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Two Practically Perfect Weekends

Last weekend Destry and I made a trip to Panguitch to hear Claudia speak in stake conference.  Since she was speaking on Saturday, our plan was to leave on Saturday in time to get to the conference then get up early on Sunday and head home to get our minions ready for church on Sunday.  My mom was not available to stay with the kids Saturday night, but Erika was.  However, the more we thought about it and looked at the calendar, we decided to ask my mom to stay on Friday night and leave on Friday afternoon and make a weekend trip out of it.  That is what we did. 

We had a lovely ride.  We talked and enjoyed the sagebrush sights along the freeway.  We stopped for dinner when we were hungry and didn't make any other stops along the way.  We enjoyed a visit with Leon and a good night's sleep.  On Saturday, Claudia and I went to a craft fair and got a couple of ideas for our men to do.  Then Destry and I went on a ride in the Saturn Sky with the top down.  It was a perfect fall day!  There are some beautiful places in the Panguitch vicinity.  When we returned,  Claudia had already gone to Circleville to prepare and serve a meal to the Priesthood brethren who came for a stake Priesthood meeting prior to the evening adult session of stake conference.  We got to eat when we got there--funeral potatoes, my favorite.  

The meeting was wonderful and spirit-filled.  Claudia did an amazing job and it meant a lot to her that we were there.  I am so glad we were.  All of us were blessed!  She has such a strong testimony and loves the temple.  She is patiently waiting for Leon to be ready to make temple covenants.  I think he is getting closer.  We enjoyed an 82 stake broadcast from Salt Lake on Sunday.  Mom had dinner ready for us and the rest of the Smith gang when we got home.  

The kids and the babysitters did well while we were gone.  I only had one sheet of instructions and the four older kids were each assigned one meal to prepare and clean up while we were gone.  Even Erika said that my kids have become pretty self-sufficient.  She just had to keep people moving along.  Taylor didn't feel well on Sunday, but other than that the weekend was uneventful.  

I got to spend a lot of time with Destry this weekend as well.  On Saturday, we did some deep cleaning and rearranging of bedroom furniture in the kids' rooms.  Then we went to Emma's basketball game.  She did a great job and even made a basket.  Then we went to the temple.  It was the first time Destry had seen the new film.  It is amazing.  I have gained a greater insight from watching the newest film.  We cam back, organized the kids a bit then went to stake conference.  It was again, wonderful.  We all went to stake conference on Sunday.  It is getting easier to enjoy conference; although, it was the older kids that were the most distracting today.  

The "practically perfectly" part came after church when Spencer tried his hand at making scone dough without any supervision.  I was taking a nap and Destry told him not to bother me.  That was a perfect part, the practically part came in the form of flour covering my kitchen, dough that was too sticky and grease staining my lovely pans.  Spencer did some of the cleaning up, I helped with the cooking and rolling and adding more flour to the dough.  Taylor made the honey butter.  We got a repeat of the cooking part for breakfast the next day.  It made another mess that I cleaned up in its entirety and we learned thanks to Taylor that when you heat the honey to its boiling point then add the butter, the butter melts and floats on top of the honey without really getting mixed in.  I really dislike frying foods.  It makes a mess not to mention it is not the most healthy thing you could eat.  I am glad Spencer wants to cook, he will just have to wait until he moves out to be able to make scones again.

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