Conference Weekend + Waterton

This weekend has been one of the best weekends EVER!  Truly, it would be hard to beat.   

John has been away at a tournament pretty much all weekend long so the kids and I have tried to keep busy as well.    On Friday evening, after supper, the kids and I headed out to Waterton, stopping once to get ice cream in Mountain View.    I don't know why I always stop for ice cream, because it only ever ends up as melted goey pools at the bottom of every cup holder in our van.  Clearly my kids don't love ice cream enough to actually eat it, but gosh darnit they do love choosing it.     And I'm a sucker for tradition. So ...we stopped.   Flavors were chosen.   Money was wasted.  And we all were happy.

(I'll have to clean the van before John gets home;)

The Autumn colors are beautiful right now in Waterton and I'm afraid the next time we get out there, most of the leaves will have fallen.     The Elk are starting to gather on the flat and it is a Fall tradition of ours (again with the traditions;) to drive out to watch them.   

We've seen some pretty impressive battles before between the males, and there is not a more awesome sound then hearing them bugle!      

Saturday was spent in the laziest way.     With John gone, I took advantage of the solitude and did very little in terms of cooking.  Or..cleaning for that matter;)    We did get out a couple of times during the day to run some necessary errands.   

(And yes, when I am home alone with the kids - a trip to the Dollar Store is definitely considered...NECESSARY!)

   Since buying their "loot" Sam has insisted on shooting anyone he could with his bow and arrow,    Jess has been dazzling us all with her cheap jewelery, and Abby is still wearing the most ridiculous pair of giant sunglasses.    

 A trip to a nearby park was the perfect way to end the day.   (Atleast if you happen to be within the ages of 2-8;)

I spent several hours on Saturday watching the first two sessions of General Conference.   

 I'm pretty sure they were two of the BEST sessions EVER!   

So far, my favorite talks have been:

This one by Elder Arden on becoming the "Masters of our TIME." 

 Definitely Elder Cook's talk about "Looking Up."

And THIS ONE from President Uchdorf. (of course;)  

In about an hour we will all settle down on the couch to watch the final two sessions.   The kids will fight and argue most of the time over who gets which crayon, and they'll require an exorbitant amount of junk food to stay quiet.   John and I will be cuddling on the nearby couch- trying our very best to not doze off due to the cozyness of it all.  

At least, that's how Conference Sunday's have played out in the past.
It's practically tradition!!!!