Our trip to Utah!

This past week we were able to make a little trip up to Utah with my parents. And we are glad that we were able to do it. Justin has never been to Utah and so he was looking forward to seeing all the sites at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. And I was also looking forward to seeing it all since it had been awhile since I had been there. I think my dad was happy for us to go so that he could talk all about the church history that he knows to someone who hasn't heard it all. That person being Justin of course. :) Our first stop on the way there was in Manti. We got to see the Temple there and it sure is a pretty one. We were just hoping we could do a session there but weren't able to since it was a Monday. Oh well just seeing it was great! Hopefully we will get back up there to see the Manti pageant soon too. My parents were a little worried about how Ryken would do on such a long trip in the car. But he did really good much to all of our surprise. He even got to have his first real tastes of an ice cream cone. And boy did he like it. We of course had lots of books and toys to entertain him but I think he just really enjoyed getting to spend some time with his Grandma and Grandpa Baker.

Our next stop was to meet up with some of my cousins that live in Provo. Stephanie and Darbie were nice enough to make us all dinner that night. On short notice even. ( Thanks again gals it was delicious.) So while we were there we got to see them and their hubbies and even better their adorable little kids. We had lots of fun catching up on stuff and just getting to visit since we don't get to see them all that much. Darbie's little guy Jay was lots of fun to talk to since he had learned all of our names. He is one smart little cookie! I wish he could rub off on Ryken. He was trying to teach Ryken the correct way to crawl but it didn't really work, he is still worming it around.

Here is Jay trying to show Ryken how to work the bubble gum machine. They sure played nice together. :) To bad we didn't all live closer so they could play more often.

On Tuesday we decided to make the short trip to Bountiful to see the Temple there. Of course the day before was such a nice day and then the rest of the days that we were there the days were COLD! On the way up to the Temple it started to snow on us.

We were really only able to get a picture of the Temple and my dad was the only one that wanted to get out in the snow. When we left the Temple the tempeture on my dads truck said 33 degrees. So it was cold and windy.

Later that day we went to the church history muesuem. It was really fun and educational to go thru there. Its always fun to get to learn more about the church and find out things that you never really knew about the church, the pioneers and the late Prophets.

Ryken even got to sit in the replica of the bunk beds that the saints slept in on the ships. He sure thought it was lots of fun. :)

We also were able to meet up with my Aunt Wendy and her daughters to do dinner. It was fun to catch up with all of them too. Since again we don't get to see them much either. Thanks again aunt Wendy for dinner. :)

Wednesday my cousins Stephanie and Darbie were nice enough to come in to Salt Lake City and watch Ryken for us so that we could go to the Salt Lake City Temple and do a session. It was such a great experience to attend that Temple. We hope to get back to do it again. Thanks for helping us out again Steph and Darbie. We owe you. :) We also got to go see the Brigham Young's house that is now called the Beehive house. We really enjoyed getting to be in there and see all the thing in the house that were Brigham Young's and to learn new things about him and his family. It was once again really cold that night but Ryken was such a trooper and stuck it out with us.

See his little red nose? Oh and I swear he has pants on they are not shorts, they just look it with the way he is sitting. :) But hey he is still smiling.

Finally on Thursday we got to go to the Confrence Center and get a tour of it. WOW is is so much bigger in person. I had been there to tour it before but still you forget how big it is. And we got to see the great view of Temple Square there on the roof.

We were also able to see the new movie about Joseph Smith while we were there on Temple Square . It sure was a tear jerker. It is so hard to watch it and see all the persecussion and hard times that the early saints went thru for the Gospel. But especially Joseph. It makes my testiomony of him grow when I remember all that he went thru to restore the gospel for all of us. We were SO glad that we were able to watch that movie while we were there.

We always like to just get away for a little while from all the stuff we have going on here at home. And this was one of the best ways to do it. We got to learn lots of new and interesting facts about the church and its history. So thanks again MOM and DAD for inviting us to take this little trip with you. We just wish mom could have been there with us for most of this stuff. Sorry you had to work and we got to play. :)