Year of Dates...August

I have been excited for this one...not because it is something I am passionate about but it is one that I thought would be custom tailored to Anna.  Here is the card:

 

This may sound a little morbid and you may not be aware of this but Anna loves cemeteries.  When I say she loves them I mean we visit them on vacations, when she is stressed she sometimes goes and walks through the graves, and she always stays abreast of who has been buried in our little cemetery by our house and how much space is left.  She says it is because you can feel the veil closer and the peace she feels she often compares to visiting the temple.  So that being said I thought she would be thrilled at this date and was only slightly put off when I came home ready to go and she said "I am dreading this date"...and quickly followed up with "it is just so hot" to cover her tracks.  But being the good sport she is we headed out.

We decided to drive to areas of the cemetery where there was a concentration of leaders and explore them and then drive to another cluster.  For one, Anna was hot and didn't want to hike the hills because this cemetery is HUGE and very hilly and two, Sophie was asleep in the car for the first half of the expedition.  Here is Molly and Anna in front of a huge piece of petrified wood...how cool is that for a grave stone.

When Sophie woke up we took a photo at President Grant's obelisk.

After exploring the cemetery we headed down to Temple Square and to dinner at the Lion House Pantry.  Anna had never eaten there before so it was something new for everyone.  The girls loved the cafeteria style of going down the line and picking what they wanted.  Jello was a hit as was the Lion House rolls.  After dinner we decided to walk around the temple grounds and get the wiggles out and we only had to threaten them, in hushed tones of course because we were in public, to be good or we would leave right then.  For the most part the threats worked and we enjoyed going from fountain to fountain and taking in the beautiful flowers. 

At one point Sophie saw a large patch of grass and immediately exclaimed "Oh I love grass so much because it is the perfect place to dance" and then proceeded to show off her skills which, by the way, she didn't inherit from me because she can dance and loves doing it.

 

We also ended up walking through City Creek to get back to our cars and we had to again stop at every fountain for the girls to play in and for Sophie to dance by as the music played.  I wish I could capture Molly's faces all the time because she has the most amazing faces that perfectly express what she is filling but doesn't do them on command so it is hard to capture but if you look close as she is in the fountain you see her look of excitement.  

It was a great night and we realized if we didn't get stressed and took it at the kids pace they were much happier...a good lesson to learn as we plan to take our first family vacation this September to San Diego...wish us luck. 

Ogden Temple Open House

This past month we had the opportunity to visit the Open House of the newly remodeled and renovated Ogden Temple.  We were lucky enough to have Anna's "Oregon Mom" Kathy staying with us and she, along with my parents and our girls made the short drive to Ogden.

 I feel like I am constantly talking about how blessed I am but when you enter into a place like the temple, any temple, you feel a sense of peace overcome you and you know you are so blessed to have the gospel in your life that allows me to be sealed to these beauties for the rest of eternity...too bad for them they are stuck with me.

The inside of temple was incredible...on my top 3 of temples that I have seen.  It was done in an Art Deco style that Ogden is known for.  It also had incredible artwork, much of which I haven't seen before.  One thing I love about temples is the landscapes they commission that reflect the surrounding area as you can see in this photo of the baptismal font.

This is a photo of the celestial room...notice the art deco lanterns and in the center that was a large painted dome.  I had a friend who knew the architect and said that the wood in the temple gradually got lighter...very subtly...as you rose on the various levels and the tables, like the one seen in this photo, gradually got a little more ornate as well as you rose through the temple into the Celestial Room.

Also in the art glass, as they call it because for me it is called stained glass, you gradually saw prarie roses appear and become more prominent the higher you got.  I was told by the same friend that this was a symbol of the early pioneers who would plant the roses along the trail throughout the plains and wilderness to cheer up the Saints that they knew would be coming behind them and would see them in bloom.  So a pioneer thing to do and what a great reminder about planting seeds of hope and happiness for others that although you may not see the bloom you have faith that others will and that is enough.

Inside the temple to keep Sophie occupied and prevent melt downs we had her count the number of times she saw paintings of Jesus.  This is a photo of her outside the temple with Grandpa telling him how many she counted...everything bigger then 3 is 5...there were a lot more paintings of Christ then that.



After the temple we took a short drive, about a block and half, from them temple over to the Farr Ice Cream factory for a treat to reward the girls for being good inside the temple.  Sophie of course chose Purple ice cream as everything has to be purple these days and Molly like always was happy to be along for the ride and go with the flow.

Year of Dates...June & July

As you know from previous entries Anna had pneumonia most of June and then I got bronchitis for a few weeks in July that verged on walking pneumonia (yeah I know in the summertime who knew that could happen).  That being said our scheduled dates for June got postponed until July but we still did it and had a great time.  Here is June's date card.

For days after seeing this show I found myself humming songs from the play and saying "winds in the east, mist coming in"  I also kept thinking where is our Mary Poppins to put our kids in order.  As always Hale Center Theatre does a great job and any night we can get away from the kids and get some US time is always wonderful.  

What a lucky guy I am right!

For July we knew that we would be really busy as it is always a busy month with 4th of July, Mom and Dad's homecoming, 24th of July and you throw in a trip to Pineview with the family and hosting our Ward Walk-a-bout we knew we were going to be tapped out.  For that reason our scheduled July date was to rent a Redbox and relax which we did with my parents at their place where we watched The Monuments Men about the team who saved artwork during WWII from the Nazi's.