Having Fun in Salt Lake City

While Kristie was here visiting, she really wanted to visit Temple Square. I was excited to be able to tag along with her and her mom. Today was Easton's birthday, September 14th, 2010, so we had a mom and son date and had tons of fun! We parked under the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, so we started off there and then headed to the Beehive House to take a tour. These pictures were taken outside the Beehive House and the Lion House is the building that is in the pictures.



The Beehive House is beautiful inside and there was a lot to see and hear about. We ended up on a tour with some people that didn't speak much English, so it was a very simplified tour. We would have love to have heard more details, but it was still fun and interesting. This is Easton in the family store and a picture of a room where the family did a lot of entertaining.

Kristie, Easton and I on the steps of the Beehive House.



We walked over to the Temple through all of the beautiful gardens. It was such a nice day. The gardens were amazing and the Temple is always such a gorgeous sight. Even though Easton doesn't look to thrilled to be on a birthday date with his mom, he really was having tons of fun!



Easton LOVES Temples, so he was happy to sit and look at the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. We love to sing the primary song, "I Love to see the Temple" and he thinks that all castles and some churches are Temples. He is such a sweet boy! I love him so much!





Easton enjoyed putting his toes in the water. He thought it was pretty cool! He had shoes on for the first part of our tourist adventures, but then was complaining that his shoes hurt. I guess they were too small and they were hurting his cute feet. Well, I didn't know what to do other than take them off and let him go bare foot the rest of the day. Luckily he spent most of the time in a stroller, so it didn't matter too much.



We headed to the South Visitor's Center and on the way we stopped to see this fountain on the Temple grounds. I have always thought that it looked like an upside down turtle shell. Too funny! Easton loved watching the water spill over the edges.





It was fun touring around Temple Square with Kristie and her mom. Kristie is a member of the church, but her mom is not. It was fun to see Temple Square through the eyes of someone that is not LDS. I loved every minute of our time there. We went inside the Assembly Hall. The details never cease to amaze. It was beautiful. Don't you just love Easton packing around his new birthday toys. He couldn't set Woody or Dinoco Lightening McQueen down. They needed to take all the tours with us too. ;)



We went inside the Tabernacle also and had some sister missionaries give us the tour. They told us so many interesting things. It was fun to listen to the history of the building. I could have listened to all the stories, history and details all day. It was so interesting.



We then headed over to the North Visitor's Center so that we could go and see the beautiful Christus Statue. Easton loved seeing Jesus. I enjoyed the spirit that I felt and loved being there with my sweet son and best friend. What a special day.



Easton was so good during our adventures. He just makes my heart so happy. I'm glad that we could have such a fun day together.



Best Friends! Love you Kristie! :D



We were excited to head across the street and tour the Conference Center. It is such an amazing and huge building. We just took a quick tour because we were running out of time. We were able to see the main auditorium where conference is held. It is a massive 21,000 seat auditorium. They were actually setting up for conference while we were there. It takes quite a bit of time to prepare the auditorium for the different events that are held there. We also saw a lot of artwork as we walked the halls. Every piece of art in the Conference Center is the original artwork. The paintings are so gorgeous. I loved looking at the huge paintings as we working our way up to the gardens on the roof. There was one bronze statue that really stands out in my mind and I feel that it is worth writing about so that I will always remember. It was a depiction of the first vision. Joseph Smith is kneeling on the ground before our Savior and Heavenly Father. The statue was on a revolving platform and as you turn it around you can see that Heavenly Father has his arm around His Son and for some reason that really got to me. I felt the spirit so strong and couldn't help but get teary eyed. It just reminded me how real our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are. They truly have a special relationship with one another and they love each of us so much. It made me think of how loving our relationships should be with each and every one of our own family members. It was so beautiful.



The view from the rooftop gardens was beautiful. There are 4 acres of gardens on top of the Conference Center. Pretty amazing. The water features were not running today and there was some sand blasting going on, so we were not able to see the gardens in all their beauty, but it was still neat.

We finished up our day by eating at The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It has such a gorgeous view of Temple square. The atmosphere is wonderful and so is the food. We had a fun time chatting and enjoying one another's company. I am so glad that Kristie and her mom could come and visit. I am so happy that I could spend the day with them today. If only it could have been longer, but I will definitely take what I can get! After we ate, we headed up to Park City to drop Kristie and her mom off to spend a little time with Kristie's sister who was there for her work conferences. It was raining on our drive there and by the time I was dropping them off it was pouring. It actually worked out for the best, because it was a really fast drop off. We said our goodbye's with quick hugs in the car and that was it. I didn't have time to get emotional and think too much about how long it would be until I see Kristie again. She is truly like a sister to me and it is tough living so far away from her. I loved having her live two doors down. We spent a lot of time together and we were able to be completely ourselves and we loved each other for that. What a great few days! I'm so grateful to have had that time together. Love ya tons and miss you Kristie!!