house guests and open houses

This week, Sam's mom has been visiting us. Guess what that means? Free babysitter! Date nights galore! I even took a nap the other day, and ran errands without a baby in tow. As it turns out, one can successfully make it in and out of the library in two minutes flat if one does not have a baby to buckle, unbuckle, and carry. Claire has been so spoiled this week with constant attention from her grandma. And I mean constant. When Grandma took a shower this morning, Claire literally sat outside the bathroom door the whole time, waiting to be played with some more. :) It's going to be one sad day for all of us when Grandma has to go home!

We were able to reserve Payson temple open house tickets at the last minute. You guys. It's a gigantic temple, and so beautiful. It was crowded when we went, but still worth it! Basically I walked through the whole thing with my jaw hanging open. So many incredibly beautiful details. And colors! I loved all the floral prints and dark wood paneling. (To learn more about LDS temples or get tickets to tour the Payson temple while it's still open to the public, click here.) We started calling the Great and Spacious Temple.

 Look! I found Sierra!

And on the way home, we stopped at Cafe Rio for dinner. It's really hard to have a bad evening when Cafe Rio is involved.

when in Salt Lake

Lately, I've been taking every chance I have to spend time with my family. I think it's because I'm moving away soon, and it makes me sad to think I'll be 700 miles away from them. Or maybe because they're the only ones who see how weird I am, and they have no choice but to stick with me anyway! ;)

Whatever the reason, I had the most wonderful girls night last week! Krysti got tickets to the Women's Meeting, and all the girls went (except Meghan and Ellie, whom we dearly missed!). We even had a cousin, an aunt, and a grandma come too. 

Our first stop was The Garden in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I had never been there, and it was so delicious! Such a fun atmosphere too, with the uncovered roof and the most delicious raspberry chicken salad and hot bread. Already dreaming of eating that bread again.

^^Such a fun atmosphere with the retractable open roof and the festive decorations.

And talk about a view out the window!

Then we took some pictures on the way to Women's Meeting. The weather was gorgeous, and I have some pretty photogenic family members, if I do say so myself. 

The Women's Meeting was wonderful. It left me feeling inspired to try a little harder to be a little better. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the evening:

"Let us help build the kingdom of God by standing up boldly and being defenders of marriage, parenthood and the home." Bonnie Oscarson

On the way home, we ran into some pretty epic traffic, which calls for one thing - a pretty epic car dance party! I sure love these women. Thank you Krysti for putting the evening together!