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| Caleb loves the camera |
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| Caleb loves his new monkey sock hat |
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| Caleb loved the fountains at temple square |
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| Caleb in front of a fountain, and the SLC temple |
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| Caleb loved picking and smelling flowers all around temple square |
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| Travis and Caleb |
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| Travis, Caleb, and I by the statue of Brigham Young, and some beautiful flowers |
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| Travis, Caleb, and I by the SLC temple |
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| Travis, Caleb, and I at the roof restaurant, overlooking the SLC temple |
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| Caleb loved this big, soft chair in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building |
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| Caleb loved playing at this dinosaur playland at the City Creek Mall in SLC, UT, right next to temple square |
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| Caleb loved sitting in these dinosaur eggs |
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| This is what happens when you have five kids and not enough sleep |
It has been an eventful couple of weeks. The biggest things, is that Travis, Caleb, and I went to the Chaplain Conference in SLC for five days, over general conference. We were originally trying to find someone to watch the kids, so I could attend the spouse conference with him, and bring the kids to SLC with us. We couldn't get the childcare worked out, so we invited our babysitter here, to come on vacation with us and then watch the kids while I attended the conference, than the night before it was time to leave, he said he would rather stay at the house with the kids, while Travis and I were gone, and of course we needed to take Caleb with us, since I'm still breastfeeding him. So, just like that, Travis and I got a vacation to ourselves, with Caleb. On Friday, we drove the nine hours to Salt Lake City, and arrived at our hotel just in time to change, and go to the Chaplain's banquet at the Church Office Building in SLC. Caleb did really well, on the drive up, we stopped every couple of hours, and it worked out just fine. The banquet was fun, even though Travis and I took turns following Caleb around, because he would not sit still, or be quiet. At one point, Caleb was transfixed by the special musical number by a chaplain, with a wonderful singing voice, singing "the impossible dream" opera style. When he finished the musical number, Caleb tried to imitate his singing with incredible accuracy, and I had to quickly take him from the room. On Saturday, Travis went to all three General Conference Sessions, and Caleb and I watched from the hotel room. I had the most wonderful spiritual time watching conference. It has been many years, since I have been able to watch conference, without a bunch of children running around. Caleb slept almost all of the first session, and played in the hotel room during most of the second. When Pres. Monson made the announcement about the change in missionary age, I felt an overwhelming testimony that is was from God. It also made me realize, that I now have one year less to prepare Joseph for his mission, and that I could have two missionaries out at a time, for several years, with the closeness in age that my first three children are. In-between the morning and afternoon sessions. We walked to Paradise Bakery for lunch, it is super yummy, I love their turkey/cranberry sand which and strawberry poppyseed salad, and their scrumptious cookies. It took a long time to walk there, but it was good exercise for us. After the afternoon sessions, we had dinner at the macaroni grill, and then we walked Travis to the priesthood session, and then Caleb and I decided to walk over to Deseret Book for the ladies night sale. There was a bunch of ladies lined up outside, to get a free gift. But inside the store wasn't too busy, so since Caleb was asleep in the stroller, we went inside to start shopping. We found lots of good books, but unfortunately as soon as 6pm hit, the store was swamped and it was almost impossible to move through the store with the stroller. Apparently after 6pm everything in the store was 20% off. It took Caleb and I an hour to find the check out line, and check out. Then I followed Caleb around the rest of the City Creek Mall until the priesthood session was over. I needed to go to the bathroom so we found a family restroom, and it had a tiny toilet for toddlers, and as soon I sat down, Caleb ran over to the little toilet, stuck his hand in the toilet bowl, and then stuck it in his mouth. EEEEWWW!! I went inside Macy's to find a warm jacket to buy, because it was cold out, and I didn't have one. Caleb enjoyed going up and down the escalators and playing peek-a-boo in the clothes racks. When I was buying a jacket, Caleb grabbed a chocolate bar, and bit through the foil wrapper, and into the chocolate, so I ended up having to buy that too. We walked over and found Travis after the priesthood session and walked home. We drove over to Wal-mart and bought some cheese and crackers to have for lunch on Sunday, so we didn't have to go out to eat. The Walm-mart in SLC, had a parking garage, and and escalator, it was so weird to see that in a walmart. Sunday, Travis again went to both sessions at the conference center, and Caleb and I stayed at the hotel. This time, we just ate some cheese and crackers in our hotel room for lunch. After the last session of conference, we drove over to Travis's Aunt Nora, and Uncle Nick's house, and had a delicious dinner, and got to visit with them, and his Grandma. Travis' sister Maia, and her family came over at the end, on their way home, and we got to say "hi" to them for a few minutes. Caleb was showing off, and singing, and being really cute. Unfortunately he also grabbed onto a display tower, and even though I caught the tower before it fell on Caleb, some of the items fell off and broke. We felt really bad about that. Anyway, we went back to our hotel room, and decided to soak in the hot tub. My legs were really sore, from all the walking I'd been doing. We went down to the hotel hot tub, and Travis ended up talking to a lot of people for a long time about Chaplain/gospel stuff, while I chased Caleb around, so we finally got the hotel key from Travis and went back up to the room. I'm learning that as a Chaplain, Travis is going to be counseling people no matter where we go. Monday was the The Chaplain and spouse conference, and my parents were actually going through town and were able to watch Caleb, while I went to the conference for most of the day. It was a really great conference, and I learned about balancing my duties as a chaplain wife, and mother and all my responsibilities, and about relying on the spirit. The rest of the afternoon, Caleb and I wandered around the mall and temple square, until Travis was done. Then we walked around the mall for a while and then went to the roof restaurant on top of the Joseph Smith Building to eat dinner, to celebrate our anniversary (Travis was gone in SC during our anniversary and we hadn't had a chance to celebrate it yet) and Travis' birthday. When we got up there, Travis went to the bathroom, and the waitress seated Caleb and I, and she took us to the Table 2 feet away from where Elder Holland, and his wife and another couple were sitting. I got all nervous, but as soon as Travis got back from the bathroom, he introduced us to Elder Holland and his wife, and we chatted with them, several times throughout the night. Elder Holland was quite taken with Caleb (most people are) and talked to him several times throughout the night, always calling him by name. Caleb was on my lap, and eating a lot of my food, so Elder Holland commented that Caleb was eating more food than I was. And when Travis took Caleb with him to get more food from the buffet, he told me that I better eat quick before Caleb got back. It was a wonderful night, with great food, and great company. Tuesday, I had Caleb, and we had to check out of our hotel, so Travis went to the conference, while Caleb and I packed up and checked out of the hotel, and then walked around temple square and played at the mall play place until Elder Nelson was speaking and the conference, and then I hung out in the mother's lounge with Caleb and listened to Elder Nelson. Then we drove another nine hours home arriving just before 2am. The kids were all in one piece, and the house looked like it had been lived in for 5 days with no cleaning, and no dishes being done. So we spent the next several days cleaning the house up, and I made Travis' traditional 6 layer cake. Travis and I went to Fondue restaurant for his birthday, which was really delicious and really fun, then we came home and sang happy birthday to him, and ate cake. I gave him a massage mat that you put on a chair, I think he likes it.
