Candy dishes and the temple

We took the youth to the Ogden Temple open house. I've been pretty lucky to have gone through eight temple open houses {that I can remember}... Las Vegas NV, Bountiful UT, Mount Timpanogos UT, Nauvoo IL, Orquirrh Mountain UT, Draper UT, Brigham City UT, and Ogden UT. I love seeing all of the different and unique features in the temples.

The Ogden temple was beautiful. I loved the vintage white color of the granite. It was just gorgeous against the blue sky.

And the before and after renovation on the Ogden UT temple can't be beat!

 

{Image curtosey of the Desert News}

Not only did I get tickets for the Young Women and Young Men, but I drug my own family along. And yeah, we can't get a single picture of the four of us all looking or smiling at the camera or in this case, with the actual temple in the background.

My parents were married in the Ogden temple on November 17, 1978 on a very snowy wintery day! My Dad's family wasn't active in the church and the Logan temple was closed at the time. So he drove down to the Ogden Temple with a friend for his own wedding. When I found out the open house was happening and that the re-dedication was going to happen on my Mom's birthday, I took it as a heavenly sign to get them tickets for the open house.They don't have any pictures of them at the temple on their wedding day, so I told them this was their chance!

Cole was so funny about the open house. He kept asking what things were and Jeff obliged his many questions with answers like, "that's a door. Those are stairs. Yes, that's a picture of Jesus." Cole was super pumped to know the temple had drinking fountains on every floor and in every spot a little boy could get thirsty. When we got to the Celestrial room, he asked us, "Why is there no candy in the candy dishes?" Meaning the fancy, decorative, well, candy dishes. It was HILARIOUS! And when he found out Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Kurtis has finally made it, he decided we were going to go through the temple again. So back we went with Cole as our personal tour guide {now that he'd seen everything}. He explained to my Dad that you get to watch a movie in the temple {the endowment session}, there were lots of drinking fountains, and that there was no candy in the candy dishes in the Celestrial room. We laughed! And to be quite honest, it's a very good question/observation... in fact, I submitted a comment card for President Monson to see.

Kurtis and I decided to send Kimmy a temple selfie so she knew she was missing out on the fun. Oh, did I mention she up and got married?! What the?! To a guy none of us know? After she moved to Colorado? Yeah. Kind of weird but it made me laugh and smile... so Kimmy. Oh, and so she wouldn't feel bad about not being with us, we also took an ice cream selfie after the open house. You know. When we walked over to Farr's Ice Cream for a treat {along with everyone else in town}. And stayed too long, having our car get locked in the temple parking lot! Oops.

We watched the "super moon" rise over the mountains behind the temple... it was a beautiful way to end a lovely evening!

British Invasion {Saying Goodbye}

Tonight we said our goodbyes to the British Invasion. I can't believe they're leaving tomorrow! It's been so fun having them here. We had a nice dinner at Jeff's parent's house with everyone. Even if no one was in the mood for a forced family picture. But I insisted and practically yelled at everyone to stand there and smile. With how expensive travel to and from England is, not to mention the fact that Aurelia is going to University soon, I didn't know when the next time we'd all be together again might be.

The kids were happy to help me test out my camera settings though. There was a storm coming so we had to do a longer exposure to capture enough light. Goof balls!

All the grandkids. At least Cassie is always happy to get her picture taken. 

Not too shabby for a forced family photo!

{Left to right: Kylee, Mataya, Susie, Cassie, Ty, Jacob, Wally, Alexis, Gwen, Glen, Samuel, Aurelia, Vickie, Pearl, Roy, Cole, Jeff, Jenny}

I'm really going to miss my nieces! Their personalities were so fun to see. Since Aurelia always has her nose buried in a book, poor Alexis had to endure my picture taking.

Vickie also brought everyone a gift. Our traditional Bristol Blue Glass ornament. We love our Bristol Blue Glass! If we didn't have to worry about some little boy who thinks our furniture is his personal wrestling mat and that anything can be shot at without notice or care, we'd get out our vases and milk jug again.

We let the kids stay up really late playing games. No one wanted to go home.

I'm really going to miss the British Invasion. I sure hope it's not another eight years before we get to see each other again.

Pennies from Heaven

I stumbled across this penny getting into my car after a meeting today. And I promise you, it wasn't there when I got out of my car an hour earlier. 

I remembered reading something that said an angel tosses a penny from Heaven to remind you that they miss you. I couldn't help but hope this is true... and then in my searching for the poem behind my thought, saw a beautiful letter on Facebook from Mr. Lary Jones to his beautiful wife, my amazing and dearly missed Patty, who died two years ago today. I cried when I found the poem just moments after thinking of Patty.

I found a penny today

Just lying on the ground.

But it's not just a penny

This little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from heaven

That's what my Grandpa told me.

He said Angels tossed them down

Oh, how I loved that story!

He said when an angel misses you

They toss a penny down,

Sometimes just to cheer you up

To make a smile out of your frown.

So don't pass by that penny

When you're feeling blue.

It may be a penny from heaven

That an Angel's tossed to you.

1998 C. Mashburn

It drives my mom bonkers

It drives my Mom absolutely bonkers when Jeff pulls his socks up to his knees. He says it's more comfortable that way but I think he does it to just bug her. 

And now the 2nd generation of sock pullers is here. Like father, like son I guess. I hope my Mom laughs at this picture because I took it just for her.

Annihilation

In the battle of good vs. evil, there can only be one victor. Unfortunately for BYU, they, and I quote, "stink like poo" and have been annihilated on the battlefield.