Bits of Summer

One nice thing about having the summer off from orchestra is that I can go to Pack Meeting.  August Pack Meeting was fun because they had all gone to scout day camp and earned a bunch of pins.

 I'm so glad Jonathan could go to scout day camp, he had a lot of fun.

 The rest of the time was spent playing.

 Jaaromy helped Brigham have fun.

 Meanwhile, they had set up a bike course in the parking lot for the scouts.  Jonathan had fun riding his scooter all around.

It was a fun Pack Meeting, the last one I was able to attend before orchestra started up again.

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I have to throw in this picture too.  Brigham has taken a liking to watching shows in our room.  Lately he's been a fan of Backyardigans.  Grandma Patti got rid of gave the grandkids a bunch of stuffed toys that she had collected over the years.  My kids have never really loved stuffed animals but I took a few anyway.  One was a little Pablo from Backyardigans and now Brigham has to watch it with Pablo tucked into the blanket with him.

So cute!  I also found a Uniqua at Harmon's.  He didn't really like it at first, but gradually took to watching the show with both of them.

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We're huge fans of Studio C and one of the sketches is about a feelings board that makes people actually feel the emotion their picture is on.  Jonathan really wanted to make one so I helped him.

It just makes me laugh.

It was a fun summer.  I was really sad to see it go.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Visit

Since we were checking off temples in my temple passport app, I decided we needed to do an official visit to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  We've been there before, of course, but I hadn't taken a picture with all of us in it.  It was the perfect Saturday afternoon activity.

 Here's the requisite group photo.

And one of the temple itself, although I'm a little too close to fit it all in the frame.

 And one of Brigham because he's cute.

 There's such a great view from this temple, I love it.

You can see two other temples from here.  Draper...

And Jordan River.

Of course I had to play with my camera.  Jonathan liked being part of this shot with the mountains behind him.

Brigham is often kind enough to just stand there for me.

We've recently become big fans of Studio C.  The Photobombing 101 sketch was one they had watched recently and so they wanted to practice their photobombing skills.

Jaaromy was nice enough to be my "subject".  Jonathan tried first.

Brigham often succeeded without really trying.

Jonathan isn't very subtle when he's photobombing it turns out.

Now it was Nathaniel's turn.  He was more subtle.

Not too bad for a first try.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have loved going to the temple.  It has brought me so much peace.  I hope I can pass that on to my boys.  It's a great place to take fun pictures too.  Lots of pretty flowers that are hard to photograph wrong.

This one is my favorite.

So many pretty flowers.

I'd like to visit all the temples in Utah at the very least.  It's good to have goals. :)

Ogden Temple Open House

Back in August we had a chance to go to the Ogden temple open house.  I'm so glad we went.  We haven't been to an open house since Brigham City and that visit was so hot and crowded that our memories aren't entirely pleasant.  So, I wanted to create new positive memories of a temple open house.  We went earlier in the day in the middle of the week so that it wouldn't be too busy.  We started at the newly remodeled tabernacle and pretty much went right into the temple after that.  We stopped a few times during the tour but at least we were inside and cool.

It was so beautiful inside.  I loved the glass and the wood work.  I loved the dome in the celestial room and the neat lights that look like street lights on the floor.  I saw an amazing painting on our way upstairs.  Everyone I talked to noticed it.  It was a black woman in white kneeling in prayer.  It was so striking and beautiful.  I loved it.  I didn't even have to ask which painting my mom was talking about when she mentioned that she saw a beautiful painting.  I wish I could post a picture of it here but I couldn't find it online.

The tour was wonderful and we stopped outside by the fountain when it was over.  A volunteer was nice enough to take some pictures for me.

 One with the temple in the background...

 And one close up.  Brigham wore his headphones so that he wouldn't have to cover his ears.  It was a lot easier to hold his hand instead of holding his elbow.

 It was a beautiful day.  Slightly overcast and not too hot.

 They enjoyed looking at the fountain for a while.

After the fountain we went in the little information tent and looked around.  There was a status of Jesus inside.  I wish I had taken a picture.  It was a nice visit and the boys were good.

After that we went to lunch at Wendy's in Ogden.  When we were done I tried to get back on the freeway but apparently that's impossible.  After taking a few unfortunate detours made all the more confusing because of construction, I finally just drove down a main road until I got to another, less confusing, on ramp.  It lengthened our drive time by a half an hour or so.  I was getting frustrated and Nathaniel was worried that it had ruined our wonderful trip to the temple.  I had to laugh, it was frustrating, but honestly I had forgotten it until now.  The trip was great overall.

We took our trip while Jaaromy was in New York for a week starting his new job.  He was nice enough to travel all the way to the Manhattan temple for me and took these awesome pictures.

 He tried a couple of selfies but I made him keep trying until he got this one right.

I love it that there is a temple in New York.  Such a contrast.

I love temples, they are such a blessing.  I have craved the peace I get when I go.  This has been a hard year for me and going to the temple as often as I can has really helped me feel peace.  I can tell when it's been too long and I need to go again.  I do my best to make time because I can't do it without the blessings of the temple.