temple trip #2

 It's been a busy & pretty quick month--

I was a little worried we wouldn't make our goal of getting to a new temple.

But we made it.

  

We went into the big city- to the Salt Lake Temple last Saturday afternoon. 

Saturday's (we have learned) are just too busy for us to get into any temple. We are from now on going during the week. It's wonderful to see so many youth in the temple!

It was my first time into the Salt Lake Temple Baptistry.

Gorgeous -- amazing. We were truly blessed & lucky to get in- it was very busy.

Did you know the Salt Lake Temple is the first temple the Pioneers started working on- yet the 4th temple to be completed? St. George was first to be completed, then Logan, then Manti. The Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to complete. Only one of those years for the interior. The exterior is full of religous symbolism & made of granite mined from the mountains to the east. The exterior walls are 6' thick! 

It was a cold windy day with a storm coming in-brrr.

Afterwards we went to Litza's Pizza.

A favorite place that we used to frequent when the kids were younger. 

We hadn't been there in way too long!

Chloe & I could not-- for the life of us--- get a decent photo!

so... We opted for our mad model look.

She pulls it off well-- I look like I'm just plain tired.

Oh well, it was fun & I am so glad we made our goal two months in a row now!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Today was our first temple trip for the

2012~ The Year of The Temple

We headed out to South Jordan to the

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Fun fact: The Oquirrh Mountain temple was dedicated in 2009. It's one of three temples in South Jordan. The Jordan River Temple & a Hindu temple are also located in South Jordan. The angel Moroni on the top of the temple was hit by lightening & burned on one side during a storm before it opened. Trent was bummed to see that they fixed him. Honestly I was kind of too... he looks good though.

It was a beautiful clear day but SO cold.

Windy out here & in the 30's brrr!

This is the view from the front doors looking east.

The baptistery is around back-- we trekked around back & tried not to freeze!

What a gorgeous day! There are the Oquirrh Mountains in the background.

 (can you tell it was windy?)

It was delightfully packed--

 There was just no way Trent could sit quietly waiting that long to do baptisms.

I called a couple of weeks ago to get an appointment- but they said we didn't need one. They didn't have anyone scheduled. It's so great to see so many young people in the temple- but we knew this would be a long wait for him. Brett talked to one of the temple workers & they let Trent & Brett slip in. We watched & it was beautiful. Trent was so nervous & so excited to be in the temple.

I was so excited for the kids to fill out their passports...

I'm pretty sure I should have gotten my own!?

We stopped on the way home for Chinese food.

It was a Great day & it's going to be a Great Year!

Want to know what people do in temples?

You can find out more here

2012 the year of the temple

In November Brett & I were doing some Christmas shopping & found these at Deseret Book.

We fell in LOVE with them immediately & decided to use them to make an announcement Christmas Day. That announcement:

 We declared 2012- the YEAR OF THE TEMPLE!

Hailey, Chloe & Trent each had one wrapped under the tree. They unwrapped them at the same time- and we told them our plan to visit all of the Utah temples in 2012!

There are 12+ temples -- so that's roughly one a month.

Some have just been announced- others are being built.

We are so excited to see more of our beautiful state- learn more about each individual temple- keep our recommends updated- and write in our passports about our experiences.

This month we have plans to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in Draper.

It's going to be a good year!

(Hailey did admit later that when she first opened it she thought it was a real passport... just a little bit of a let down there- can't say I blame her!? that would have been fun too.)