Art, Family & a Temple

Since moving to Kingman, two and a half years ago, I have wanted to take my entire family to visit my Uncle Tom & Aunt Jan who live in Glendale, AZ.  We have not had an occasion or made the time to make the three hour trip to their house until last Thursday.  They were gracious enough to welcome all 7 of us into their home for an overnight stay.  (They are always gracious hosts).  Rachel was particularly excited to see them because she and I had made a trip to Phoenix two years ago for a doctors appointment and had stayed with them.  She knew how wonderful they were & was excited to see their dog again.

 

My uncle is an artist and after a wonderful breakfast outside by the pool on Friday morning, Valentines day, he asked the girls if they would like to make some Valentines.  They spent the next 45 minutes in his back yard, still in their jammies, creating backgrounds for their artwork.  Uncle Tom is known for his art that uses pure pigment ink and a removal method of the ink to create the picture, kind of like the papers you can buy for kids where you scratch off the top black layer and reveal colors underneath to create a picture. 

 

He was extraordinarily patient with the girls as they created a museum full of colored papers that they would be able to take home with them and finish.  We still need to do that, perhaps this Saturday.

The real reason for our trip was to take the kids to the Gilbert Temple open house.  When our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) finishes building a new temple they hold an open house for several weeks where anyone in the community is able to come and tour it.  For many people this is their only chance to ever go inside a "Mormon Temple" because once it is dedicated only members who are living worthy are able to enter.  I was excited for my kids to be able to go into a temple for the first time and also to be able to take my Aunt & Uncle with us, a new experience for them as well.

As it was the second to last day of the open house, it was crowded!  I figured it would be, but not to the extent we experienced.  As we were standing in line I had to remind myself that all good things require a little sacrifice.  I think even Tom or Jan who are not of our faith made a comment about the Mormon pioneers having to sacrifice to have the temples they built and perhaps we too needed to sacrifice.  The kids did great thanks to water jugs every so often. 

When we finally made it inside the temple, it was amazing and beautiful!  I cringed a little as we walked up the stair wells and Sarah slid along the window sills & large molding of the base boards.  After we were through I asked each family member what their favorite part was: Sarah said the baptistery, Rachel liked the Celestial room, John liked the Baptismal font (when asked why, he said because he is getting baptized soon), Elizabeth's favorite was chandelier in the Celestial room, and I loved the stained glass sky lights.    Despite all of the people it was still a very peaceful place where the spirit was strong.

But by far the favorite part of Paul & I was being able to be in the temple together with all of our children.  A moment we will always remember and look forward to happening again one day!