Jordan River Temple Open House

I am so so excited that the Jordan River Temple's renovation is done and that it will be open again soon! We went to the open house today. I felt a little stuck with my lack of productivity, so I needed something to reboot - I decided to go at 1:30, reserved it online, and we were there at 2:30. Walking in the line....

The older kids wore nicer clothes, I didn't bother making Owen or Daniel dress up. We took turns swinging Daniel so we could 1) keep him entertained and 2) keep our hands on him so he wouldn't run away.

Mel holding him for a moment while we wait in the corridor to go in. I took 4 pictures of this - Natalie was a blur in all but one of them, jumping up and down with excitement.

She kept saying "I'm so so excited to see Jesus!"

A selfie of me and my little D

He's such a happy boy!

Group selfie! 

At the doors of the temple, we got to put on footseis on over our shoes and sandals. Even Owen and Daniel.

Owen was a little confused as to what we were doing, so he looked at us with those big beautiful eyes and to verify everything was okay, we nodded approvingly, and he rolled with it.

I didn't know if they had them Daniel's size, but sure enough - these booties really are a one size fits all!

Daniel thought it was really fun! Look at you, Daniel! You're wearing big person shoes!

The tour was very nice, and temple is beautiful. A life goal of mine is to paint something that will be in a temple. A hallway, wherever, just some nature painting as a small offering to the Lord to tell him thanks for this lovely world He created for us and thank you for giving me my family - Corey and our wonderful children. The highlight of this open house for me was being in the celestial room with my kids. Since this is a re-dedication, I already know and love this temple. I've already had sweet spiritual feelings here. So to see Abi, Lily and Sophi sitting on chairs and looking up to the chandelier, as I have done many times, was just wonderful. I was holding Daniel in my arms. I loved seeing sweet little Owen walking through, holding his binky and blanket, with his big quiet eyes looking up and around at at me. Joseph, Melodie and Weslely picked up Owen and held their younger sisters hands. I thought "We won't all be here together again until they are all grown... my little kids won't be little anymore." And I had a vision of us together there again, all of us as adults!! Who will my kids be when they are grown? Gosh I'm getting teary again as I write this... I wished that Corey, Ethan, and Hyrum had come with us for us to ALL be there, so now we have to go again as an entire family, and that is my birthday wish, ha! I'm gonna make it happen, the open house ends on my birthday, so I think I'll go reserve tickets right now. We'll be back! At the end of the tour, we took a picture with a Christus statue. Natalie in this picture is a little sad - she was disappointed that she didn't see Jesus.

Someday, Natalie! He's coming back soon, keep up that childlike faith, we'll see Him soon.