Travels, Birthdays, and Temples

Brandon left yesterday for London.
Yes, he just got back from London.
Yes, he went back.
No, he won't be gone nearly as long this time --in fact, he'll be back Friday. But that doesn't mean I like having him gone. Worst part? He was so sick on Saturday; I hope he feels better soon. Traveling is hard enough without being sick, you know?
Worst-er part? Now I have what he had. So does #3.
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Yesterday (as you know) #4 turned Two! Here are some pictures of the early-morning-cake-for-breakfast-before-dad-leaves-for-England festivities:



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On Saturday, we took the kids to the Draper Temple Open House. Of course, we forgot the camera, so this link of pictures will have to do. But imagine grey skies. And a gloomy day. The Temple, despite the gloom, was still gorgeous, though.

We had a great time (despite Brandon being sick --he was such a trooper) and the kids really enjoyed it! Especially the girls. #3 was tired by the end, and #4 kept yelling "Anotha one!" every time he saw a portrait of Christ --which, as you might know, meant every five seconds. The Draper Temple is a small one, so the tour didn't take too long, but it was so beautiful. I asked the kids afterwards what their favorite parts were:
#1: The Celestial Room!
#2: The room with the big chandelier and the room with the mirrors.
#3: The sparkly rooms!
#4: Yah!

And you know? I'm still blown away at how well the Church organizes everything. Because the Draper Temple is small (and they were having thousands and thousands of people visit), they couldn't accommodate that many people for parking. So, they had three separate meeting houses, all within a few miles of the Temple, assigned to help with parking. Each one was color coordinated, and each one had 2 to 3 tour buses taking people up and back to the Temple. There were volunteers everywhere, pamphlets, refreshments afterwards, information posted, and instead of those little white slipper/booties they used to make people wear to keep the carpet clean? They just covered all the "tour walk-ways" with plastic. It was smooth, informative, and efficient. In fact, we arrived at about 3:45PM, and we were back in car on our way home by 5:40PM.
Yeah, we rock at organization.
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Remember my post yesterday? About me caring what people think of me? If not, scroll down --it's right there.
Anyway, my dear friend Michelle (who is in my ward) wrote a blog post about it (instead of leaving a marathon comment) and I loved it. Go read it. You will probably love it, too.

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I have this other friend, and she's a genius. Go read this post she wrote at BCC. I loved it because I think we forget that the hardest parts of our lives come AFTER we grow up and go to the Temple. It's not about "whew! I made it to the Temple! Now life will be easy!" Instead, it's about "Whew! I made it to the Temple! And it's a good thing, because now life is gonna be HARD."

Happy Monday!