Vernal Temple

We went with Melodie and Ethan to the Vernal temple today for them to receive their temple endowment. (We arrived home from Vernal at 12:45 am Thursday morning, but I'm typing this up and posting it under Wednesday.) I shared last week how it all worked out that we were able to schedule their endowments in Vernal, and we are just so thankful that we got an appointment for them that we could all go to together before Ethan leaves on Tuesday morning. Having to drive 3 hours to it was a very small sacrifice compared to the blessing it was to be there together, and with Joseph too!

Joseph flew in this morning at 9 am, after finishing up his adventure with summer sales in Dewey pest control out there. So everything has been amazing and worked out perfectly!

The drive out there wasn't bad at all. It was fun to talk in the car and we had a great time. We left a little late, so I was pushing the speed limit to get there by 4:30. We had planned to leave between 1 and 1-:30, but weren't on the road until 1:38, and then Ethan had to stop by Corey's parent's to pick up his recommend, which I don't know why he didn't bring. I was a little stressed there, and Ethan teased "No pasa nada!" as he comforted me with his amazing Spanish skills. Also, as we were leaving, Joseph asked Corey and I "Do you guys have my recommend?" He had his interview over video from California, so he didn't have the physical copy. He actually hadn't had his interview with the Stake either, and I was like "What?!?! You're realizing this now?" I thought he might have to miss it and would just be along for the drive, but we called the temple, and they were able to check, and his recommend was active in the system so he was good to go. So that was a tender mercy. It is a little close sometimes though, letting these kids take care of things by themselves. Granted Joseph did have a lot going on the past few days, but he could have decided to NOT leave it for the last few days, or for the drive there, but it's all good, he was able to come in. Also, when I put on the maps to tell me where to go, I just entered "Vernal" so I was heading towards downtown/main street Vernal, when Ethan was like "There's the temple" and I was about to wiz past it, so I was glad he was looking, or we would have been 10 minutes late instead of 7. "No pasa nada!" Don't worry about it. We pulled up at 4:37 and hurried in.

Neil was just arriving too, so it was great. Corey's mom had made white face masks for everyone, which was very nice. We were going to take pictures, but they were waiting for us at the doors, so we'll have to do it after. (We were lucky the doors were still open when we were late! I hear it's not going to be like that for the marriage supper...) The session was very nice and a small group, just our family: Corey and me, Joseph, Melodie, and Ethan, my parents Kim and Linda, Corey's parents Wayne and JeNeal, and Neil and Amy.

Here are some photos we took after our very special and unique time in the temple.

Who knows if there will ever be a chance like this again: for us to have two of our kids receive their endowment at the same time, or another chance to have a whole session just to ourselves.

Some individual pictures of Mel and Ethan -

Trying out different angles for each of them. I won't put them all here, but we got several of each of them alone...

...And a few of Ethan teasing and pretending they are a young couple in love, ha! That made me laugh

We went to Cafe Rio afterwards with Corey's parents and Neil and Amy.

My parents headed back before it got any darker. We were on the road around 9pm.

The drive home was a bit long. I don't like driving in the dark on unlit streets, I start to feel like I'm in a dream and going crazy. I listened to a few episodes of Talking Scripture podcast, I got through most of Revelation, so good. But then after we were in Heber I needed something to wake me up (everyone else was quiet and either listening or sleeping most of the drive) so I put on some Killers and then I was ok and awake as I sang along. We got to Corey's parents house a little after midnight, waited for them so that we could leave Ethan in capable hands (you know how you can't leave these missionaries alone!) and then we left around 12:30, home at 12:45, and that was their special day that they shared with us. Hyrum held down the fort here, and with Wes and Abi's help, they had the house clean, and the kids all read and practiced! We told Hyrum that we'll leave him in charge more often, or maybe we'll just hand over the parenting baton, cause obviously he's better at this than we are! But he and Wes said they don't want to be parents again for a while, it was exhausting, ha. I'm very grateful for their capable help, Peter was sad and missed me, but they were all safe and well, and we drove home safe, it was a good day all around.