Monday, February 2, 2009

Draper Utah Temple Open House

Last Friday, January 30th, we took a well-needed break from taxes and took the kids to the Draper Utah Temple Open House. Here's a quick picture I took of Jason & the kids before we went inside the church. If you look closely towards the mountain you can see the temple in the background.

I was amazed at how organized the experience was. Our stake was given tickets for either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Of course, we picked the Friday afternoon time since I couldn't imagine us getting 5 kids ready and being in Draper by 9 am. We arrived at the church and watched a movie about the temple and then we went by bus to the temple. Ava loved being in a moving vehicle and not wearing a seat belt. She was squealing & jumping in her seat the entire 6 minute ride.

The kids were so great and reverent throughout the temple. They were fascinated by the baptismal font. Ashley & Abbey loved the beautiful bride's room. All of the kids were amazed at the size of the chandelier in the celestial room. Alex wondered how much it cost. It truly was breathtaking! And of course, we all LOVED the cookies and water at the end of the tour.

I was so grateful that we were able to take our children to the temple and have them see for themselves how incredible & beautiful the temples are. I am so incredibly grateful for the knowledge we have that we will always be together as a family. It was so peaceful and special to be together as a family in the celestial room and reflect on my love for each of them & for Jason.

The next day, Saturday, I had quite a few tax appointments. One of my clients was from Draper and told me some interesting facts. The church is having the open house until March 14th and the temple is open from 8 am to 8 pm. She was a volunteer one day serving cookies and water and told me they go through 250 cookies every 10 minutes and Costco delivers a truckload of water every day. Also, the first week the temple was open, the missionaries received 26 names of people interested in learning more about the church. If you want tickets you can go to lds.org or even just go anytime.

After we went to the temple, we then spent the rest of the night with David & Mindy and their kids. Mindy & I had a pedicure, which I haven't had in quite a few months. In fact, the Vietnamese lady said to me when she was scraping my feet with her magic blade, "Oh, your feet so bad, very bad." Gotta love their brutal honesty! At least now I have very smooth feet with a handpainted flower on my big toes and my feet are so good, very, very good!

8 comments:

Mindy said...

Hooray for pedicures (especially for the blades)!!! You gotta love some bling on the toes too! Here's to many more of these to come! Ah-so! ☺

Andrea W. said...

How neat. We need to go. I was feeling pretty good about our family having journeyed up to the Twin Falls Temple Open House until yesterday's stake conference talk. Clearly, we have lots more temples to see :)

Your pedicure sounds heavenly, I'm sure your feet would have looked great next to mine!

gina said...

Glad to hear the temple experience was so great. I wasn't sure how it was going to be - taking a baby in. We are scheduled to go on Thursday.

Anonymous said...

That's great you got to see the temple as a family! I was planning on going that same day (afternoon) with my mom, and she got sick! I enjoyed reading the post, and it's good you stated a ticket wasn't necessary. Anyone can go anytime.

Kristy said...

Oh you lucky girl! I want a pedi! I'm so glad you were able to take a break from taxes and make it to the openhouse.

I need to get my appt. set! ACK!

Cami said...

I wish we lived closer...it would have been nice to attend. We did make it to the Rexburg when it opened...it was great to take the kids to.

Your family is so adoreable...good luck finishing tax season. my goal was just to survive the holiday season. Now I am in veg mode :)

The5Randalls said...

I was just thinking it was time for me to have a pedicure. Now I want one with a flower on my big toe. We went Saturday night to the open house. Natalie was in awe about the brides room too. Girls! Great experience.

Kristen said...

I'm glad you all got to enjoy the temple. I keep saying we are going to go, but haven't done it yet. I loved catching up with your blog today! Bday parties, dance recitals - how fun!