I knew the Ogden temple was going to be having their open house the end of this summer, so I decided we would make a family weekend of it and go see it, I got reservations the day they started making them, and the rest was a breeze. We headed down on a Thursday but the rain was so bad, that we only made it to Idaho Falls it rained the entire drive there. We stayed in Idaho Falls and woke up to more rain, we decided to go to Logan for the day (which will be another post) and then we hit one of my favorites The Maddox and headed into Ogden. Doug's brother was kind enough to let us stay with him, we had a great time. We were able to stop in and see my Aunt and Uncle and do a little leisurely shopping it was kind of nice to go to Utah just because I wanted to instead of having a tight schedule of places we needed to be not that we don't love going to support our family we do, but this trip was just all about us. Which was kind of fun too. So When a temple is built it is opened to the public to go and tour for usually like a month or so, then they close the open house in this case there are area's that will be completely redone like the bridal room carpet the piece that is suppose to go in there is very delicate and hand cut so it was fit, cut, and removed then will be replaced after the open house. After the Open House is closed the temple is Dedicated and then only worthy Members of the church with recommends can enter, one also has to be of a certain age.
Our kids are young and have a lot of questions about the temple but are not old enough to go in normally so the open house was a perfect opportunity for us to take them in a temple and talk about and show them some things, namely how beautiful the House of the Lord is. Both of them loved the Baptistery and said that was their favorite part, probably because there was water, they are in love with water. This particular temple was built and then re-done, so the Ogden temple has been around for years, but the church decided to renovate it and they did an amazing job below is what it use to look like the only things that are the same now is where the stairs and the elevators are, they even changed the direction of The Angel Moroni on the top.
The newly done temple is so beautiful, with it's red mahogany and marble throughout, but my favorite was my small family together in the celestial room, I hope it is the first of many times that happens in our lives with our family that we will get to be in the temple together often. My Sister in law had been an Usher a week or so before we were there so she gave us some great tips so we could avoid some pitfalls of the tour, so we talked to the kids about the booties before we got there so they were not distracted by them apparently this was kind of a big thing for some kids, and we often stepped out of the line to look at things, and talk, had she not told us we could we would have tried to keep the pace and missed a lot, it was nice to have her tips.
My Mom came down the day after us and joined us for the tour of the temple, she grew up in that area so she really wanted to see the new temple and to be there with us, a bonus for us, we love Grandma so much.
Us outside the temple
The kids making wishes
I can't think of a better way to spend my Saturday. We had such a nice trip, Doug's Brother was kind enough to have get together and we were able to see a slew of Doug's family too, and his Brother Smoked a turkey which was soooo Good! Our Nieces and Nephew even came in from College to see us, it was nice to see everyone. We missed seeing his one brother it was our Nieces birthday so they were busy, but it was good to see everyone else. Our trip was kind of fast, but we had some pretty great experiences with our little family that we will always cherish. We do love the Temple.
