My dear husband, Steve, had a Birthday last Saturday. I knew we were going to be busy watching General Conference all day Saturday and wouldn't have time to celebrate, so the kids and I planned a fun surprise for him on Friday. Aubrey and Addy were out of school for Spring Break, but Zac and Emily were in school that day. We checked them out early and headed downtown for our celebration.
First stop was for lunch at one of Steve's favorite Italian restaurants, Tucci's. The food was fantastic and our waiter was the best waiter we have ever had, ever. He really helped make our dining experience fun.
This is Steve's very most favorite dessert (that means a lot coming from a man who isn't big on desserts) so we had to have some to celebrate his Birthday. The waiter even taught us how to sing Happy Birthday in Italian so we could sing along with him.
Emily freaked out because we had to pass the offices of her favorite radio station to get to and from the restaurant.
Next Stop, the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. This was AWESOME! The Dead Sea Scrolls are over 2,000 years old and are the oldest know copies of the Bible. They were found by a shepherd in the 1940's. He was out with his sheep and threw a rock into a cave and heard pottery shatter. Inside the pottery he found the ancient scrolls. Utah is only one of six US cities that will display the scrolls, so I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and wanted to make sure we saw them before they left. If you haven't been-GO! It was such an amazing experience and it will only be in Utah for a few more weeks.
We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was a beautifully done exhibit. And there was a feeling of reverence throughout the whole thing. I found a few pictures of it online. This is the room in the exhibit that has the scrolls in it. Under the glass you can see a part of a scroll, like the one pictured above. Then next to it it has an enlarged picture and also the translated text. It is interesting because there are some parts on the scrolls that are not in the Bible.
This was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit. It is a 3 ton stone from the Wailing Wall which is the remains of the temple built in 517 BC (or BCE - Before the Common Era- as we sadly learned it is now being called). We were able to write our prayers on a piece of paper and put it on the wall. We were actually able to touch a part of the Western Wall! Do you have any idea what that means to me??? I'm so sad we couldn't take a picture of us next to it. But hey, I found this picture of this nice family at the wall on the internet.
The whole experience was so fantastic. It had extra special meaning to our family right now because we are reading the Old Testament together this year. It is a blessing that we were able to see these special, sacred artifacts. It was also a great way to kick off our Conference Weekend. Below are a few pictures I took at a place in the exhibit where you are allowed to take pictures.
After the exhibit, and while others in our group were enjoying other exhibits, the girls found a fun little play area where they were able to create this pixelated picture.
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