We Love to See the Temple

As soon as we arrived along the Wasatch front, the kids noticed that the landscape was dotted with the characteristic white steeples of LDS churches. Alyssa started to keep a tally of how many churches she saw but eventually gave up and said, "There are as many churches in Utah as there are Starbucks in Washington."  It's true, they're everywhere.  We even saw two buildings sharing the same parking lot on several different occasions.

We saw many temples too, mostly from a distance, but a couple of times we got up close and personal.

First, on Monday, we went to see the progress on the future Provo City Center Temple.  We used to attend our stake conferences in the old Provo Tabernacle.  I think it's fantastic that the church decided to rebuild it into a temple after it was damaged by a fire.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Then on Friday, we had the opportunity to go to the Brigham City Temple open house.  I am thankful for any chance our children have to walk through the halls of a temple.  It is, of course, absolutely beautiful.

Just look at this stunning photo:

And this girl, she's pretty stunning, too:

It was fun to experience it all with our cousins.

Cute girls--Erin, Alyssa and Popeye

The introductory video, shown before you enter the temple, was presented in the underground parking garage.  It was pretty hot and stuffy, but I can tell you that I've never seen a parking garage that clean and white.

When we came out of the temple, some ominous clouds rolled in on one direction while the bright sun shone on the other.  It made for spectacular lighting in this picture of the Brigham City Tabernacle:

Our family

The Lynn family

Lucy and three of her boys

Since Wellsville is only twenty minutes away from Brigham City, we decided to make the quick drive through the canyon to give the kids a little family history tour.

This was the home of Jon's grandmother.  He remembers making summertime visits to this house.  Jon got out to explain to the owner, who was outside, why we were taking pictures of his house.  He found out the man's last name was Maughan, which would mean that they are cousins of some sort.

Then we continued on to the cemetery.  This is Uncle Fred's headstone:

This is the grave of William Harrison Maughan, Jon's great-great grandfather.  Look at the last line of this marker.  He was the bishop of Wellsville for over forty years!  I won't ever complain about the five that Jon has been serving.

And here are a few of William Harrison Maughan's great-great-great grandchildren standing next to his grave:

This is the marker of Heber Parker, Jon's great-great grandfather on the Parker side:

 

Jon did exactly what Grandpa Hatch would've done if he'd been there.  He gave the kids a run down of the genealogy followed by some questions to check their understanding.  Like father like son, for sure! If I'd have closed my eyes, I might not have been able to tell if it were Jon or Carl talking.  It made me smile.  

I am, however, quite sure that Carl would not have worn this on his head:

It's one of those protective booties that they put over your shoes when you enter the temple.  Jon decided it would make a funny hat.  Yep, he looked pretty funny alright.

Here's the whole crew--minus me because I was the photographer--at the headstone of Jon's maternal grandparents, Fred and Edna.

It was a great day that I hope the children always remember.