Our Shining Moments : Provo City Center Temple

Tanner was excited all week to go to the Open House of the Provo City Center Temple. This is Tanner and Lincoln's 3rd Temple open house. We also took them to Ogden and Payson open houses. I was anxious to see how they had renovated the inside since all my memories of that building were from stake conferences growing up, concerts, BYU events, and personal performances. Sometimes you don't realize how much you appreciate something until it's gone. The last time I performed there was with our Provo School District choir festival (March 2010) and playing the organ for my BYU singles stake conference that Fall--the only time I ever played the organ in the tabernacle. I can still remember the morning after it burned down and trying to believe the news I had heard. As much as I miss the tabernacle as it was, it has been neat to see that the Lord had a greater use for it. I know the Lord can take anything away from us, and as we trust him we can know their is something better for us in the end. We went on a Saturday and it was very busy. Our tickets were for 11:15, but we waited an hour before even getting inside the temple. By the time we were finally able to go inside the temple, Tanner said "I want to go to Amy's house." It was a little harder to enjoy it because the boys were so tired and hungry. Since Tanner has been learning to count to 20 we would count steps (which there were a lot of them) and that would help. One of my favorite parts was the spiral staircase in the corners--still steep and just as they were before. Russell slept happily in the carrier the entire time.

After we came "out of the temple" we were able to go outside and Tanner said "I want to go inside the temple"--Probably because we entered from the basement.