Conference and Cousins

One of the best parts of General Conference Weekend is spending time with family. Liz and I got to visit while the kids had cousin time and the boys were at Priesthood session. Now that Benjamin is a little older, he and Zac are becoming little buddies. They enjoyed sneaking through the house with Nerf guns and glasses, hunting bad guys or just teasing the girls.

Ally, Rachel and Brook were in their own pony world. Their game lasted all night and they still did not get enough. When it was time to go, they made plans to continue the grand pony adventure at Grandma's house the next day.

Sam and Hannah are still figuring each other out. I love watching them together. (So does Sariah. She hovered over them all night.) Tonight we were all together again for Mother's Day. Hannah kept taking Sam's pacifier out of his mouth. He would grin at her and take it back. Then she grabbed it again. They kept it up until Sam had enough and crawled away. Before we know it, they will be up running around with the rest of them. If only the cousins lived closer. Sigh. Although these past few months we have been spoiled with fairly regular get-togethers.

Saturday night it snowed, a very wet, very heavy snow. On Sunday morning we woke up to sad news. Our tree did not survive the storm. (Trees were actually down all over the valley.) Zac was in tears. This was "his"tree. It was part of many fun games. Sometimes, he climbed into the branches and just sat there, observing the world. He even asked to sleep in it one night. I was sad, too. Of all the trees in my yard, it was the one tree I actually liked. Joseph was able to get the branches off the driveway that morning and later in the week, our kind neighbor let us borrow a chain saw to take care of the rest. (Joseph rather enjoyed his first chain saw project. It saved him hours of work with a handsaw.) Our neighbor also helped us haul away most of the limbs. The bigger ones are stacked on our driveway, waiting for the Scouts' next campfire.

It was a good thing the tree did not block more of the driveway, as Joseph, Sariah and Zac needed to be on their way early that morning. We got tickets for the Sunday morning session in the Conference Center. They picked Uncle Marc up on the way. Zac and Sariah were excited to go and I hope it will be a special memory for them. As they left the session to head home, Sariah looked up at Joseph and said, "I love conference. This is the best day ever!" She really does look forward to conference. Her favorite part is listening to the choir so I was extra excited for her to hear Music and the Spoken Word before the session started. Thanks, Joseph for taking them.