Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

I decided that my children needed to go to a temple open house in order to have a better appreciation for the temple and what important covenants are made inside the temple.

The Oquirrh Mountain Temple had an open house this summer and I thought it was a good time to go an visit it.

We tried to prepared the boys for the experience, so the kids were excited to go and see the temple. When we got to the temple, there was a long line and it was hot. The kids got really impatient but they did hang in there.

We finally got to enter the temple. It was a beautiful temple which was so peaceful and calm inside. The boys were good for the first part and I think they were somewhat impressed with the beauty of the temple. Unfortunately, they got really loud after about 15 minutes. People in back of us in line were kind and gave them some Life Savers to make them happy. After they chomped through those candies, they started to get loud again.

My kids are not quiet kids, but having them act out in the temple is not a good situation and quite embarrassing. After we couldn't stand the embarrassment anymore, we left early without going through the entire tour.

Do I think my kids got a lot out of the trip to the temple? I have no idea, but I tried. The one thing I do know is when they hear the name Oquirrh Mountain Temple, they do remember that we went inside. I guess parenting is all about providing spiritual opportunities and then have faith that the spirit will touch their hearts.

Here are some pictures of the boys waiting in line to enter the temple...

I do feel fortunate that we live in an area where their are temples all around us, and that we have an opportunity to attend an open house. Even though this experience wasn't everything that I hoped it would be, but I hope we planted a seed in my boys about the importance of temples.

Hanging out with The Storm Family

This summer we had the opportunity to have my brother and his family come and visit us. Unfortunately, the day they came Dylan pukes in the car. It always amazes me that whenever they come and visit us someone gets sick and within days we are having a barf-o-rama on our hands. They tried to evade the sickness and stay at a friends house and a hotel but unfortunately, it didn't work. Each member of the family got sick. But, between the vomits we were able to have fun and do a couple of fun things. One of the things we were able to do was go to the Davis County fair.

Here are some pictures of us at the fair....


Luke hanging out with a cow chewing there cuds.

The kids were fascinated with watching Momma pig feeding her babies.

Callie petting a cow and loving every second.

The entire gang having beautiful smiles on their faces. I love this picture!!!

Each of the kids got to ride on the ponies. They were all in heaven.

Go Annie Oakley!!

Luke finally isn't scared of horses and enjoys his pony ride.

Mason riding all by himself.

Dylan couldn't get enough of feeding the animals. He loved it.

This was a sight. Harley is a world's famous pig at the fair. He won several awards for his size.

Read the writing above him to see how big he was. Wow!

Mason riding on the plane ride.

Say cheese!!!!

Even though we had a lot of sick people in our home, we really did enjoy the time we spent with them. Hopefully, next time they come (if they ever dare to enter our home again) we will all say a prayer that no one will vomit and we can have a normal visit with lot of laughs and good memories.

New York, New York

My sister Lindsay and her husband Pat had an internship in New York City this summer. So, I decided I needed a trip (by myself) to go and visit her in the Big Apple. So, I left at the end of July and headed to the big city.

We did a TON of fun stuff while we were there. I had already visited New York so I didn't do the traditional site seeing stuff but I got to see and do so many other fun things. Some of the things we did were:

Central Park
Blue Man Group
Wendy Williams Show
Mary Poppins
Apollo Theatre
Little Italy
China Town
Shopping
Times Square
Spending time with my sister and brother in law

Here are some pictures of the trip.



Taking a walk through Central Park. I was amazed because I had no idea how big the park was and how shrubbery there was. It is so weird that you could be in the craziness of New York in one minute and then walk into Central Park and feel like you have been transported to some National Park in Idaho or Utah. I really enjoyed it.


The two love birds making out in Central Park.

Pat trying to re-enact the scene from Dirty Dancing on the log.

Lindsay and myself at Central Park

Many times while we were walking around in New York we got caught in a rain storm.

When it rains in New York, it rains!! I actually really liked it because it cooled things

down. It was REALLY hot and when it rained it washed the sweat away from my face.

Here I am waiting for a subway soaked from Rain.

I wrote the boys a post card from New York. Here I am in the post office (drenched) trying to write a message on a post card which was hard to do because I was dripping all over the card. But, they got it and were really excited to get some mail. Mason still carries his post card around the house. Don't under estimate the power of mail.

We saw the Blue Man Group show. It was really good and I really enjoyed myself.

They did a lot of fun acts and I was thoroughly entertained. I give it a thumbs up!

I have never heard of Wendy Williams but she is a black woman who has a new talk show. How she made her mark in the entertainment world was she has a radio talk show host and I guess her and Whitney Houston got into a fight or something like that. Anyways, Pat was able to get us some "VIP" tickets from his work.

It was a really entertaining experience. I loved watching all of the people who attended the show and being a part of the process of putting the show on. I was close to being on the show as an audience member asking Wendy a question, but at the last minute they changed their minds. We decided it was probably because my question was a bit to deep for her to answer on national television. I was going to ask her "Wendy I want to adopt a black baby. But, I am nervous because I am a white woman and live in Utah where there aren't a lot of black people. I don't want to make the child feel uncomfortable. What should I do?" All of the cast members of the show liked my question and was coaching me on how to ask the question but right before she started doing questions, they pulled me off. Oh well, fame comes and goes. It was fun while it lasted.

Here are some pictures of the Wendy Williams experience.

Sitting in the "VIP" section waiting to go into the studio.

Yes, we were "VIP" guests at the Wendy Williams Show.

Pat has connections.

Lindsay and Pat shaking their booty. They have a dancing section with the audience members

right before the show. Lindsay and Pat were one of the few white people who were showing everyone how white people can bust-a-move.

Waiting for the show to start. Lindsay actually got approached from an individual from the Wendy Williams show and asked her if he could take a picture of her as part of their fashion section. Nothing every happened from that. But, I think they will use it for future shows on how to dress as an audience member. She looked so cute that they had to capture her look. I don't blame them.

Here I am in Little Italy. It was a really neat section of New York with AMAZING food. Italian food is my favorite, so I was in Heaven!!

One of the things that I really liked about New York is there is so much diversity from one street to the next. One street is filled with Asians and feels like you are in China, the next street is filled with Italians and the next street is filled with a completely different nationality. Even though we are in the US, many times it felt like we were in different parts of the world. Because of this, we got to experience some really cool things. For example, we ate at some really good authentic restaurants from different countries and cultures.

Here we are in an Indian food restaurant. It was decked out in lights and gaudy decorations. It was really fun and the food was good. You don't see a restaurant like this in Utah.

Feeling very cultured while order food from an Indian restaurant.

We saw Mary Poppins on Broadway. It wasn't my favorite musical but it was a good show that had some really cool special effects.

Lindsay lived in Harlem. One the way home one evening, we saw a car fire. New York is certainly never boring. There is always something going on.

In Harlem right next to the Apollo theatre, they had a HUGE Wall filled with people paying tribute to the King of Pop. Their were flowers and pictures and people writing their feelings about how Michael influenced them. It is amazing how one person can have such an impact on the world.


One night we went to the Apollo Theatre. It was really entertaining. You have a huge theatre filled with mostly black people who give their opinion on people's talents by either clapping or booing. I felt bad for people who were trying their hardest to sing or dance and people would just boo them off the stage. But, that is how they do it. Lindsay had no problem with giving her opinion by booing the contestants. Besides my heart breaking for those individuals who got booed off, it was really fun.

That about sums it up. As you can see, I had a great time. Thanks Lindsay and Pat for showing me how to live large in the Big Apple.