Labor Day and The New Skyline

Holy cow.  Ready for a mega post?

On Labor Day morning we woke up to find the teenage boys from church had put flags in the front yards of everyone in the neighborhood.  Love it!  Nobody even thinks twice about wether or not someone won't like it.  (I wish I had gotten a better picture where you could see several flags flying all at once.  I took this while driving, so this was the best I could do without killing anyone.)

My mom had one request during their entire nine day stay.  She wanted to see the Conference Center that was built in 2001.  (We figured it out, and the last time my parents were in Utah was 16 years ago when Brandon and I were just dating.)  

Here we are:

There is a lot of beautiful religious art inside.  I've included some of my favorites:

I really liked this one for some reason.  It think partly because it used to belong to Napolean's brother and that is just so random, and partly because it's Joseph interpreting the dreams of the baker and the butcher - the story of Joseph in the Old Testament is one of my all time favorites. 

The Conference Center center: 

Elizabeth sitting in a rainbow: 

After the inside tour, the guide took us outside and onto the roof.  There's a beautiful water fountain up there, but I think most surprising are all the natural grasses and trees, planted in a deliberate progression.  On the east end of the roof nearest the mountains are the types of trees the pioneers would have seen on the mountain as they came up over the top.  As you move to the western side of the roof, the trees and grasses change to reflect more of the trees found in the hills, and then the valley.  

Yep, this is the roof top:

After our Conference Center tour, we walked over to the Joseph Smith Memorial building via a beautifully landscaped area just east of Temple Square.  Here's Brigham striding into town:

Inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building:

I love this picture of my parents:

We ate lunch in there and got a little goofy while waiting for our food: 

Off to Temple Square.  It never ceases to amaze me how those impoverished pioneers built this magnificent building with their hands.  It truly is a testament to their faith:

My parents were married in the Salt Lake Temple 40+ years ago, but when they went to pick up their wedding pictures from the developer they had been lost!! (Seriously tragic.)  So . . . I thought I'd do a little re-creation.  Not quite the same, but still pretty nice. I couldn't pick a favorite, and since I know my mom will hate them all, I'll give her two choices:

The Assembly Hall where they have various meetings and concerts.  It's right next to the old Tabernacle where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir originally began their weekly program, "The Spoken Word". 

More wedding pictures.  Aren't they cute?

Time for the next big event of the day.  Moving on!

We went through downtown, up past the capital, and into the mountains behind the capital to the home of my sister's husband's parents.  (Catch that?)  My sister and her husband live in Iowa and weren't even there (it was just his mother, his sister's family, and some friends) but they are old friends from Iowa City when we all lived there together.  Of course we were going for a traditional Labor Day BBQ.  (Great food, even better company.)

The state bird, the seagull:  (Cool story why.)

And here it is - the new skyline: 

I am such a sucker for old buildings, skylines, panoramic views, and sunsets.  So combining all of those things into one is just about the ultimate for me:

Not a bad place to live, folks!  Do you get the feeling I'm trying to convince all my family and loved ones to move here?  Because I am.