Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Trip to the USA

On September 28th Elle and I finally left on our trip to The U.S.A!  We flew out at 10:30 at night and were so happy to find that no-one was sitting next to us on the plane which meant I got a great nights sleep stretched out on the seats while Elle stayed up watching movies.  Once we got to LAX we had a 5 hour layover and then we were winging our way to Salt Lake City, Utah to meet Mum and Dad.  It was great to be with them again and we talked for a few hours before hitting the sack for the night.

Thanks Mum and Dad for the matching pj's
 The next day we walked up to Smiths supermarket with Mum and then spent the rest of the day at the Gateway Mall while mum and dad went to meetings.  That night we went out for dinner, had a little look around the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and went shopping at our favourite U.S Store: Walmart

Joseph Smith Memorial Building
Elle got tired so Grandpa pushed her in the trolley
On Friday we did more shopping at The Brickyard which had some more of our favourite stores - Ross, Khols and TJ Maxx.  We shopped all day until Mum & Dad came back to pick us up, and then we shopped some more! 


Ross, oh how I've missed you!
Saturday was General Conference so we were up early to get to the Conference Centre.  It was awesome to finally attend a live session of General Conference - and even more awesome to be there and see Dad sitting on the stand.  We had a quick picnic lunch afterwards and then met the family who had come to listen to Dad speak.

Waiting for Conference to start
Elle & Dad
Lunch between sessions - I'm surprised Dad could even eat knowing he was speaking soon!
Family photo after conference
That night Dad & Wade went to the Priesthood Session while we hung out with Jess and the kids.  We had dinner, went to the Deseret Book 'Ladies Night' and visited the Church History Museum.

We're pioneers
Sunday was a busy day.  After breakfast we headed to the conference centre for Music and the Spoken Word and then conference.  In between sessions we got to go through the underground tunnel on the church golf carts to the Church Office Building for lunch.  It was awesome! 
Salt Lake Temple
After the Sunday Afternoon Session we headed down to Provo to visit cousin Kim!  It was so good to see her and to hear of the awesome time she was having at the MTC.  She will be a great missionary.

All pointing to where we live
Next we headed to Orem to have dinner with our good friend Gil Elegante.  She put on a beautiful meal for us and we had a great time reminising for a few hours with her.


The next few days weren't so busy for Mum & Dad so we got to hang out with them a bit more.  The highlight was definitely Tuesday when we went to the Temple to do baptisms.  Elle was able to baptised for a family name she found herself.  It was a really special experience followed but lunch at the General Authorities lunch room where Elle got to meet the Prophet!  She even got a hug.  We also went for some lovely (albeit adventurous) morning walks, went shopping, ate too much and then it was sadly time for Mum and Dad to go back to the Philippines.  The week went by too fast but we had the best time together.

Park City

Before Temple Baptisms

Cheesecake at Olive Garden
We had 5 more days after Mum & Dad left.  We spent the first night at Tracy's and then went to Wade's for a couple of days.  We had a great time hanging out, eating too much (again - who can resist a 59cent donut), shopping and carving pumpkins! 


On Saturday it was in the high 20's, on Thursday it snowed!

Pumpkin Patch in Logan

Elle's jack-o-lantern


Then it was back to Tracys for a family dinner, last minute shopping and lunch at Aunty Judiths.  We stayed our last night at Aunty Judiths house and she dropped us to the airport.  30 hours later we were finally home.  We had a great trip but it was good to be home with the boys.

3 comments:

Paula said...

We did have a great time didn't we! Thanks for a great trip down memory lane Lian.

Crystal said...

your trip certainly looks awesome, and i cant believe you got the best of both worlds in 2 short weeks; hot summer sun and snow fall! Looking forward to when I get to go, although i doubt i will find the bargains like you. You are like a trained beagle dog, sniffing out the shopping deals.

Ricky and Chantel Suaava said...

hi, brother warwick was one of my fav teachers at ccnz. tell him i said hi, he probably dosnet remember me but hi anyways love your blog!