Temple Trip

The Atlanta temple has been closed for almost a year now.  My family started talking in March about planning a trip to the next closest temple--Birmingham, AL.  It is about 3 hours away from where we live.  The first date that we could all coordinate was the Friday/Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  Matt was out of town (as usual lately) so my parents drove down with me and the kids and we met Shanna and Kydon, Russ and Catherine, and Lisa and Adam (and their kids).  We stayed at a hotel near the temple...don't know if we will ever stay there again (I think Shanna's door wouldn't close completely), but it lasted one night.  Our plan was to swim in the evening and then half the adults would go to the 8am session the next morning and the others would entertain the kids at the hotel.  After  the first group returned everyone would check out and then the first set of adults would take the kids to the park for lunch and play while the second group went to the 12:00 session.

Unfortunately, the weather decided not to cooperate with us--it stormed all night and most of the next day.  Obviously swimming at the hotel in the morning was out, and the park was out as well.  We found out that there is a church next to the temple that we could go to and the kids could play in the gym.  Grandma was nice enough to get some balls and balloons and other toys to entertain the kids while we were at the church.

It actually wasn't too bad.  We went to Chick Fil A for lunch and then the group going at 12 left.  We let the kids stay in the indoor playground until the employees threatened to kick us out we decided they had played long enough.  10 kids in an indoor playground is a little crazy--I think the other kids eating there were a bit intimidated because none of them lasted more than a few minutes inside.  We made it at the play area for almost  1.5 hours total--not bad :)

Then we went to the church.  Bringing the Nintendo DS/DSI was a lifesaver--they entertained several kids the entire time.

I loved Ellie and Aaron coloring together.

When everyone was back we took the group picture in front of the temple and then I took one of Caroline in front of the temple and then one of Aaron and Caroline on the grounds (Alex and Carter were not interested--I think they were tired of doing everything at that point)





It was a pretty easy drive home--and the kids went straight to bed (an extra bonus for me).