"I'm Going There Someday..."

Melia's favorite primary song is, and always has been, "I Love to See The Temple."  She loves to talk about temples and point them out whenever she sees them.  Just after Evera was born and we were remodeling our kitchen, we stayed at Mike's parent's house.  From the room that Melia stayed in there was the perfect view of the Draper Temple out the window.  Every night I would stand Melia up on the window sill and we would open the window, look out at the beautiful, lit up temple, and sing that song.  Melia looks forward to the day the she will some day be able to go to the temple and get married.  Every time I go she asks if she can come with me and we always talk about when she will be able to go.  She often times will go out side and pick flowers bringing them back to me so I can go to the temple.  I am not sure how the flowers relate to the temple, but they are something of beauty and she knows the temple is a place of beauty.  She is so cute about it.

During the summer on our way home from one of our trips to Bear Lake, we took a detour passed the Logan Temple to show it to Melia.  She was SOOOOO excited and absolutely loved it.  We just stopped for a second and took a couple of pictures, but she was completely enamored.  She still talks about the "Wogan Temple" ALL THE TIME and wants to go there again so bad! 

Logan Temple at night

 A few months ago we had the great opportunity to go to the Brigham City Temple open house before it was dedicated.  I was so excited to take my kids and share in the beauty of the temple.  Melia was super excited from start to finish.  Even the bus ride from the parking lot to the temple was exciting for her.  On the bus she insisted we sing "The Wheels On the Bus."

Melia's first bus ride

 We had so much fun singing and playing on the bus.

 Melia was so excited to look at everything out the window.

 Doesn't she just look so angelic?

 As we came up on the temple, Melia was just in awe and was so excited!  As soon as it came into view, we, of course, had to sing, "I Love To See the Temple."

 Spencer was excited too.

 And so were Evera and Mike!  :)

 But no one was quite as excited as Melia.  :)

 Here she is pointing it out. 

It really is a beautiful temple.  I am used to most temples set apart up on the mountain.  This temple seemed to be more in the thoroughfare of town.  It was kindof cool to just be driving along and then all of the sudden see the temple.

Brigham City Temple NW - La Rae Roberts

 Everything moved to quickly and we hardly had to wait in lines at all.  We went right into the video viewing area, then moved on to get our shoe covers on.  Melia loved putting them on.  She felt very special.  :)

Me, Melia, and Spencer with our shoe covers on.

Our trip to the Brigham City Temple was all I had dreamed it would be with Melia.  She absolutely loved it and was so excited to be there.  

One of the first parts of our tour was the baptismal font.  When we got there Melia just wanted to stop and stare.  She loves anything having to do with water, and she's been to a few of her cousins' baptisms so she was especially interested in the baptismal font.  We went through the room and when we got out Melia INSISTED that we go back in.  So we made two rounds through the baptismal font area.  :)

 Melia loved everything she saw in the temple from the sparkly lights, to the white carpet.  But by far, her favorite thing of all, was this painting.

"Journey to Bethlehem" by Joseph Brickey

This painting was just hanging in a hallway.  It was one of our longer waits as we were standing in that particular hallway (like two minutes instead of a few seconds) and I started pointing out the painting and describing to Melia what was happening in it.  I told her how the girl on the donkey was Mary and she was Jesus' mother.  And the man leading the donkey was Joseph.  I told her Jesus was in Mary's tummy at the time.  The colors, and especially the lighting in the painting are absolutely beautiful.  As the line began to move, it was time to go into the Celestial room.  Melia absolutely refused to come.  I was trying to pull her along, and pick her up and carry her and she started freaking out.  She did NOT want to leave the painting.  Considering the environment we were in, I decided it would be better to do what she wanted in order to avoid any tantrums and loud screaming.  :)  We went back to the painting and let the line pass us by.  As we stood in the hall, me holding Melia, we just admired the painting.  She didn't say much, she just stared.  After seriously 5 or 10 minutes I finally convinced her to move along to the Celestial room.  :)

I had never noticed the painting before, but the last time I attended the Draper Temple I found it hanging in the hallway to the women's dressing room.  It really is so incredibly beautiful and is definitely a new favorite of mine.  I think I just might need to purchase a copy of this beautiful work of art.

Evera's favorite part of the temple, by far, was eating cookies at the end.  :)

 How cute are my boys?!

 He kept wanting MORE!  Even with a messy face, he's pretty stinkin' cute!

 And here are the 4 of us on the bus ride back to our car.  :)  It was a nice outing!

 After dinner we had the fabulous idea to go to Maddox for dinner.  (I mean really, how often are we in Brigham City anyway?  I cannot turn down an opportunity to eat that DELICIOUS FRIED CHICKEN and those INCREDIBLE ROLLS with RASPBERRY BUTTER!)  Unfortunately everyone else and their dog had the same idea following the temple open house, so we ended up waiting for quite a while for a table.  But during our wait, the kids enjoyed playing in the window sill.  :)

 I love my boys!

  It was a great day!  I cannot wait to make it up there sometime to do a session!

Brigham City Temple Leaves Arch - La Rae Roberts

After dinner, on our way home, Mike asked Melia if she had liked going to the temple.  She told us she had.  Then he asked her what her favorite part of the temple was.  After much though, she replied, "The Sprit."  My heart melted.  And what a sweet little spirit she is.  Oh my goodness--from the mouths of babes.  I truly do believe she could feel the Spirit in that wonderful place.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to share that beautiful experience with her.