Provo City Center Temple Open House

When we heard that the Provo City Center Temple would be having an open house earlier this year, we jumped at the chance to take our kids to it.  They still talk about going through the Payson Temple and we've been watching the transformation of the Provo Tabernacle turn into a beautiful temple.  We decided we might as well made a weekend out of the trip up north so we looked to see when BYU had a basketball game on a weekend and tried to get tickets to the temple for the same Saturday.  Well everyone else must have had the same idea for the same weekend because tickets went fast for our first choice of dates.  But luckily, they opened up more tickets a couple weeks later and we were able to go up to the temple and a BYU basketball game.  They still didn't have any tickets available for Saturday, so we reserved some for Friday night instead.  Randy had to take a couple hours off work early and we met up with his parents, and Rhett and Misty's families for a quick dinner before heading to the temple open house.

It was absolutely gorgeous...as always.  The interior has amazing woodwork and I loved how they tried to keep the same pioneer decor and finishes that were in the original tabernacle.  Of course, the Celestial Room was incredible.  The boys both liked the baptismal font and Mia's favorite things were the "married rooms".  I also loved the murals in the ordinance rooms.  In all the temples I've been in, those were some of the best I've seen.

It was a little chilly outside & Alex forgot a tie, but oh well

I love my family! 

 

The kids with grandma & grandpa Ogden

After walking around the grounds for a little bit, Misty's family headed for home but the rest of us went our for ice cream.  We got to visit for a little bit before we went up to the cabin for the rest of the weekend with grandma and grandpa.  That was quite the trek let me tell ya.

The steep road leading up to the cabin is north-facing and sees very little sun during the winter.  With all the snow/rain/snow/rain they've had up there, the road was basically a sheet of ice.  Usually we can just snowmobile in, but the snowmobile couldn't even get enough traction to get up so we had to carry everything we needed up and down the hill each time.  It was well below freezing when we walked up the hill after the open house and everyone was freezing by the time we got to the cabin.  And when I say steep hill, I mean STEEP hill.  It's quite the workout on your own but then add everything you have to carry and trying to keep Mia upright was quite the feat too.  She did a lot of pirouette's on the ice.  I wish I would have gotten video of her "dancing" with daddy but I was too busy trying to not fall myself. :)  Grandpa took a couple spills.  We're honestly lucky no one broke anything in all the times we had to trek up and down the hill.

Saturday afternoon, the boys played in the snow for a while before they had to get ready to go to the game.  I didn't feel like ice skating that day so I opted to stay at the cabin with Mia and grandma and watch the game from there.

Halen wasn't happy to wear pink pants but they were the only ones that fit :)

On Sunday, we got ready for church and started down the slippery slope about 40 minutes early just to make sure we'd make it in time.  We kept saying we better be blessed for risking our lives to go to church. :)  Believe me, it was tempting to skip out that week but we didn't.  I tried to convince Randy into just taking everything down when we went to church so we didn't have to go back up and down again to go home but Rhonda had lunch ready in the crockpot and insisted that we eat something before we left. Soooo, we endured the perils of the ice hill one more time to gather our bags and eat lunch after church before we headed home.  After all the hiking up and down, there wasn't much crunchy snow left on the side of the road to walk in so it basically was ice the whole way.  These pics don't do it justice but this is a little of what we had to deal with: 

Yes, Randy is wearing shorts with his coat tied around his waist :)

That's grandpa coming down the hill

The kids waiting by the car. They couldn't move much without slipping all over

Grandma making her way down

 It really was a fun trip.  I don't mean to complain about the icy roads but I'm glad we got to take the family through the temple and spend time making memories.  The boys enjoyed the BYU basketball game and hopefully this will be a trip they'll remember for a while.