Draper Temple Open House

We got to go to the Draper Temple Open House last Friday morning (the second day it was open for tours!!). The church is expecting over 950000 visitors in the next two months before it is dedicated. We got to be part of the tour before some of the kinks were worked out.... mainly that the buses were very behind schedule and overcrowded, but it was so worth it!!

The other funny thing is that they have a walkway corridor of tents set up to keep snow and ice and cold away from people as they come and go from the temple for the open house. The buses drop you off at the entrance to the tunnel-tent thing. You walk through that into the Temple and take the self guided tour through all the rooms and out the front doors of the Temple straight back into another tunnel that takes you to a church building close by where they serve water and cookies and there are pictures of all the temples and of Christ and lots of missionaries and volunteers are there to talk to. Then you go through another short tunnel straight back onto a bus to take you back to the various parking lots 5-10 minutes away.

One problem: You never see the outside of the Temple!! We had to "sneak" out a side door of the chapel to go take these pictures. Not that no one is allowed, the church just doesn't want visitors to get too cold!!

It's a gorgeous Temple with breathtaking rooms. The boys were all dressed up in Tuxedo's for the occasion (why not?) and we got lots of comments on how adorable they were. Cadence and Brennan loved all the pictures of Jesus on the walls, and liked the water in the Baptistry. The Chandeliers are AMAZING!!! 200 lights inside one chandelier alone, with hundreds and hundreds of crystals roped together. Beautiful! Cade's one question throughout the whole Temple-- "Where are the light switches?" This said looking at the most beautiful of all the chandeliers. Both of the boys said their favorite part was the bus rides.

It was very bright out as you can see from the beautiful winter blue sky behind, so sorry for the squinting! At least the Temple sits above the smog of the city (oops, I mean "haze"). There are times when we do wish for snow.

Other activities that have kept me from blogging lately:

I get to make birthday cakes for each of the Young Women this year. A few weeks ago I made this one (it's a little 4 inch cake to fit into a decorated cake box)...

and then there were leftovers because you just can't make one 4 inch cake....

yummy black forest cherry chocolate with real whipped cream. Mmmm. Too bad we're on a diet.
I also taught YW's the same day as the cake thing. My lesson was "Jesus Christ, Our Savior" I found a talk by President James E Faust on removing the thorns and briars from your life (i.e. sin, temptation, sadness) and how the Savior's Crown of Thorns became his Crown of Glory. I had the idea for the handout before I found the talk, so it was perfect!
The crown of thorns is made of none other than our favorite dried plant, sprayed with glitter.
Anyway, the girls and leaders seemed to like it, so I thought I would let you enjoy as well.

Well, that's all for now. My new year's resolutions have taken over my life.... namely the 30 day shred (so far I've gained 3 lbs. grrr.) and organizing my house (consequently it's a wreck).