General Conference

I took a walk to the beach this morning. This shrub lines the south side of the Newport Coast Drive, and it smelled so pretty. I picked myself a small bouquet to enjoy today. 

I'm also challenging myself to a little contest, to see: "I lived 20 min from the beach, would go to the beach every day?" If the answer is "yes" then I have permission to move to a home 20 minutes from the beach. :) So I'm going to test myself. I bet I can do it! I like Crystal Cove and I like the ocean. 

So I enjoyed some solitude and quiet this morning, then came to my fun kids. 

Haha, Katharine was taking photos of them. 

They're awake and ready for fun! But today - the fun is listening to General Conference

It's not the most exciting activity, but they know it's good for our souls. I'm not sure how much they got out of it, but I enjoyed it. We did better listening today than we did yesterday. And Corey and I caught up a little bit too on the messages we missed yesterday. And we did really good in the last session, where it helped that Corey had a container of peanut MnM's that he passed out after each speaker. 

"Good job listening. What did they say?" "Jesus!" said Katharine. Good job.

Peter got one right. Looks like Owen missed out this round.

I was touched when President Nelson came on the screen for the last message of conference. He spoke on Confidence in the Presence of God., but what left the deepest impression upon me was just seeing him there looking so different than he has the past 4 decades. Just like all the apostles we've listened to and grown to love, and like every prophet who has served before him, we are seeing President Nelson age before our eyes, even as he seemed almost apologetic that his eyes are failing him. What a sweet humble servant of God.  

He is giving his life to God as he spends his life in service to all of us. They are not in this for power or money, as I hear many critics claim. I know they are simply trying to follow God and serve him, come what may. I look forward to listening to these messages again on our drive home. 

We had a BBQ with the Felix's after. Hamburgers and hot dogs, watermelon and ice cream sandwiches. Peter started talking to Sister Felix about Anacondas, and she was such a good listener and totally engaged with him, so much that he ran back to our room so he could put on his lizard pjs and be an anaconda in the bushes.

While they visited, I ended up following Katharine around. K checking out the surfboard.

I agree with Hyrum, who commented after seeing this photo - "That pose is legit." 

Then we watched the sun set from the lobby balcony. 

K found a bunny rabbit - do you see it by the far light post?

Peter said he wouldn't eat it (even though he is a hungry anaconda). Back at the room, our kids and the Felix kids came and played card games and ate ice cream sandwiches.

I got the little kids ready for bed, unless they collapsed before I was able to. It was a long day for this toddler!

More fun coming tomorrow with a boat trip to go whale watching and then hanging at the resort and having fun at the pool.