Temple Attendance

Tonight Greg and I took the girls (along with much of my family) on the walk through tour of the new LDS Temple in Draper. Both girls were on amazingly good behavior, and it was really fun to take them through and see their eyes light up at the sight of giant chandeliers and amazing windows and stained glass. A few of the highlights were:

Image from here.

• Annie being so excited about going all day. We were in the car with Aunt Lacy earlier on a Costco run, when Annie would suddenly call out enthusiastically, "We are going to see a temple! Yay!"

• Annie's color astuteness. Looking up at the magnificent white building as we approached, I asked Annie, "What color are temples?" She stared at it for a few seconds and responded, "Looks kinda grayish to me."

• Upon entering the temple, Ellie let out a squeal of delight. To which Annie sternly whispered, "Shhhh Ellie! We're whispering!" She also counseled Ellie to "be quiet please" and to "be reverent" several times. I tried to keep her from getting too loud, but I'm guessing God is a big fan of children's laughter in His home, even if it is a usually reverent place. Annie is a shockingly good whisperer. It's amazing how well she can control her voice. I've been informed that she sang "I'm a Little Tea Pot" several times throughout the tour, so quietly only the person holding her could hear the words.

• Which brings me to the adorableness that was Ellie during the long tour. She babbled, squealed, cooed, flirted, giggled, laughed out loud, squeeked and mumbled the entire time. The complete stillness (shocking with literally dozens of people in any one room at a time) was pierced by the sheer joy in my 8 month olds laughs. People around us just watched her and smiled and quietly laughed at her attention grabbing antics. Anytime we passed someone on the tour who'd taken a minute out to sit down and rest or to enjoy their surroundings, Ellie would look at them, cock her head to one side and squeak or coo until she had them laughing. An older couple who'd been walking behind us for quite some time stopped us before we left to inform me that my daughter had made their day, and they had quietly laughed the entire time watching her joyous reactions to everything and everyone she saw. AND, to top it off, the sweet baby actually even fell asleep in my arms at the end. That may not sound like much to some of you, but I can pretty much count on one hand the number of times my baby has fallen asleep in my arms (sans nursing) in the last six months. Melts my heart.

• Getting to ride a bus from a local Church building up to the actual temple. Annie thought the bus ride was about the coolest thing ever. We were reminded to take a 'blue' bus back when our tour was over, assuring us we would get back to the right building and be able to find our car again. The tour guide referred to our bus as "Babe the Big Blue Bus." Annie has a new best friend in "Babe." She talks about him at length, telling us how he was picking up other kids to bring them to see the temple, and then come back for us. When we got on the bus about three hours from the time we started this whole adventure, Annie looked around for a second and said, "This isn't Babe. Babe had to go see his Daddy bus, so this bus came for us instead." It was actually a different bus (I could only tell 'cause this one had a TV at the front where the other one didn't.) Annie spent the rest of the 5-6 minute drive back to our car telling us all about Babe going to see his Dad. She seemed really happy for him, not the least bit miffed that we ended up with another bus.

• Annie commenting on the 'daddy cows' in the baptistry.

• The celestial room. The ceiling is unbeliveably high and beautiful, with a gigantic chandelier hanging down. Annie was fascinated. She had to ask her Uncle David to "lean her back more", and he held her cradled in his arms so she could stare up at the ceiling in awe. Spending most of my time trying to keep my adorable, yet somewhat distracting, 8-month old from being too noisy, I kinda lost some of the 'wow, this is a temple-ness' to the 'wow, this kid is loud-ness' that was my focus at the time. All that slipped away, if only for a second or two, as I held my baby in the celestial room and one thing came into my mind. "Family. My family." I couldn't have been in a more beautiful place, surrounded by my loved ones.

• Annie saying, "There's a lot of pictures of Jesus here, huh?"

• Afterwards, asking what Annie's favorite part was and getting the answer, "The cookies at the end." It's official - I've definitely raised a Mormon; a refreshment-loving Mormon.