Trip To Provo

In February I did one of the things I never thought possible. I took the kids on a trip without Cody! We decided to go to the Provo City Center Temple open house. We lived in Provo for a long time and it is such a special place to us. It is where we meet, fell in love, all our kids were born and spent those wonderful years at BYU. We were even there when the tabernacle burned down. It was so sad. I remember waking up on that Sunday morning and when we were driving to church seeing the smoke and wondering what happened. And then learning it was the tabernacle. We had many stake conferences in that building. I was so excited when it was announced that it would become a temple. And then we left just 9 months before it was finished. So I really wanted to go back and see it. Plus I got to see some faces I had missed. A friend here in California was going to a wedding in Utah so we decided to carpool. She is such a trooper and amazing for dealing with my... well let's just say energetic kids for that long. Plus since it was a holiday weekend we hit BAD traffic, took some ill-advised detours(it was all my idea, sorry Marlee!) and it took waaaay longer then we thought. But we made it. But over all the kids were pretty good. We stayed with my Aunt Becky. She is so amazing and my kids love her! They always talk about go back to Aunt Becky's house. And the whole time we were there they never wanted to go do the activities I had planned, they just wanted to stay and play at Aunt Becky's house! And she is such a wonderful host. She made us wonderful food and visited with us and it was so great to see her. She also told me she was going to be the pianist for one of the sessions of the temple dedication. That's how cool Aunt Becky is. Like I said, she is amazing!

Aunt Becky's house is the best!

We tried to go to the open house on Saturday morning but the line was way too long. We didn't have tickets so we were in the stand by line and I waited alone with three insane wonderful kids for almost 2 hrs and we weren't even half way through the line to get into the temple and then they said the tour was about an hour. So we left and went had lunch with my bestest bestie Olivia. She was such a darling to squeeze me in her busy schedule. Oh didn't I mention this trip was a last min decision! Anyways then we saw some of my other dear friends, my old roommates. Claire and Lauren were also so wonderful for squeezing us in also. They both had family in town and a lot of other plans and we just dropped in and they made time for us and it meant a lot to me. They are wonderful friends. 

We finally made it to the temple! It was worth it. It is amazing!

 We drove around Provo and saw all the places we use to live. Broc and Maren even remembered the last place we lived and the playgrounds we use to go to. When we were driving to our last apartment Broc even remembered the way there. He told me how to get there.

Since we missed the chance on Saturday, we woke up early on Monday, the day we were leaving, and went to the temple. We tried(keyword being tried) to get there right when it opened but we were about 40 mins late. Which I thought was really good for having to get all four of us ready and feed by my self. But it still worked out because we only had to wait about 15 mins. And then were in. Once we actually got in the temple the kids were really good. But the 15 mins we waited in line I think they were having mental break downs because this was the one time in their entire lives they have actually wanted to hold my hands. And not just one but all three of them, and you can see how this would be a problem since I only have two hands.  The one that wasn't holding my hand would just scream and throw a huge tantrum. But i just powered through and it ended up working out. They didn't try to run away or touch anything too many times. And there were some nice people around me that helped me wrangle them. It is such a beautiful temple. I wish we had lived there a little longer so we could go to it often. I think it is my favorite temple ever. If I was getting married again I would get married there. Oh it was amazing! After the temple open house we got in the car and said farewell to Provo once again. It was a good trip all in all.