The Conference Center

Chad and I were excited to take the boys to Salt Lake City to see the Conference Center and Temple Square (another post). None of our boys have been to either place. They have only seen them on TV during Conference or in pictures. The boys were really looking forward to seeing the places in person. We got up to Salt Lake in the late afternoon and we decided to start with the Conference Center first.

We had a wonderful Senior Missionary as our guide. He was very good with the kids and was patient with us as we stopped to look at things. The Conference Center is a huge building. I have taken a tour before, but it wasn't a full tour. This time we were able to see everything.

The kids were excited to go inside the auditorium and sit in the seats. All of the kids did really well. They were very well behaved and they listened to what our guide had to say.

Outside the auditorium there is a beautiful fountain that sits underneath a skylight with an equally beautiful chandelier. When you look up into the skylight it is like looking into a kaleidoscope. That image with the light streaming in was mesmerizing.

Another thing I loved was all of the artwork. There were many paintings I had never seen before. I spent much of my time photographing the paintings that stood out to me. I wish I would have written down or taken a picture of the artist and title of each painting. If you know the information on the paintings I took pictures of please let me know. Here are some of my favorites.

The Conference Center also has a gallery of Arnold Frieberg paintings. Our guide asked us if we were familiar with this artist. When we confirmed that we were he immediately took us over to the gallery. This happened to be right after Arnold Frieberg passed away. We love his painting entitled "Valley Forge", in fact we have it in our office at home. I didn't realize that Arnold Frieberg had done so many paintings that the church uses. The room was filled with many painting of scripture stories. The boys enjoyed going around the room identifying each one. At one point Trevor came over to me and asked me to help him find the painting of Ammon. He wanted to find it because Chad calls Trevor Ammon because he exhibits many of the same characteristics as Ammon. When we found Ammon Trevor requested that I take his picture by the painting. He was really cute posing in just the same way as Ammon. Can you see why Chad calls him Ammon?

One of the highlights of the tour was being able to go up on the roof. This is one area Chad and I missed when we took the tour before. The roof is a neat place. When they built the building they decided to make the roof into a garden. There are also fountains and the skylights. The skylights are in the shape of pyramids, which help them to create such a beautiful view from the inside of the building. Another beautiful thing we saw was a sandstone etching. It was amazing to me.

Most of the space is taken up by plants. All of the plants are indigenous to Salt Lake. In fact one of the biggest gardens is a wildflower garden. It is completely natural. It was made to represent the prairie. It was all beautiful.

The Conference Center sits right across the street from the Salt Lake Temple. The roof provide a wonderful view of Temple Square. The only problem is that there are several tall buildings behind the Temple that take away from the view (especially right now, as they are under construction). It was still fun for the kids to see a view of the entire temple.

I am glad we were able to take our family on a tour of the Conference Center. Now the boys know where the Prophet comes to speak to the church. They were able to ask questions and experience it for themselves. It was a great visit.