Temple Open House

We're Mormons. Most of our friends know that, and if you're reading this and didn't know that, you do now. We build temples. We believe that temples are God's house on earth. We do baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors there. We do endowments (ceremonies where we make covenants with God) for ourselves and deceased ancestors. And we seal families for eternity. Couples can be married and sealed there to be husband and wife not only for our time here on earth, but also for eternity and beyond. Children are sealed to parents like pieces of a puzzle glued together. (We don't use glue!) Normally, temples are reserved for members of the church 12 and older who live their lives according to the standards and teachings of the church, have an interview with their bishop and stake president, and then are given a temple recommend--like a driver's license saying you're authorized to enter. The temple is a sacred and holy place, so those who enter must live their lives likewise. When new temples are built, there is a dedication ceremony to bless and officially open the temple for operation. Before that dedication, there is a month period for an open house where ANYBODY of any age and any religion or non-religion can go for a free tour through the interior. 

There is a new temple in Fort Collins, Colorado, and we got to go for a tour in August. It was sooo great to be able to take our kids INSIDE the temple to see this special place. We all wore plastic booties over our shoes to keep the carpet clean. Thora had to be carried the whole time because she refused to let that booty be placed over her crocks. She's got this thing about having her feet touched. She hates it. (I had to wrestle her to paint her toe nails. She asked me to do it, then freaked out when I touched her foot. I fought the fight, knowing she'd be okay with it once she realized it was "soft." I was right, and now she has purple toe nails.) Anyway, that girl is heavy to carry! But we saw the baptismal font, the celestial room, sealing rooms and more. When the tour guide mentioned that twice a year, temples are closed down for deep cleaning and that the grandiose chandeliers in the celestial room are lowered so that each crystal can be cleaned, Katie's eyes grew wide. "Dad, can I help them clean the crystals?" She loves to clean! Add on top of that cleaning a chandelier...oh, the excitement! But no, she won't be cleaning it.

 The art is local art of the Fort Collins scenery, painted by local artists. Beautiful mountains, pines, and elk. Flowers carved into the carpet, marriage altars, door knobs. Such a beautiful temple! It's now my second favorite, after the Kansas City temple.

We took a picture in front of the fountain because our kids love water fountains.

I just love the white and blue!

Dancy found orange flowers! She's squinting because of the sun.

Four out of five kids were willing to take a picture with the flowers...

and two wanted a picture with the Christus.

We made a whole weekend of fun to go along with the open house. On our way up to Fort Collins, we stopped at Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver for a free tour. It was just like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!! Only not quite. There's a Santa on the side of the building, which created an interesting discussion a week later. We were discussing Santa, and I asked the kids what he does. Dancy replied, "Climbs candy factories."

After the temple open house, we had fun eating at a Chic-fil-A with a play place. Then we drove down to Boulder to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory. Only Tommy and Katie were old enough, since you have to be 5 to go on the tour. Okay, so I cheated a little with Katie. Shad played with the other three while we went on the half hour tour.

Shad let the little ladies look around the gift shop. One of the workers thought they were just so cute, she gave them little Celestial Seasonings tins. Oh, happy day!

Yep, that's our Thora.

They had a picnic with their tins.        

After Boulder, we went down to Golden. Shad showed us the house he lived in when he was 6, then we went to the Lego Store in the Colorado Mills mall. 

It was a Play Day there, so there were fun little carnival activities set up. Tom and Katie won a Lego set prize at one-- a two-car pack for races! We didn't get back to Becky's house until almost 10, and we had left at 8 that morning!

We didn't slow down on Saturday, either. We slept in a little, then spent 5 hours with Lori at the zoo. Thora reminded me a couple weeks earlier that she loves tigers, and I realized that we hadn't gone to a zoo since April last year. Thora needed a zoo trip. And the tiger there did not disappoint! He proudly paraded back and forth in front of the glass of the cat house for several minutes.

Leo the Lego lion!

Lori had fun spending the day with her nieces and nephews, even if the Tropics house had too many creepy crawlies for her. Dancy said she'd protect Lori from the snakes.

Lori came out alive.

We had fun jumping.

Thora was my little cling-on much of the day. This girl has learned to talk and she's makes her opinion known! Any time I went somewhere she didn't want to go, she commanded, "No! Stop! Tur-round! Tur-round!" So I'd turn around and show her what she wanted to see. When I was reading a plaque in the Komodo Dragon room, Thora was down walking around. She squeezed in between me and the plaque, put her hands on my thighs and started pushing me away from the plaque. She backed me all the way up to the wall, demanding, "Stay way! Stay way!"

Somebody always has to be upset, right?

After dropping Lori off, we picked up some Pizza Hut and went to Washington Park in Denver to meet up with Darrell Tyler and his son Ben. Darrell was my 8th grade English teacher some 13 years ago. He was a great teacher and I adopted him as a mentor. Even earlier this year, I turned to him when my brain needed help processing that awful English-as-a-second-language political science paper I had to edit for my last copyediting class. When I was in high school, I'd frequently walk across to the middle school on my lunch breaks to visit Darrell to chat or get advice. The last time I saw him was almost 9 years ago.

We had fun sharing Samson, meeting and playing with Ben, talking about Make a Killing (the assassin board game Shad and I have been designing), and catching up on life. I'm still mortified that I had insanely non-Kosher pizza for you! This round of Baby Brain has been near debilitating.

Lifelong teacher, mentor, and friend.

And we fed the geese even though the sign said not to. Ooops.

When we packed up in the van, Shad realized that we were right by Grandma Judy, so we stretched our long day just a little longer to visit with her for a bit.

Then we ended the night with Becky reading bedtime stories. Did you know that you can buy the Three Sleepy Kittens book from Despicable Me? You can also get Gru's unicorn book.

On Sunday before heading home, we went to church for a little bit and happened to meet a Delilah! Her mom was just as excited as I was that we made the pair!