big day at the temple

Last weekend we packed up our bags and headed to Orlando. My sister was smart enough to reserve a few rooms at a nice hotel for our families, because our appointment at the temple was at 6:30 am. Too early to drive there in the morning. So we made a night of it. The kids all got together in my sister's room and watched the Croods, then rolled around in their own beds struggling to fall asleep, because it was all so exciting being in a hotel with cousins.

 I've always loved going to the temple early in the morning, when the world is quiet, and the fountain sparkles in the darkness. So peaceful and mind-clearing.
“At the temple the dust of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and the haze seem to lift, and we can ‘see’ things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our troubles that we had not previously known.”—President Boyd K. Packer

This was a big day for our us. It was Ethan's first time to go inside the temple, and he worked hard to find family names he could take with him. This was also my sister's first time finding and bringing names from our side of the family.

Here's a beautiful video about the temple and why I love it so much!

When we were finished at the temple, we headed back to the hotel, where my brother-in-law was brave enough to watch all of our kids by himself. He said he got a lot of funny looks at the breakfast buffet when he marched in there alone with six kids who almost all looked the same age.

But on the way back to the hotel, we passed this building, and somehow none of us saw it until we had to do a U-turn and come back the way we'd just came. We all laughed when we saw it, because, I mean really? A giant upside down building and none of us noticed it when we drove by the first time. It's like having an elephant in the room and none of us seeing it...

We drove by again later so Josh and Ashley could see it.

Josh was mad we didn't go inside. Maybe someday.

Here's the rainy view from our window. Yes, that is a castle next door. And yes, we tape up our children's mouths. Actually, they do that to themselves.

And the last picture of our exciting trip was of the mirror. For some reason, Josh was fascinated with this full-length mirror closet door. It was like he'd never seen one before. In this picture, he's trying to shake hands with the boy in the reflection. And his magic trick was getting inside the closet so we couldn't see him OR his reflection anymore. Ba-Baam! It was mind-blowing. Really.