Ogden Temple Open House

 We got tickets to tour the Ogden Temple, now that it has been newly rebuilt.  August 9th we headed down as a family.

 They start with a video about the temple, the area the temple is being built in, and why we have temples.

 Then, as a big group you can walk through the entire building.  BJ's favorite thing was the outside because of the fountain.

 Brittany's favorite part was the celestial room because it was so pretty.

 Brandon's favorite part was the baptismal font.  He was looking to go do baptisms, at a finished temple, and so it was fun to see what it would look like.

 Brie liked how "sparkly" it was.

 Bryson liked the fountains too, outside.

 My favorite was having the whole family in there.  With Brandon being able to go do baptisms, and BJ being newly baptised, it was a good day feeling like the family was heading in the right direction.

 After the tour we took pictures.  Isn't that a cool one with the Christus behind?

 I loved the day, and I love that Blaine and I are sealed, and our kids are sealed to us.  The temple is a great blessing in our life.

Wade's Birthday

 For Wade's Birthday, we went up to Idaho to celebrate.  Originally it looked like we wouldn't be able to make it.  We had several things happening that day, or the next morning.  But, the kids decided they would rather go up to celebrate, so we decided to go without Blaine (who was teaching that night).  I headed towards Ogden, and got a call that Blaine was able to get a sub at the last minute, so he was following us up.

 We ate some of Wade's favorite party food (mostly anything that didn't have to be prepared in any way), and played a dice game (I won- but who's counting haha).  At the end of the night we lit a lantern I bought in San Francisco.  It was much bigger than I was expecting, and it took a bit to fill up with the warm air, but once we got it, it was really cool to watch.  It went across the field and then off a long ways.  It was pretty neat.

 We also stopped by his head stone.  I was really glad we were able to go up and be with the rest of the family to commemorate the day.  It was a tough day thinking about Wade.  There were a few tears shed, but mostly we were grateful that he was a part of our lives for as long as he was.