A wonderful week

I returned Sunday, rest and refreshed, from a trip to Utah to attend BYU Women's Conference. If you didn't go to BYU, you probably have no concept of what this entails. I have vague recollections from back in the day of unwittingly finding myself on campus on one of these days (or similarly, of Education Week in August) and suddenly being swarmed by 20,000 (I'm not exaggerating) women, elbows out, heading for their next class. The BYU Bookstore is overrun, the Cougareat is overrun, and the bathrooms (ah, the bathrooms!!) are completely jam-packed with lines extending around corners and into hallways.

So yes, there were somewhere around 20,000 women on campus Thursday and Friday and this time, for the FIRST time, I was one of them! Though I am not a fan of crowds, and baby-on-the-bladder didn't leave me the option of 'holding it' so I DID have to brave a few long lines for the potty, I still managed to have a glorious time. I attended with my mom and went to all 5 sessions each day. There were beautiful talks about motherhood, prayer, repentance, covenants, and treasuring the scriptures. Most importantly, throughout all of those talks, I was able to feel so close to God and to have multiple experiences of feeling His love for me. Those are sometimes hard to come by in the craziness of raising little ones. My mom was invited to be a presenter this year (she is on the Church's curriculum writing committee) and though she was terrified, she did a beautiful job.

Other bright spots of the weekend included the 3 (baby wanted them) mint brownies I bought from the bookstore, picking up some new clothes at Forever 21 (shopping without kids? Yay!!) and partying it up with my siblings and their babies.

As I debarked the airplane in Fresno, the friend I was with veered off and started talking with an older man who was sitting waiting to get on the plane. I followed her, and as he stood and shook our hands, I realized I was standing face to face with Elder L. Tom Perry, a latter-day apostle of the Lord! We talked with him momentarily (flustered, of course, we botched it and wished mightily for a do-over later) and I left feeling that it was a sweet tender mercy and beautiful finish to my weekend. My heart is full of gratitude to my sweet husband for being 100% supportive of my leaving him on his own with the kids. What a man. And what a trip!