Conference Weekend

We have just enjoyed two days of LDS General Conference.  It is always a treat to listen to inspired messages from our prophets, apostles, and leaders.  It is NOT always a treat to make our children sit still for eight hours of church meetings over two days, even though we have the luxury of watching Conference broadcasts from the couch at home.  This weekend, however, was pretty low-key!  I was impressed at the kids' willingness to engage in relatively quiet activities while we listened to the Conference messages.  I heard just enough from each session to be very excited to study the talks when they are published next month.

Here are a few images from our weekend.  I'm working with a new blog editor and getting a little frustrated...hopefully the picture portion will cooperate!

This was my attitude going into the first session on Saturday morning:

relax and enjoy. (Note: this is always Garry's attitude.)

Gavin and Lexi played with puzzles.

Zach and Tyler spent some time drawing, and later they built block structures.

The one below is the boys' finest creation: a double robot.

There was also a lot of jumping on the Best Birthday Present EVER.

During the afternoon session, Zach was at a birthday party

and the Littles were napping.

Tyler played with Legos for two hours!

On Conference Sunday morning, Garry always makes crepes for breakfast.

Because we almost always eat cereal on the other days,

it's hard to wait for such yummy food to cook.

My favorite crepe toppings are bananas and Nutella.

Everyone else likes strawberry jam and whipped cream,

or some combination of these ingredients.

Tyler woke up with some pretty wacky bedhead

(he works hard to make this happen).

During the morning session today, we broke out some toys

we haven't used in a long time.

Many moons ago, Garry cut PVC pipes into various lengths

and bought lots of connectors.

The kids had SO much fun with them today!

Lexi stayed busy for a long time by rolling marbles down that long tube.

And this is typical Zach.  For a while he and I were tossing a football across the room.  I heard lots of great things while we were playing catch!  Then he and Gavin played catch.  We had a great time.

The Littles napped during the afternoon session again,

so that block of time was much quieter.

I got to listen to the talks more closely and take a few more notes.

The boys eventually played chess.

All in all, I don't think we had any grand revelations during Conference time.

But I think we had the best family experience

during Conference time that we've ever had.

Everyone was happy and mostly getting along.

We laughed and played together.

Definitely a "wholesome recreation" kind of day.