Despite the fact that I backed into this rock trying to find the right entrance to the hotel late at night:
(We went back and took a picture in the morning.)…it was a great trip.Ok, back to summer for a minute…
After our adventures in California we traveled straight to Utah for some BYU camps and our annual family reunion at Bear Lake.
Dave had to get back to work, so we dropped him off at the airport to fly home and the kids and I braved the rest of the long trip by ourselves.
That’s when I came to grips with the fact that I think I actually like driving for extended amounts of time with my children trapped with me in a car. That’s when I wrote this post about our in-the-car speeches and the exhilaration of having my kids all to myself.
The kids were in Heaven that the hotel offered free breakfast and man alive, let’s just say they took full advantage of that.
Then we headed out on the road again.
After driving past the St. George temple hundreds of times in my life, I decided it was time to take a stop to get a better look at that thing.
Boy howdy, was it ever beautiful.
We had the very kind missionary man in there tell us all about the history of that building.
It is the oldest temple still actively used by the LDS Church. It was the third to be completed and the first one built in Utah.
When they started building they were disheartened to find that the foundation they had planned on was completely swampy and unstable. So they took tons and tons of lava rock from the nearby mountains and crushed it with a cannon (that one behind them above) to make a firm foundation.
I loved that story. It reminded me of my mom’s favorite scripture in Helaman 5:12 that she’s had all the grandkids memorize:
“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”
Oh man I love that. How I hope Dave and I can help create some great solid lava rock for these children to build up their faith in Christ on.
The sweet missionary guy also told us all about how they ground up quartz rock as a plaster for the outside of the temple. He gave each of the kids a special rock to remind them of their special day at the temple.
We love looking at all the different languages the Book of Mormon is translated into at temple visitor’s centers. The kids each decided which one they hoped to learn to read if they happen to get called on their missions to that place some day:
I love finding the Romanian Book of Mormon. When I went on my mission to Romania all those years ago only a portion of it was translated. I love that they have the whole thing now.
My favorite pic:
Next we were off to find a place to hike.
See why I love these trips so much? I can do whatever I want :)
I’ve wanted to take our family to hike around the canyons in Southern Utah for a loooooonnng time so I figured this was my window of opportunity.
Problem: It was over a hundred degrees outside and we had no water bottles left. So although we did take this gorgeous red road up into Kolob Canyon, this is about as far as we strayed from the car:
We listened to majestic music as I forced everyone to ohhh and ahhh at the beauty surrounding us.
Because seriously, who knew that fifteen-year-old boys don’t really love to stop every five minutes for a picture??
I told him he’d regret not being in this picture:
I’m sure he has lost a lot of sleep over that one.
At least I had some willing girls:
I loved how they had Lu pose:
Max and I made up.
And man alive, I love that canyon too.
Finally by nightfall we arrived where we were staying for the night: Dave’s sister’s house close to Provo.
We stayed there last summer as well and had so much fun. Carol Lynn is one of the very most kind people I know.
We’ve started a tradition of playing Rummikub when we get together.
To get some sleep before another big day.
