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.