"We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!"

First post of October 2011. Wow, I'm not really sure where summer disappeared to. But, here's a sparse photo recap of our quick and not-so-dirty weekend dash to Salt Lake City.

Friday night we went straight to Satan's School - (University of Utah, obviously) 

where we attended a mission reunion for the Arizona Pheonix Mission. 

It wasn't quite as dry and boring as I'd imagined. In fact, it was really great to see and meet the people Eric had spent two years of his life serving and teaching the Gospel with. 

Couple of my favorite parts: 

1. President Gill's message on attending the temple. 

2. The mission "hymn" - what a powerful way to feel the Spirit of missionary work.

3. The mission 'fight song.'

4. The beam on my husby's face the whole night. 

It was a great prelude to the rest of the weekend. 

Elder Eric Lougee, Elder Drew Ensslin, Elder Kyle Smith
We actually met some of Drew's family when we visited Porterville, Calif. this summer. That's where he grew up!

Saturday afternoon we found an Asian Market where I picked up some much anticipated Kewpie as well as large, bargain priced boxes of curry. 

My handsome man texting some folks from his mission during our lunch at Chili's. 

Because of Eric's mission connections, we got two tickets to Sunday morning's session of General Conference. Sunday morning is always my favorite. Music & the Spoken Word, Motab, and the Prophet always speaks during this session. 

Waiting at the Trax (Utah's public transit train) early Sunday morning. 

In the Conference Center - Bird's Eye View.

This place holds 21,000 people. 

I can't figure out how the roof doesn't collapse in because there are NO beams impeding your view. 

It's just a fact of life that it is either rainy or fairly cruddy weather every conference weekend. 

However, October must've snuck up on Mother Nature, because it was beautiful and warm. 

I even sunburned a little. 

From the roof of the Conference Center - which I'd never been up there before - with a view of the Salt Lake Temple behind me. 

I finally got to meet Ms. Teri Lynne Carroll and her two boys Joey and Charlie. 

Eric became great friends with this family during his mission. It was so nice to meet them face to face, such a warm and fun family. 

Teri served a mission in Guatemala, Joey just came home from a mission in New Jersey where he spoke Spanish, and Charlie will be leaving in December to serve a mission in Mexico City, Mexico. 

They'll all speak Spanish, and I think that's awesome!  

Eric, Charlie, Teri and Joey

We had a nice weekend. We enjoyed our time with Ken and Jan's family as well. They're always such generous hosts. 

We also bought a few things for baby girl - the biggest being a car seat, the smallest being a picture book of Christ. 

It's crazy to think I'm almost into my third trimester!