Draper Temple

It is day two of my picture blog and I find myself asking the question, "Do I blog the bad with the good?" I guess the answer is yes. Maybe I'll be able to appreciate it in the long run. Maybe someday everyone will understand why I ended up having a nervous breakdown.

Today we went as a family to tour the new Draper Temple. Now I'm sure you are all much smarter than I am and wouldn't have taken the 3 year old much less the 18 month old. But, what is the point in going to the openhouse if we don't take our kids? Burke and I can go to the temple on our own after it is officially open. Anyway. That was our big mistake. The second mistake was my expectations. I thought this was going to be a fun family event that might border on spiritual with maybe a flash of peace. And honestly, it probably would have been if we had only taken Mason. I also had expectations that we would simply walk through the temple. But it was not to be.

We started off at the church where we had to sit on chairs in the gym waiting to watch a film. The minute I heard the word 'film' I knew we were in trouble. Tess was already running circles around the gym and squeeling with delight. There was no way I was going to keep her still while watching a movie about temples. I was right. We were ushered into the primary room to watch the film and before it even started, I had had it with her kicking and screaming, trying to keep her still, and was out roaming the halls with her while Burke and Mason finished the movie. Then it was on to the bus. I was hoping the worst was over.

Mason enjoyed the ride. He loves buses.

You can tell by Burke's expression that the worst is not over. He is already losing patience quickly.

So the tour started off pretty well. Tess definately didn't want to be held and would occasionally start kicking and crying at whoever happened to be holding her. Mason was really good at the beginning and seemed very interested in the "pool" with the "cows" holding it up. This made him laugh and smile. We also were pointing out all of the pictures of Jesus that we saw in the temple. He also like to point out Moroni and make the "do da dooo" sound that Moroni makes when he blows his trumpet.

The problem we had was that there were so many people there. We were all in a very long, very slow moving line. If we had kept moving, I think we would have survived. The stopping and waiting was our downfall. I have to comment that the brides dressing room was so beautiful! It made me want to see Tess in there all dressed up to meet her husband-to-be. I loved it! And, I loved the ordinance rooms! Wow! The murals were amazing. But soon we arrived at the celestial room where of course they wanted us to be as quiet as possible. There was a very slow moving line weaving through and everyone was stopping and admiring the beauty. Tess was not one of them. She starting squirming, wanting to be let down and then... she discovered that the celestial room echoes. This delighted her and she immediately started... yelping... or hooting. I don't know how to describe it. It was pretty much a loud shout followed by a smile, then another one, and another one. Mason is definately a follower. He immediately recognized the celestial rooms echoing feature and started imitating Tessa. For some reason I didn't feel like spanking my 3 year old in the celestial room was appropriate, but the angry "SHHHHHHHHHSH!" that I was giving him didn't seem to be working. It seriously took us about two minutes to work our way through the celestial room with our hooting and shushing. I have to say that I'm glad temple recommends weren't required for this event because ours would have definately been taken. I'm sure we ruined the event for the 30 or so people that were in the room with us. I was sooooo tense and anxious and didn't know what to do.

After we made it out of the celestial room we were ushered into a sealing room with about twenty other people and the door was closed. A sweet couple proceeded to stand and tell us about what their temple covenants meant to them. They reassured me that the kids could run around the room and that they didn't mind. I could not sit and listen to them bear their testimonies about the temple while my 3 year old and 18 month old were climbing on the altar. I was ashamed and escaped from the room with Tess leaving Burke to fend for himself with Mason. Luckily we had reached the end of the tour because we both had definately reached the end or our ropes.


Then we waited in the tent for our busses where the kids were fine as long as they were allowed to run around a scream as loud as they wanted. Notice how Burke looks like he just had a spiritual experience with a dash of peace?

So the moral of the story is, don't be dumb like us. Leave the little ones at home. Families can be together forever but you don't have to be together every second. Use a babysitter for heck sake!!!