Ellie LOVES to see the Temple

Last weekend was the last weekend before D's parents got home from their mission -- and miraculously he had the day off. He hasn't had a Saturday off in for-ev-er. So we went up to see his siblings in IF. They have a cat named batman, which apparently confuses ellie, she has to call him batkitty. We went to his parents house and the guys helped unpack lots of big heavy furniture back in their house (they rented it out while they were gone); then a little guitar hero; and then August Rush (which was really good, but I didn't think quite as amazing as everyone else told me it was). The next morning the guys had to work up in Rexburg for Apex Alarms so we went up there -- D & I were going to go to the temple and the other SILaws were watching ellie for us. Well Ellie was just so excited to see the temple and I told her it was Jesus' house. Well, I guess I forget how literal 2-year-olds are, even though they dream in cartoon; because when we dropped her off at the apt to be babysat she almost lost her mind that she didn't get to go see Jesus at the temple. I convinced her we'd be back and take her back up there.

And what an experience the Rexburg temple was!!! Yikes. So just go to IF if you're closer, wait a year until all the temple workers up there have it figured out -- because it was Chaos! First of all we didn't have the temple's # to call and ask about the schedule or anything, bad idea. It turns out that every session is by appointment -- and they don't have sessions every 30 or 60 minutes . . . but every 45 minutes. So we thought we were WAY early for the 10 am and it turns out we just missed the 945. And I must say all of the helpers were either not very helpful, or told us the wrong information, or not enough information (like where to go, when the next session is, what we should do next, why we couldn't go in the chapel to wait). So the guy told us to go wait in the lobby ?!? So we decide to try to do other types of temple work but they were booked all day. So we go back upstairs and accidentally get mixed in with a bridal party and snuck in their session. Whoops :-) otherwise we wouldn't have made it in -- because the designers of the temple opted for huge wide open hallways and tiny tiny session rooms. As always it was an amazing experience by the time we left we were so at peace and we both learned a lot.

Ellie blocking the sun from her eyes and wishing she could hug the gold angel and see Jesus.

When we walked back in the apt Ellie jumped up and said, "I want to go see Jesus at the temple!" So we brought her up there and took some pics and let her hug the outside of the temple :-) Then went to McDonalds play place for lunch. Crazy idea. Then we watched the Duke game and to a swap meet at the Hinckley Building (I love bargain kids clothes) had to come home after that. It was so fun to see Chris & Mindy and Jake & Alyssa again -- we love them so much!
This is Ellie with her new glasses from the swapmeet and her Ariel wand from MickeyD's.