I wonder how many blog posts I have that start with something like, "we went to temple square - this is my most favorite place in the world!" Probably at least once a year if not more. I fell in love with temple square as a 16 year old and it has remained my most favorite place in the whole world - to me it truly is heaven on earth. We went one Monday evening for family night (sad that Jason wasn't with us!) and we went with my sister in law Brooke and her 2 kids.
We started by playing in the river in front of the conference center. Mostly because it was about a million degrees outside and we had to cool off from our long walk down the conference center hill (I always park at the top of the hill - I love walking down with the temple in front of us)
Then we met up with the Hanna's and went inside the visiter center while we let the outside cool down a bit. We went right up to the Jesus statue. The kids ran ahead of us and as Brooke and I rounded the ramp we saw this...
So precious. I love these little kids looking up at Him.
Then we spent a good hour downstairs. We could have spent more - they loved all the videos.
Typically my kids wander around and just look at stuff - but this time my older boys got really into the videos and sat and watched different things the whole time. I had a prayer in my heart that they were learning and feeling the spirit and building a foundation for their testimonies.
Madison and Caroline found a theater showing the Joseph Smith movie and plopped down right in front and watched if for like 30 minutes.
Then we went over to the Church history museum. In ALL our trips to temple square we have never been here before. We loved it! So much to do and see. Noah got to learn all about printing the Book of Mormon (he loves stuff like that).
They have a kids area where they can write down an experience about feeling the spirit and put it on a wall. I took a picture of Megan's becasue it was so cute and now I can't read what it says!!! "I love ____ __ as I feel the spirit." I will have to ask her and see if she can decode it. If you have an idea leave a comment. But I remember it being so insightful and sweet.
The sun had finally started to set so we went around the grounds to look at statues, flowers, and fountains.
This is Noah with his mini-printed Book of Mormon in front of his favorite fountain (that he has fallen in a couple of times) and he wanted me to take a picture to send to dad and say, "Noah did not fall in the fountain".
The Hanna kids were tired and DONE - so we tried to get a picture with them in front of the temple before they went home for bed.
We sure love them and wished we could spend more time with them!
Then it was just us and I got all nostalgic and wanted to take try and recreate some of our old pictures.
Same place - 6 years apart
2012
1213
2017 (boo - this was supposed to be a total recreation (Megan even picked leaves again) but we but we switch the sides - and also it is a different season so the greenery is different)
The sun started setting and it got beautiful. The kids were happily playing and I just couldn't stop taking pictures trying to capture the moment and the feelings I was feeling.
We ended with our FHE dessert at the Lion House Pantry were we shared some pie and called Jason. It was an awesome day.
