Winter Quarters temple trip 10/22/11

We haven't been to the temple in a while.  When we were first married, we went quite often.  This was when we were at BYU and lived in the Provo temple district.  Now, we would be in the NEW Provo temple district.  (I think...)  We also visited the many other temples that were there at the time.  We found ways to go after Michael was born, too.  Having a temple less than 20 minutes away was wonderful.  We then moved to the Cincinnati area.  The closest temple was in Columbus, Ohio, and we moved there just in time to attend the Louisville, Kentucky temple (and the Palmyra temple remotely) Open House and dedications.  (only a few weeks before Emilie was born, by the way...)  I know Tom went on youth trips but I don't think we had the opportunity to attend together often.  We did take a trip, shortly after Joseph was born and died, to Atlanta, Georgia temple specifically to attend the temple.  We then moved to Eastern Ohio, near the West Virginia border.  The closest temple was once again in Columbus.  We knew that we were in a different season of our lives, and we would be able to attend more often in the future.  We moved to Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, and we were in the Washington D. C. temple.  Attending the temple there was amazing, and brought back good memories for Tom.  We again weren't able to go often, but we did our best.  After Pennsylvania we moved to Amarillo, Texas, where all of a sudden we were only 2 hours from the Lubbock temple!  While we didn't make it every month, I was too busy being pregnant non-stop, we did make it to the temple more often than anywhere else we had lived, especially after some good friends moved to Lubbock and we were able to have a great place for kids to stay.  We lived in Texas for 6 years, and have now moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where, just days after we learned we were moving here, they broke ground for the new temple here.  Since moving here we have been able to watch this temple being built from the ground up.  However, we haven't gone to the temple since moving here, until yesterday.  We kept making plans for St. Louis, but they kept falling through for many different reasons.  We took the opportunity to drive to the Winter Quarters temple, which is an hour closer but smaller, with friends from our ward who needed room for another of their children anyway.  It is still a 3 hour drive, but the temple is worth sacrifice.  We traded watching kids while the adults were actually in the temple, exploring the grounds, the Pioneer cemetary, and the Mormon Trails Center, and dodging rain.  It was a good day.  We are thankful for this chance.  We will probably try to go again before our very own temple, in our ward boundaries, next door to our church building, that we see every week, less than 5 miles from our house, is dedicated in the near future (near meaning most likely within the next year.)

Anyway, here are pictures from our trip yesterday.  It was a long day!  The missionaries were very patient with us, though not sure what to do with 14 kids and 2 adults with them while the other 2 adults were in the temple!  We were called a Primary group before we left...