Easton's Birthday and General Conference

Logan went to Easton's birthday party at Jungle Jim's in Midvale. It was a bit run down on the inside, but the kids had tons of fun! It was a family party so it was Easton's family, Gage's family, and Logan and I who were there (Kylie was sick so Nate took her home). They had fair type rides, so a few spinning rides, bumper cars, blow up slides/obstacle courses, and one called a roller coaster but really it just went in a circle really fast and went up and down. Logan's favorite thing were the bumper cars. He did that over and over again. I think he just liked being able to drive himself. They also had an arcade and that is where the older kids spent most of their time. I didn't have Logan do those because I would've had to pay extra and he was perfectly content doing the other rides.

This was the "rollercoaster." I thought i had taken other pictures, but apparently not.

Thursday was the annual mission reunion with Elder Stevenson (Nate's old mission president). It's pretty cool that he is now an apostle. He talked about their recent trip to Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, and Tahiti. He talked about President Monson's health. Apparently he still meets with the first presidency often but at his house and only for short periods of time. He also told a story of how before last conference he couldn't stand for more than 2 minutes at a time because of extreme back pain. He didn't want to have the pulpit come to his chair as they did for President Packer. He didn't want to sit on a stool as Elder Hales had to do. He didn't want to be seen as being weak or old since he is supposed to be one of the young apostles! So he got a blessing from President Nelson and was able to stand for the whole talk as well as the rest hymn before his talk. After the conference, he crashed though and had to have back surgery and seems to be doing better.

This weekend was General Conference. The talks were great as always. We went to my parents' house in American Fork. We had to go between sessions on Saturday because Logan had a soccer game at 11:30 am. Unfortunately that means we had to miss half the first session. I'm glad I can read those talks later. Also because I really struggled to pay attention and to stay awake this time. I don't know if it is because I'm pregnant, or because I'm working, but I was so exhausted. Elder Hales died between the Sunday sessions. He has not been doing well for a long time. He was in the hospital and we knew he wouldn't be speaking this conference. President Nelson felt inspired to go to his bedside at the conclusion (or maybe a little before the conclusion of the Sunday morning session) and along with Elder Hales family, was at Elder Hales side when he died. Elder Anderson was the concluding speaker and he read a few lines from the talk that Elder Hales would have given had he been able to.

Not sure why Logan is in the dryer. He probably just wanted a picture. Silly kid!