Temple Square

Visiting temple square brings back so many of my childhood memories.  I love this place.  As a young girl I knew that someday I wanted to be married in the temple and it was this Salt Lake Temple that I envisioned as I made the choices throughout my adolescence that would enable me to meet that goal.

It was really special for me to bring my children to this special temple.  They've seen pictures of it, I have a giant one hanging in my home because it's one of my favorites- but there is nothing like seeing it in real life and being on the temple grounds.  There is such a peaceful wonderful feeling surrounding this beautiful place.  It was worth pulling the kids out of school one extra day and driving a little out of the way after our trip to Logan for the wedding.  I wish we could have stayed a week and visited all of our family and friends, but we packed as much as we could into 24 hours.


We went to a live viewing of Music of the Spoken word at the old tabernacle.  This is the building where conference used to be held.  I told my children about how while I was in college I had slept on the sidewalks around temple square waiting in line for tickets so I could be in that building to hear the prophet and other church leaders speak. 

We made a visit to see one of my favorite statues.

What happens inside the temple is not secret, it's sacred.  Here is a model of the temple at the visitors center.  It shows what the temple looks like inside.  My kids really enjoyed looking at that and asking Jared and I questions.

The visitors centers at temple square are so informative for anyone wanting to know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, it's also fun and interactive for children and families.  We spent several hours just taking it all in.

Linsey loved all the different flowers on the temple grounds.  The temple is majestically beautiful inside and out.  The temple grounds are immaculate and every flower seems to be perfect.  Linsey took some really great pictures of flowers there that she plans to print and frame for her new room in the new house.

We took the kids to see the new conference center which is right across the street from temple square.  

This is where conference is held today and my children were excited to see in real life what they have seen on TV as they watch conference every 6 months.  It is amazing from the inside. We enjoyed an informative tour, our tour guide was great and told us all about how the building was built and some of the neat stories behind the different aspects of it.  Amazing and beautiful!  Even the rooftop is landscaped with lightweight manufactured soil, beautiful grass, flowers and trees.  This picture (below) was taken from the rooftop of the conference center.

Inside there are 21,000 seats with no pillars providing unobstructed seating.  It really is amazing.  

Visiting temple square is something I've always dreamed of taking my kids to see, and I'm sure we would have done it sooner or later.  In fact, before Anthony & Elina planned their May wedding, we had thought maybe this summer we would make the trip to Utah to do this and so much more.  Trying to squeeze a trip to Utah in over a weekend was tough, especially because it meant that our kids had to miss school and to make it even worse, it was during our state testing.  But once Jared learned that on Saturday afternoon BYU Rugby would be playing in the National Championship game IN PROVO, we quickly bought tickets and made plans to swing wide and stay an extra day. 

It was so worth it! BYU pulled off an amazing win that left everyone screaming and cheering as the fans rushed the field.  It was amazing to be there.  (Lots of pictures and the full story to come).

We stopped by to visit the Utah McInelly cousins and got to meet baby Ty for the first time.
Such a sweet little guy. 

 

It was fun to take our kids around BYU campus.  We didn't have a lot of time so mostly we just drove and pointed out the different buildings and showed them the stairs that we used to walk up every day and the duck pond that we would sometimes visit.  We took them to the BYU bookstore and drove them by our college apartments where we lived when we were single and then to our first home. 

It looks like what you would imagine a first home to look like, but looks can be deceiving.  This little house is divided into 8 apartments.

Ours was the one in the back, upstairs.   We had a small kitchen, living room, one bedroom and a bathroom.  It wasn't nice, but we thought it was and it was our own and we loved it.  We didn't have a lot of money and most of our furniture was given to us or bought second-hand, but all of our needs were met and life was simple.  We had a little black truck and on the weekends we would toss our gear in the back and go camping and fishing together.  Those were some really fun days. 

That fence wasn't there but Jared had pots off to the side where he grew tomatoes and other vegetables.  We had a little grill on the back porch and where you see that small cooler in the window we had one about 10 times the size.  Jared installed swamp coolers for extra money over the summer and was able to refurbish an old one which we used in our little apartment. It was meant for a 3,000 square foot home so when we sat on the couch it about blew us to the next room.  We loved it!

We stopped by our favorite bakery and sandwich shop.  I told Linsey that this was the last meal I had before she was born.  I remember coming here many times with Jared, but the afternoon of July 3rd stands our in my memory.
 

We stayed one evening with some of our closest college friends. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Jared and I with Dustin and Nancy (darn), but our kids had so much fun together.  They played night games til nearly midnight while us adults sat and caught up on life, and reminisced the good ol' days.  These two were best friends instantly and love that they looked so similar.  Emma and Emily, both with red hair and freckles.  They even have the same kind of dog.  I can't remember all of the other similarities they discovered, but they had a whole list.

What a trip.  We love Utah and can't wait to come back... hopefully next time we can stay a little longer.