wish i was there

as you may have noticed, jaime and i text a lot.

yet we really didn't spend a lot of time together, even when i lived in provo.  the one time of the year that we were pretty much guaranteed to see each other was general conference.

this one's my favorite

this will be, i think, the third time in ten years that i haven't gone to salt lake during conference weekend.

i always enjoyed the peripheral traditions surrounding our excursions up there as well: of stopping at mcdonald's with my sister for a mcmuffin and hashbrown before waiting in line early saturday morning, of marching through the streets afterwards, sun or snow, to baba's afghanistani restaurant, and, in subsequent years, to the house of kabob (where they seemed to have only one cook and our group of 10+ overwhelmed them).

or of sustaining the general officers of the church while driving back home down I-15 and watching the other cars to see who else raises their hands.

and the day that we just sat out on temple square and listened to a session on the lawn.
it was an absolute thrill when, 9 1/2 years ago, me and my friend got into the conference center after waiting in a very long line.
yet i made sure to never lose that reverential excitement and i don't think i did.
i will always love standing when the prophet walks into the room; it's one of my favorite experiences with being there (and i will never understand why there were--without fail-- "false alarms" at every session for the past two conferences).

over the years, it kind of became a given that, for one of the sessions, jaime and i would go up together and bask in the awesome gospel sunshine of it all.  it was her comment last september about it being the first time we wouldn't be going together that was the impetus for my trip to slc last october (not that i didn't want to be there, but sometimes a little nudge from a friend helps....)

so, check that off the list of things that i took full advantage of while i had the opportunity.  i'll dearly miss being there at the center of one of the most wonderful times of the year, but i'm even more grateful for the times that we have had.

and i'll be back again some day....

editor's note: our recent postings have consisted largely of pictures.  this is due to our head writer being three inches over his head in schoolwork.  as soon as the semester ends or he flunks out, the usual neurotic writings that brought you here in the first place will be back.
in the meantime, those of you have that must battle small childrens and other variety of offspring in order to read this, consider this short picture posts a break for you.