Temple Trip

It is hard to believe that it has been over a month since anything has been posted on our blog. Christmas was great and the kids were spoiled as usual. Life has been pretty normal over the past few weeks. I personally have been extremely busy with work. Debbie is always busy with being a mom and keeping our house in a functioning state. The girls are busy with school, birthday parties (which seem to be never ending), playing with friends, and trying to make messes faster than Debbie and clean them up. Cannon becomes more and more of a fireball with each passing day. It is nearly impossible to keep him still and get him to do something that he does not want to do. He is learning more and more words and his favorite game is to plan chase around the house.

My main motivation for this post is to share our experience and a few pictures of the new Rexburg Temple. Amazingly, this was my first opportunity to attend a temple open house so I was actually really looking forward to going through the new temple. I am working on some development projects in Rexburg so I made it a work trip and took the family to go through the temple while we were there.

It turns out that we picked a couple of very cold days to be in Rexburg. You will see in the pictures that the sun is shining. However, the temperature at the time of the pictures is about 16 degrees below zero. I have not felt cold like that in a long time.

Although Debbie and the girls had a great time going through the temple, Cannon decided that he did not want me to complete my first temple open house experience. We arrived at the stake center which is located about 100 yards from the temple and is where the tour begins. We entered the stake center and started out in a little classroom to see a 10 minute introduction video. Cannon was intrigued at first that the lights were turned off and sat still for the first couple of minutes. Then he made it through another 5 minutes or so because the nice sister missionary sitting next to me (we were on the front row) was making faces at him and he was trying to figure out what she was doing. For the remaining two minutes, we were in the full blown give-the-kid-whatever-he-wants mode so he doesn't scream.

Finally, the lights came back on (10 minutes can last an eternity when you are counting every second) and we moved on to a foyer with our guide who wanted to stop and talk for a couple of minutes. Big mistake. The moment we stopped, Cannon wanted down and when I did not let him down, the intense expression of his displeasure was manifested. So, Cannon and I rapidly exited the foyer and waited by the door that headed outside and on up to the temple.

We then proceeded outside into the tented pathway that led up to the temple. Although the pathway was tented, it was still bitter cold and I believe that the only reason Cannon allowed me to carry him was because he was in shock at the amazing cold sensation he was experiencing at that moment.

The last thing to take place prior to entering the temple was to get booties placed over your shoes so that the carpet inside the temple would remain clean. The setup at the temple was pretty neat (at least for the visitors) in that they had two rows of youth sitting with their backs together and huddled under blankets behind a bar that an individual would hold on to while one of the youth placed the booties on your feet. Naturally, Cannon did not like the fact that someone was putting anything on my feet. I kindly offered encouragement to the very nice teenage girl that was putting booties over my shoes to hurry. She barely managed to get them one before Cannon could escape my clutches and attack the booties.

At this point, the noise level around us dramatically dropped and we entered the temple. Cannon was not quite sure what to make of the general lack of noise. However, due to the warmer air he was feeling, he was very certain that he no longer wanted to be held. I had no choice but to put him down and coax him into the baptistry viewing room which was the first room on the tour. As we listened to the tour guide explain the purpose of the baptismal font, Cannon walked around swinging his rag and staring at people. As soon as the tour guide indicated that we were going to proceed to the next room and I tried to get Cannon to come along, the fireworks began. Cannon knew what was coming when I started walking towards him and bolted for the closest door. To his utter dismay, an usher blocked his path and I was able to catch up and pick him up. At that moment, the ear piercing death screams began to spew from his lungs as he expressed his displeasure with my actions. He made sure everyone in the entire temple knew that I was unjustly detaining him. It was not a pretty site and that is where my tour of the temple ended. Cannon and I rapidly exited the temple and made our way back to the stake center. Remarkably, he was quiet during the walk back down the tented pathway (most likely due to the fact that I failed to put his coat back on in my haste to get out of the temple and because it was still minus 16 degrees outside). We made it back to the stake center and proceeded to roam the halls while Deb and the girls finished the tour.

I was disappointed that I did not get to go through all the rooms of the temple. However, I am glad that I have the ability and privilege to go some other time (without Cannon). Deb and the girls had a great time. I think the girls really understood and felt that they were in a very special place, which is probably the most important outcome of the trip.

I am so glad that they got to experience the temple and I am also so glad and grateful that I have an eternal family.

Here are the few pictures that we took. It was too darn cold to take more.


(Feel free to click on the pictures if you want to see a bigger slide show.)