The Allreds go to Utah

It is official: I am no longer the mormon who hasn’t been to Utah. We flew out after all the crazy winter weather to visit Jacob’s old mission field, South Salt Lake City.
We think his mission has since been divided into three missions which blows my mind because you can see three temples while driving through the area from the interstate. Surely it is mostly LDS and not non-member, right?
But the mountains were beautiful. And the weather was great for early March. I was anxious about the weather since I often seen snow on the tulips in the April General Conference videos and pictures but we had wonderful warm weather, actually too warm for the long sleeves we packed.Jacob wanted to see the new temples that weren’t there when he was serving, Draper and Oquirrh Mountain. And the temple that was around ten years ago, Jordan River, is currently closed for renovations.
We spent a lot of time in Temple Square. I couldn’t get enough of mormon mecca. The church history museum was so so enjoyable. The conference center was breathtaking. And the kids loved looking at the temple and noticing all the details on the windows and walls. Anna and Isaac pointed out all the beehives everywhere. Jacob’s old mission president is now the mission president over Temple Square so all the sister missionaries had to grill Jacob for details of their new leader and the poor guy couldn’t just be another tourist. Jacob even met with his wife for a bit to reminisce and catch up. It was very special. The church history museum was a favorite stop for our family. I loved the art from the international contest. Jacob thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits on the early days of the church. There were beautiful portrayals of the gold plates and hands on learning about the printing process for the first book of mormon, the growth of the church, and miracles at Nauvoo. The kids loved the children’s section. Isaac rode stuffed camels and gathered the sheep into their family. Anna drew us love notes and explored the building supplies.
We went to the Provo City Center Temple open house. I was very excited to show the kids the temple. Anna loved all the beautiful flowers. Isaac was less than excited about wearing booties but got the hang of it. And we thought the dark wood and murals were lovely. Jacob showed us the Provo temple and the field where he ran around while training at the MTC across the street. My family dropped me off at the trax station so I could do a session in Salt Lake while the kids played at the awesomest museum ever made for children in Lehi. I’m afraid we went to the Thanksgiving Point museum of natural curiosity about 3 or 4 times in one vacation. We might be insane but it was very cool. Cooler yet was being able to attend a live session. I had a wonderful time and love my husband for encouraging me to go. We also drove north to the great salt lake. We went to Antelope Island State Park. There we saw buffalo and antelope. One was big and hard to miss, the other so well camoflauged we only noticed them because the two cars in front of us stopped suddenly to take pictures and we slowed down ourselves to rubberneck. The kids loved climbing on the rocks and playing on the beach. I couldn’t get enough of the views. Mountains everywhere, even in this low water area. Just gorgeous. We went to a petting zoo. The kids loved riding the ponies. Isaac was so excited waving to them while waiting. Anna got the tall white one she wanted and they both yeehawed their way around. When I told Isaac his pony was good he reached one hand off the horn and patted the mane saying “good pony.” When it stopped, he screamed “more” and held fast with his thighs. And when we did get him off he waved and said “thank you, bye bye.” He loved greeting all the animals hi! And he and Anna giggled so much when the llama ate out of their hands. We made a ton of kid friendly stops, like at a air force base museum. Where Anna found a helicopter with the nickname of banana. It was made to be. We also had fun at several children’s and natural history museums in the area. The kids took their first trip on the trax system to see around downtown.  One of our last stops was welfare square. It was awesome. Some sweet missionaries from France and Mexico gave us a tour. A cheese-machinary cleaner sprayed his foam at Anna which cracked her up endlessly. I think the church might make the best chocolate milk, the kids definitely thought so. The missionaries were sweet and patiently listened to Anna responding to their questions and sharing the story of the first vision. She’s going to make a good missionary herself one day.I’m so grateful for adventures with my family. We had a really good time everywhere we went (except for church on Sunday when Isaac ruined his outfit before the announcements in Sacrament…really kid?). I really love how much my kids are growing, it was fun to discuss so much about the church with them, and learn a bit more myself. See ya next time Utah!