Day 2 in Utah

 We visited the visitors centers today and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  We watched the movie about Joseph Smith and the early saints and we felt the importance of sharing the gospel.  I really do love being here with my family.

These 3 make my world go round.

 We always ate at the Garden at the top of the JSMB and had my favorite, fried pickles.  Best fried pickles ever.

And we tool a new familysearch picture.

SLC has so many fun things to do and Jason and I are happy we were able to take this trip with the kids.  This trip was a great way to end 2013 together.

First Night

Downtown Salt Lake had a big celebration going on from the Dec. 30th-Jan. 1st to celebrate the new year.  Our hotel gave us passes so we could go and enjoy the festivities at the Salt Palace.

The first place we came across was a room full of glow in the dark hula hoops.

There are no words for how fun the glow in the dark hula hoops were. All I have to say is we need to get some.  And, when was the last time you used a hula hoop?  It's a lot harder than I remember.

Next:

Comic Con.

I didn't even know what ComicCon was but it was great!

Look for yourself!
Darth Vador

 Professor Sprout

 Professor Snape

 Gandalf

 Princess Elsa

 Spiderman

 Chewbacca

 Me and him

 Captain America

 Thor

Seriously, how great is this?  We all loved it.
Lastly we found a room with hundreds of of beach ball to run thru, kick, and throw.  It was crazy in there.  Complete chaos.  I may have taken a beach ball to the face kicked by my loving husband.

 After a late night swim in the pool the kids were o.u.t.!

Who can blame them?  It was a great day.

The reason for our visit

The reason Jason and I chose SLC as our quick trip destination is so that could go to Temple Square and see the lights.  It is such a beautiful place.

 We enjoyed walking around Temple Square with the kids and taking in all the pretty sights and the feeling that is there.

 Family selfie

 One of my favorite family pictures of us ever.

 We sat an listened to a group perform Peter and the Wolf.  So fun. 

 It was chilly. Really chilly but who cares?  We were having fun!

We found an empty banquet room at the top of the Joesph Smith Memorial Building and enjoyed the view and warming up a bit.

We love Temple Square at Christmastime.

Dinner date

We met up with the Kongaika's for dinner, dessert and FUN!

 We love getting to spend time with friends from our olden days and see how time has made us grow. Look at all these cute kids!

 Meilani even gave me a copy of her new book:

If you know anyone is the SLC area this is the book to have.

Thanks for the dinner date Kongaika's.  We loved seeing you!

Great-grandpa VanDenBreghe

We were fortunate to go and find my great-grandparents at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.  These people came to America to be with the saints and I so appreciate all they sacrificed to be here.  Really, I do.  It was nice to take the kids and Jason and "introduce them." Pretty neat experience.

 My kids and there great-great grandparents.

We gave Braley the middle name Johanna because of great-grandpa Tom.  Here they are together.

Next time we are in Utah we will be off to find his house.

This Is The Place

First stop was the This Is The Place Monument.  The kids and I had never seen it so it was on the must-do list.

It's like a mini Sturbridge and really cool.  Most of the buildings were closed but it was still cool to walk around and see the buildings and talk to the kids about the importance of this place.