughter Meghan. There's always family around.

What a great opportunity to attend YW Conference in person. To see the Prophet walk in to the meeting. A quiet reverence settled over the congregation. It's great to feel the spirit so strong and hear in person the message that Heavenly Father has for us.

Every one spoke of Virtue. A return to Virtue. So the girls and I are working on Pres. Monson's challenge. He spoke of three things. Having courage to refrain from judging. Sounds easy, but it's harder than one might think. Can you make an observation about someone or is that still judging? See it's hard. 2. Have courage to be virtuous, 3. have courage to stand firm for truth & righteousness.

We returned home on Sunday, uplifted and united. The only thing I would change next time is to make sure John comes along. Boy, we missed him and his driving ability. It was such a long way home. It took forever. Twelve hours. Not fun to drive through Las Vegas on a Sunday.

How nice to come home to a house full of boys.