September 29th - October 2nd
Several weeks ago our Stake President called me and asked if we could use 4 tickets to General Conference. Someone had returned 4 tickets to him that they wouldn't be able to use after all. Since General Conference tickets are kind-of hard to get, I said, "Sure!"
So we took a little trip up to Utah. We arrived Thursday afternoon, and hung out with Grandpa Packard for the rest of that day. Friday, we took the kids to our alma mater, Brigham Young University and walked around campus through some of the cooler buildings that have fun stuff to look at.
Here we are in front of the Maeser Building with the statue of Karl Maeser. He was president for 16 years of Brigham Young Academy which later became Brigham Young University.
The BYU Honor Code received its name because of this quote by Karl Maeser: "I have been asked what I mean by 'word of honor.' I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls--walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground--there is a possibility that in some way or another I may escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of the circle? No. Never! I'd die first!"
Arthur got a kick out of this:
This giant pendulum is in the Eyring Science Building, and the sign reads:
CAUTION
Do not touch the pendulum ball or cable
10,000 Ohms.
Truthfully, I had no idea what an ohm was, so I was glad that Dallin asked. Arthur explained what it was, and I can't even remember what he said, so I looked up this definition on Wikipedia: "The ohm is defined as a resistance between two points of a conductor when a constant potential difference of 1 volt, applied to these points, produces in the conductor a current of 1 ampere, the conductor not being the seat of any electromotive force."
If that made sense to you, you are a nerd. Or just a lot smarter than I am. Basically what Arthur told us is that an ohm won't hurt anyone. They just don't want anyone touching the pendulum and messing up its perpetual motion. Good thing our kids have a such a wonderful, nerdy, father who can tell them it's not actually dangerous to touch something with 10,000 Ohms. :)
After all that walking around, we definitely needed some sustenance.
So we took the kids to the BYU Creamery for burgers, fries and ice cream.
mmm, mmm, that ice cream is so delicious!
While the younger kids stayed with my awesome cousin Kendyl, Arthur and I took Dallin & Daphne to the BYU/Utah State game in Provo that night. It's the first time they've been to a BYU game when they weren't in the minority. They are used to cheering for BYU in a crowd of Red Lobos (that's a nasty bunch) or amidst the more polite Air Force Falcons. So I think it was fun for them to cheer for the Cougars in a stadium full of Cougars. But just to make them feel more at home, we sat in front of a couple of pretty obnoxious Aggies, who loudly jeered whenever BYU had an unfortunate fumble/interception/etc, and would say stuff like, "I thought your motto was RISE UP!"
At half time, I was thinking that I couldn't believe we wasted $40 a pop on those tickets. But after they put Nelson in, I changed my tune. There was a new energy in the stadium and a hopefulness for the offense that had definitely been missing during the first half.
As it turns out, that was a great game to have tickets to, because of that winning touchdown in the final seconds of the game. Wahoo!! What now, obnoxious Aggie? (Oh, that's right, he'd already left . . . )
And here are all the fans rushing onto the field:
Our seats were too high up for us to rush, so we just took pictures.
The next day we got to take Dallin & Daphne to the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. It was a beautiful, sunny, HOT day. We arrived early to get into our seats 30 minutes before conference started, as it requests on the back of the conference ticket, but they don't tell you on the tickets that in order to be in your seat 30 minutes early, you should arrive at the conference center an hour before that. We stood outside waiting and sweating for 40 minutes before we made it through the security lines, and Daphne the whole time was telling us how badly she needed to go to the bathroom! When it was all said and done, we ended up getting into our seats 10 minutes late. I felt rather flustered.
Word to the wise: if you are ever planning on going to a session of conference at the conference center, don't forget to factor in time for the security line! (and if you have a Daphne, make sure she finds a bathroom somewhere before you get in line!!!)
Once we got inside, it really was nice and we enjoyed all the talks and felt the spirit together. We walked through Temple Square on our way back to the car and showed the kids the Tabernacle, and the Salt Lake Temple which they've seen in the movie "Mountain of the Lord." It ended up being a beautiful day.
Pictures on Temple Square
That night we all got together at Aunt Melody's for ice cream, games and visiting. Our kids had blast with my cousins (yes, I have cousins the same age as my kids). Hayden was reveling in his new-found popularity with the teenage girl cousins, saying stuff like, "Hey guyth, watch thith awthome trick." (The awesome trick being either the "eyebrow trick" or the "crossing-his-eyes" trick, both of which were received with lots of laughter and attention. He ate it up. . . oh that boy.)
Sunday we headed home so I could make it back in time to direct the first Stake Choir rehearsal for our Christmas Concert this year. We thoroughly enjoyed the time we got to spend with Grandpa Packard and some of my Aunts and Uncles who either live there or who came in for the game and conference. And now the kids are all pumped up to work hard in school so they can go to BYU when they grow up. In fact, the other night Hayden said at the dinner table, "When I am a Dad, can I be a nerd too?"
