Big adventures with Small miracles

My Mom and Sister, Heidi, decided to come for a visit last minute! What a wonderful surprise! Lani (other sister), Lucy and I picked them up from the airport at 1:00 on Saturday. They were hoping to catch a live session of conference. I was very doubtful at this point without having tickets, but in the past we always managed to get some and my Mom was being very optimistic and that kind of spirit is just contagious! So we decided to give it a shot! We quickly drove to the conference center. We dropped Lani and Heidi off on a corner to beg people for extra tickets while Mom and I looked for parking. We tried to park in the conference parking without tickets, the guy asked if we had tickets and I replied "No we don't have any, but we are hoping to get some. Where would the best place to park without tickets be?" He smiled and answered "We will just pretend you have them" and let us drive ahead. I LOVE PEOPLE LIKE THAT! We get the call from Lani that they had found tickets from the first person they talked to. MIRACLES ALL OVER THE PLACE! Mom changed into her church clothes in the car, while Heidi just slipped her skirt on over her pants outside. Lani calls from outside the conference center and says "Everyone is running, I don't know why. You guys should probably hurry!" At 1:45 we start running to the conference center! I told my Mom to run ahead because I wasn't planning on attending (as I had Lucy with me) and I was really slowing things down with Lucy in her carrier, the diaper bag and blanket bag over my shoulders, plus a little basket to take pictures of Lucy in! (Ever looking for the perfect photography moment!) They made it! Yeah! What a typical Poppleton adventure! It all seemed crazy and like it would never work, yet it just did! I looked around for a good place to watch conference. In the past we just sat outside and listened, but it was cold and windy so I ducked into The Joseph Smith Research Building. After unpacking Lucy's gear and letting her roll around on the floor, the fire alarm went off! The message starts blasting "Please evacuate the building. This is an emergency." Hoping it was a false alarm, I was purposely moving slowly, until nice people saw the lone mother with a baby and ran to help me carry piles of stuff, because I ridiculously carry around photography props wherever I go(I didn't bring the stroller to leave room for my family's suitcases, although they packed so light I am sure we could have fit it all in!). ANOTHER MIRACLE! When we get outside I see the perfect setting for my latest photo sesh! Feeling like the fire alarm was meant to be just so I could evacuate and find this little piece of heaven, they tell everyone we can come back in the building. I declined an offer for help back inside from the nice man who had helped me out, explaining my upcoming photo shoot.

After I have just about got everything ready except for the subject, Lucy, in the prop, basket, an old gentleman walk by an says "let me help you," before I could decline, he had picked up my basket and diaper bag for me. I just couldn't crush his noble spirit and so I let him accompany me back into the building, secretly planning how I would sneakily escape back to my photo shoot. (Here was the spot I was standing when everyone kept asking me if they could help me. You just have to love Mormons at Conference! Note the sheer enjoyment on my face. This picture was too funny not to include!)

While trying to sneak back out I ran into a very kind woman in a wheel chair. She was just thrilled to meet Lucy and asked if she could hold her. She told me about her grandchildren and how she loved to sing "I am a Child of God" to them. I asked her if she would be so kind as to sing it to Lucy. Delighted, the cute woman sang the song to Lucy. It brought tears to my eyes to see such a sweet scene, and reflect on the power that song holds. Lucy truly is a little child of God and it is my precious job to lead her. I love people that notice the small miracles in life, and this woman truly recognized what a miracle children are. She hugged Lucy goodbye and I could see true joy in her eyes to hold a dear precious little child of God.

Little Child Of God

By this time conference was out so we looked for the family. We hooked up and then took adorable pictures of Lucy. She was very very exhausted, but still managed to give a few cute looks. Here is what we came up with:

Picking the Posies

Trying harder to pick the posies

I love this "not so thrilled" look with what she finally got after all that hard work to pick them

The people walking by were hilarious! Everyone was pointing and awing at Lucy. "Look at that little baby in the flowers" amidst other cries of "poor kid." Anyway we really created quite a scene!

The adventure wasn't over, as we headed up to Logan to visit Grandma Anna and Grandpa Russell. We watched conference with them on Sunday and then headed back to Provo. While passing through Draper, My Mom and I reminisced about a wedding reception we had gone too there up on the mountain somewhere. We both agreed it was the most beautiful house we had ever seen. Lani said "I want to see it" and then we were off on another adventure.

Miraculously, we found the house without instructions, just another typical Poppleton adventure! This time a new house was built a little higher on the hill that outdid our favorite house. For your enjoyment I thought I would give you a little preview of my future home that we will be building on the coast in Southern California:

Here is the right side of the house...

...And here is the left side! Yes both pictures are of the front of the same house!

Okay, this house is probably a little big for me, even in my dream land, but it was still too incredibly gorgeous not too share!

Here is the original house we were looking for:This house looks a little nicer than the first one because is has landscape, but you can just imagine what it will look like when it gets some landscaping too. I just love Cinderella spires. I just flip over them! Why? I guess at heart I just think my life is one big fairytale, full of small miracles like Lucy every day!