Women's Conference (plus one man)

I can't even begin to describe how much I love Women's Conference. I love it! Shortly after registration opened up for Women's Conference, I was registered. I was eager to go, not only for the spiritual experiences, but also just for a break. The timing of it was pretty chaotic, just after we moved, but I still wanted to go. My mom had said in years past that she wished she would have gone, so she (finally) decided that she wanted to go too. For some reason, my dad also decided to go. I'm not sure if he just wanted an excuse to travel, or if he was hesitant to send my mom and me on our own, even though traveling alone is not new for me. This year we stayed at Wyview, an apartment complex on the BYU campus. I think Provo is probably my favorite city in Utah because it's so pretty. The pictures I took are just pretty pictures of BYU. It was the coldest it has ever been. It snowed every day!

We flew in to Salt Lake, and headed downtown to eat at Hires Big H. It's one of those restaurants that we have to eat at when we're in Utah. We drove down to Provo and got our first taste of the BYU mint brownie after checking in to our accomodations. My dad actually registered for the first day of classes. I'm not sure how he felt in the sea of thousands of women, but it was a little weird for me at first. He went to all the classes that my mom went to, because I wanted to go to different classes that sounded interesting to me. After the second day, my dad paid for the additional day of classes and he and my mom stuck together. One fabulous thing about my dad going was that on Friday, he skipped the general morning session and went and stood in line for THE class I wanted to go to. When we made it to the building for the class, we were told it was full. My mom was able to sneak us into the room where my dad was waiting with saved seats for us (which we weren't supposed to do, oops). I'm so glad that he did that, because we were able to listen to Katherine Nelson, who played Emma Smith in Legacy and Emma Smith: My Story. She was amazing. We were also able to listen to her sing - beautiful!

The classes that I went to were fantastic. I love going to Women's Conference, being edified and uplifted so much. Growing up I knew that my dad loved my mom. He always was by her side, siding with her, eager to be there for her. Through our trip together, I once again saw the huge amount of love that he has for her. He slept on the floor on a mattress (instead of climbing up on the bunk bed, which I would have done, but he wanted to be in the same room as my mom). He battled all the women there, which can be overwhelming. He went to the classes my mom wanted. While my mom and I went clothes shopping, he patiently waited while we tried on clothes, never looking for anything to buy himself. Not only is my dad a great dad, but he is an extraordinary husband.

Friday night after the conference ended, we headed downtown where we met up with my only two uncles - Uncle Cliff and Mike, along with Aunt Jackie. It was good to see them again. Uncle Mike is hilarious with the faces he makes (too bad I couldn't catch any with the camera).