A Great Day . . .

I had such a wonderful day - and just had to share with all of you. I got out of the house today! That was a great beginning. Not only that - but it was 45 degrees outside! It was wonderfully warm. Then, I got to go to lunch with Jan and one of his bosses. It was a great lunch meeting with the whole family there. Claire also decided to potty train herself today. She kept going to the potty (completely on her own) and has had a dry diaper for 24 hours! I can't say I was ready for her to do this, but if she is willing to train herself ... all the better for me!

Then tonight, to top it all off . . . I got asked to help clean the Rexburg temple. The construction company is getting ready to turn it over to the church on Monday (the open house starts after Christmas), and they needed some help getting the top layer of dust off of everything. Our ward was one of three selected to help - and only 25 women from each ward. What a humbling experience to be called and asked if I could help. I was so excited, and really hoped that Jan could watch the kids so I could have this unique experience. He could - so I went.



It is BEAUTIFUL inside. We helped clean the hallways, the staircases, and the endowment/sealing rooms. What a neat experience. The endowment rooms were painted by the High Priest Group Leader in our ward. Look at his website, and you can imagine how breathtaking they are. http://www.leonparson.com/ Eric - did you ask him if he was related to Del? I should have thought to ask him tonight. He was there doing touch up paint, and I commented on how beautiful the rooms were. He is so humble, and was only worried about whether they were fitting for the temple and inviting to the spirit. The spirit was there very strong already, so I think he did an amazing job.


During one time of the night, I was working by myself, and everything was so quiet. I started thinking about some of the early church members, and thought about how the women loved the temple. I am sure that they went in and cleaned when all the construction was finished, and how they must have loved cleaning it for the Lord and were probably so excited to have a temple in their midst. I am still choked up now thinking about it. It was such an amazing, awesome, once in a lifetime experience.



After we cleaned, we were taken on a "behind the scenes" tour by the construction company's owner. He and his wife pointed out details that will be probably overlooked, or not talked about in an open house tour. (Including glitches, and things that needed to be worked out, the way the temple's 5th and largest sealing room came to be when the original drawings called for 4, and the differences in color in the paint, rock and wood work from room to room. Oh, and the 8,000 piece crystal chandelier that took 30 people in gloves to put it together.) We were able to see every room - including the beautiful brides room - and also were taken on a tour of the mechanical room on top, and to the roof for a view of Rexburg. When we were just about done with the tour, all of a sudden Jan and Susan were standing there. Susan was soooo elated to be in the temple. Jan and Susan had roamed around trying to find us - and got to see a lot of the temple in the process. Then someone said that Susan needed to see the brides room, so Jan talked me in to sneaking away from the group and we took Susan to the brides room. Jan made her sit on one of the little stools and look at herself. She was embarrassed, but I think really enjoyed the experience.



What an amazing night. I am truly blessed.



p.s. Mom and Dad - thought about you when we went through the children's waiting rooms. I was talking with another of the women who adopted two children after having her own and had the experience of having them sealed to the whole family. I still remember the day Wade was sealed to us - what a special experience that is for me.

After Thanksgiving . . .

We were able to go to temple square the day after Thanksgiving to see it light up. We waited and waited outside . . . and got colder and colder . . . then we finally went in to the visitors center to warm up, and everything turned on. Oh well :) It was beautiful none the less.
The nativity on temple square. They had a recording that goes with the Nativity, and different spotlights shine on different things during the story.




This is Ginny's fiance's father and mother. They loved the kids and were instantly teaching them to say "Abuelo and Abuela." It was fun to watch Santiago play peek-a-boo with Claire. She adored him.
And Abuela just couldn't get enough hugs!
This is Kaile "working" in Ron's smoothie/pretzel shop. We went there to eat dinner, and we were waiting for Ginny to finish closing the store.

This is Ginny in the pretzel shop!
These are just some random pics of my kids painting. (Thanks Nana Roberts for the figurines!)

November (Part 1)

Wow! It has been a fun filled month since I last posted. My mom came to visit us on the 8th of November. We had lots of fun with her here, including a Saturday drive, which ended up taking us to some wonderful waterfalls unexpectedly. Here are a few shots of Lower and Upper Mesa Falls, about 30 minutes from our house.

Jan saw a black dot up ahead on the road and thought it was a bear. It turned out to be a female moose!

We had such a good time with my mom here. Thanks for coming Mom!

November (Part 2)

After Mom went home, we had a couple of days to get homework done, then Eric and Sarah arrived on Saturday, November 17th. We quickly whisked them away to a ward thanksgiving dinner. On Monday, we decided to go to the tetons via Jackson Hole. Here are some pictures on the way there.














These are the famous horn arches in Jackson Hole. We just went through town on our way to the tetons, then stopped a little later to look around.




Our first glimpse at the tetons.
We wanted to go to Jenny lake, but the road was already closed for the season, so we decided to take the 2.7 mile hike to Lake Taggert. It was beautiful. This is Sarah and the kids at the trail head.

You can see how the weather changed by the time we got back.

This is back in Jackson Hole.

This is Kaile holding her new nephew William Christopher Peterson. He is Allison and Christopher's 3rd son.
John and Claire hugging.
Jan with his two buddies, Tanner and Garrett.
Nana holding Will as Claire gleefully inspects.
All the cousins - in order of age and height.

These were taken at a luncheon with Uncle Pat and Aunt Allison, and John and Emma and kids at Olive Garden.
This is Ron and Ginny. John and Matthew. Aunt Alison with Alison, Bekah, and David.

This is John and Emma's newest - Hannah. She is a doll.

And this is our very informal portrait, taken by a librarian at the Provo Library. :) We are hardly all together - in fact, it has been quite a while, so you have to take every opportunity given.