I love to see the temple

Okay first off I had this picture from Friday. This is my favorite Charlotte. Sleeping Charlotte. She's quiet and so cute and not screaming or yelling at me to stop it. Love my little two year old!

But back to my post... Charlotte loves temples. I have a bunch of pictures up in our front room and dining area. There are... maybe like 14 or 15 in there. Mind you I have 5 different smaller pics of the Salt Lake temple since Scott and I were married there and its below this wood board that has our wedding day and names on it. But yeah... quite a few. I love temple pictures and always have. There are even a bunch more underneath the glass on top of the dressers in Charlotte's room and the new baby's room. I always want my kids to see these temples and want to go there as bad as I did. Growing up I loved coming to UT to go to Deseret Book or the distribution center and get to pick out temple pictures to take home. I couldn't wait for the day I was able to receive my endowments and to be able to be sealed to the most amazing man in the world. So my hope is that by constantly seeing these pictures they'll have the same desire and live their lives to get there.

We also just had a really good stake conference that focused on faith and temple attendance. I only made it to our Sunday session but it was so good! They talked about teaching our kids about the temple and taking them often, when of age, to do baptisms and confirmations. They had two youth speakers who were just so awesome. I have never heard teenagers talk like these two. We have some incredible youth in our stake. These two were definitely proof. It just got me kind of thinking though one day. I think the last time we took Charlotte down to the temple was for Christmas lights. At least that I could remember. Whenever she sees my wallpaper on the computer (of the Newport Temple) or a picture on our photo frame, she gets all excited and yells "temple!" So with this being the lovely long weekend it is and Scott actually able to spend more than just 2-3 hours with us, I thought maybe we could spend our Sunday evening down there.

Friday night I had made a double batch of creamy chicken taquitos from Our Best Bites (they are one of my favorites!) and some of the creamy lime cilantro dressing. I was saving the leftovers for Sunday for a nice and easy dinner. So that worked out perfect. I heated everything up. Brought some really good watermelon I got at Costco and some strawberries then some cookies for dessert and we headed out around 6 to go downtown. We got lucky and had a sweet spot next to the Church History Library and walked over to the park to eat. I think its City Cree Park. It's right across from the historic Brigham Young park. Charlotte ran around and ate a little bit. It was such a nice evening. Then when packed everything back in the car and headed over to Temple Square.

I am amazed at how busy it can get on a Sunday. There were a lot of people there. We walked around and Charlotte was super excited to see the temple. Then of course she got super excited to see the water features and wanted to copy all the other kids sticking their hands in the water. Thank you other kids for your great example. Once we pried her away from the water, we showed her some flowers by the Assembly Hall. She was still kind of throwing a fit from leaving the water so I had to start asking her to tell me the colors to distract her. Once we got to the north side of the Tabernacle I thought about taking her in the North Visitor Center to see the Christus. At this point she was quite independent and did not want to hold our hands but I told her she couldn't go see Jesus unless she held my hand and was quiet. Amazingly it worked :) She was so good in there and even was able to be pretty quiet and keep it reverent for the others sitting in there. She even let me hold her. She was so excited and kept saying Jesus and that she wanted to jump off the little platform that he sits on. Yeah... not gonna happen. We only stayed a couple of minutes then left. It was almost 8 and we had to get headed home soon.

When we left there she kept talking about Jesus. It was cute. Then we walked over to the reflection pool and of course into the water her hands went. We struggled to leave and she was not happy but the cookies eased the pain. It was just nice to get out as a family and walk Charlotte around temple square. I love not only the pioneer history from there but mine and Scott's own little history. Our first "date", where he proposed, where we started our eternal family... it just makes it a little more special and I can't wait for our kids to be older and to share that stuff with them. Charlotte's already talking about going back. She keeps bringing up the temple and Jesus. I'm glad we have so many temples in UT too so there many places for us to take her. Many more family adventures ahead of us! Scott and I just need to make sure we're always setting the example on going to the temple so our kids can always see the importance of it. I have the opportunity to do initiatories every month for Relief Society. It's been a few months since Scott and I have gone together to do a session. We are hoping to go this month. Before Charlotte we were pretty good about going every month but its funny how kids will do that to ya! So hopefully we can get a few more in before the baby comes. Oh and I did take pics so here they are below.

 I love that when I ask her to smile, this is what I get. Still so cute though!

 This temple is just gorgeous! The details are amazing. Charlotte and Scott both as cute as ever.

 Okay this is sweet. I don't remember seeing this when we walked around for our anniversary in May. They must be new. But they are like a touch screen map with info on everything... tours, shows... everything. Technology is amazing these days!

 Charlotte said she was "sleeping"

 This was by the flowers used to distract her from the many water features on temple square. You can kind of see her eye still. It's getting much better!

 I can barely get this kid to stand still for two seconds and take a picture. She is a wiggle worm!

 The Assembly Hall

So for all the times I have spent walking around Temple Square I have never really noticed this. This is the Nauvoo Bell. It was originally donated by British Saints and hung at the original Nauvoo temple but when the saints were told to leave they brought this with them. They would use it on the plains to "awaken the herdsmen at dawn, to signal morning prayer, to start the day’s march, and to sound during the night watches to let the Indians know that the sentry was at his post." It had other uses around the area until it was hung in celebration for the Relief Society Centennial celebration in 1942. This bell rings ever hour on the hour. For those in UT and who listen to KSL radio, the bell that sounds at every hour is the Nauvoo Bell. I thought that was kind of cool. I've lived here for 6 years now and didn't know that until now. I used to always listen to KSL while getting ready for work or on my way to work. I also read that they have a panel that can control the bell from the Tabernacle organ for special occasions. Pretty cool. I swear I learn something new every time I go.


Oh and for those who live this way and haven't been to the South Visitor Center to see the temple model, you need to. Its really neat. I guess even for those who might not live up here but maybe will be visiting this way some time. It shows you where the rooms are in the temple so you can kind of see where in the temple you are when you do a session. It's amazing. I think its really cool for non members too who think our temples are so secretive. That way they can come and see what its like in there. I think it helps explain that its not secretive, its sacred. The things that go on can't be revealed to those who don't have a recommend but at least this way they can see what everything looks like in there. So anyway, there is our little update so far on this lovely Labor Day weekend! (Yeah and not sure why my font won't change so sorry. Probably because I cut and pasted a quote. Lame!)