Conference 2024

A couple of months ago they announced in church that conference tickets were available if anyone wanted them.  I thought to myself, 'we should go again sometime'. Just as Dave turned to me and said, "we should go."  We both kinda laughed and went on with church.  That afternoon he had meetings and I started browsing, just out of curiosity, how much it would be to fly rather than drive and hotels.  It really wasn't to bad.  After his meeting I told Dave what I had found out.  He got tickets from the stake and just like that we were going to conference.  We left on the Friday and my only stipulation was that we had to be back across the border by the time Blake might call.  It was a beautiful short flight.  Dave decided that we are never driving to Utah again, this was so fast, even with the drive to the airport.

Taylor picked us up and took us to our hotel.  We had free shuttle, but it was the only time we were going to be able to see him that weekend.  I had got a place that was only a 20 min walk from the conference center.  And later found out that we were in the free Trax zone also.  The Trax was only 2 blocks from our hotel.  We checked in and then walked to Nacho Daddy, which Cora had recommended.  It was really good.  

Then continued on to temple square.  We walked around for a few hours looking at the buildings and some museums.  We went and sat in the Tabernacle to get out of the heat.  Years ago when we took the kids we had discovered that at the Tabernacle there was a standby line to get into the conference center with overflow seats.  Last time we missed getting in by 2 rows.  But when we asked a senior sister missionary working in the Tabernacle told us that they were not doing that and that we also needed a ticket for the Tabernacle and that they no longer had speakers outside to listen.  We were disappointed because we had planned to spend the whole weekend on temple square, but that wasn't going to work if we couldn't even listen to it.  Next we hopped on the Trax to the Delta Center to watch the Jazz play.  It was a fun game.  So much going on and things to watch.  People watch, fun half time shows with these little 3-4 yr old kids etc.   We got a hotdog there from Dawg, which Tay recommended.  He told me the secret order ;), for hotdogs it was pretty good. 

 Our seats were on the side behind the basket.  When the opposing team was shooting they passed out bangers for us all.  That made the game even more fun.  

After the game we took  Trax back to the hotel.  Saturday we had breakfast and got ready, but were in no hurry.  We had afternoon tickets.  Decided to walk to the bakery that Kita has told us about and get a few things for our conference snack.  It was a good long walk.  Through some sketchy areas and a few beautiful buildings. 

Back at the hotel we watched the first session, had a snack for lunch then got on the Trax.  We still were not totally convinced with the info we had been given and wanted to check it our for ourselves.  Good thing we did.  You can totally do standby in Tabernacle for Conference Center.  So we made a plan to get up early Sunday and get in line. Then went to our session.  The kids choir was so good.  And it was fun to watch all the behind the scenes going on with them and all the speakers. All the session were great.  That is almost all Blake wanted to talk about when he called Monday. After the afternoon session we went to the Church History Museum and then to Seven Brothers.  Another recommendation from Kita.  We had great food ideas given to us for the weekend and we were thankful. This was a really good burger place.  I would have like to go again and try a salad they had. Looked really good.

Back on Trax and to the hotel to watch evening session.  Then a soak in the hot tub, watched a Forensic Files and sleep.  We wanted to be in line very early for the Tabernacle.  We were at breakfast right when it opened at 7 and walked to the Trax.  In hindsight we should have just walked to temple square.  All weekend the Trax had been coming 7 mins apart, Sunday was apparently 20 mins.  We saw the train pull away as we were crossing the street but were not concerned thinking another was coming right away.  We finally got on train, rode to temple square and got in an already long line.  Again we missed conference center by 2 rows.  Dave has made a list of conference hacks that we will remember for next time. It was fun all weekend to have strangers walk up to you and just assume you were going to conference.  Any white shirt and dress, they would talk to you and ask what session you were going to or say see you up there with out even asking where you were going.  I loved it. 

It was still neat to watch in the Tabernacle.  I needed to use the bathroom as the first session was ending, so I told Dave I would slip out during closing song and go get in line for afternoon session.  We decided to try one more time.  But when I got out there it was way longer than the morning, so we just walked back to the hotel.  We got an Uber and went to Texas Roadhouse, one of Dave's favorites.  We thought lunch would be better than dinner since we knew I would have left overs we could eat for dinner.  Uber back and final session watched at hotel.  Monday was up very early and caught the Trax to the airport.  Apparently the free shuttle was not available, which was fine, the Trax was easy and cheap. We made it back through the border half hour before Blake called.  So we just pulled over and had a great chat with him. It was so fun to see how much our kids enjoyed conference and to discuss the different talks and what they got out of it.  Another quick trip.  Very nice to get away.  We walked for miles, spent time away from phones, heard inspiring uplifting messages and had a wonderful time.