From Crying Babies to Temple Covenants...Full Life!

Oh my goodness. I just love waking up to the sound of the many birds that live around us, all accompanied by the rush of the river...oh! I mean creek behind our house :).  Truly love it.

Don't love so much waking up to baby crying :(.  Especially if I just laid down to go to sleep.  This happened a couple nights ago.  Well, it happens a lot more than that, but a couple nights ago it was pretty bad.  Baby Zsa will sleep all the way through the night if I don't nurse him to sleep the night before.  So, a couple nights ago, I stayed there next to his crib and did everything I could think of to help him calm down.  The night before that, I had been able to talk him to sleep. So cool but I never thought of that being a good thing. (I talk my older kids to sleep all the time :).)  Anyway, I just murmured loving words and phrases to him over and over again and he drifted off to sleep. So cute!

It didn't work the next night :S.  After almost an hour of trying different things, the baby was still crying. I have been trying to get to sleep earlier but having a baby can make this a little impossible.  One night I just "passed out" to sleep and my blessed family took care of getting Little Guy to sleep and it was wonderful.  However, with Q-dawg working all hours of the day and night and the older kids going to sleep as well, it doesn't happen often that way.

Sigh.  Most nights, I can just accept his cuteness but not that night!  Argh. I was so frustrated.  After about one more hour of bonding after I calmed down and some more food, he fussed a little and went right to sleep...and woke up in the middle of the night.  Oh well.  At least he got  to sleep!  I do love these babies and will be happy when the babies I get to love have parents of their own that will get up with them in the middle of the night. (At least one of my children assure me that I will have grandbabies if it is up to them, so I figure it is a sure deal.)

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Last night, we went to a play as a family and the gang did pretty well. It was "Oklahoma" which I didn't really remember the plot.  Oh yah.  Because there is no real plot outside of flirting but it was fun to see the scenery and support our friend's son in the play.  The dancing and singing was delightful and it fit in with our time period we are studying in history so I chalked it up to "art day" activity/field trip.  I spent the last part of it in the foyer with Spooner (who was so done) and Baby Zsa who had decided to start playfully singing along with the actors.  I didn't mind because my legs had gotten restless so I got some bonding/snuggle time :).

I have been capitalizing more and more on that lately.  The other night, I plopped down to read Spooner a book (one of his favorites: a Magic School Bus!) and by the end had Baby Zsa crawling up to me, Papaya on one knee, Spooner deep in my lap and Hava and Pipalicious on each side with Chugger-dude leaning over.  Loved it.

I am being reminded that these moments won't last forever every time I look at Avot and Lek.  Just the other night we were up late, Lek catching up on the news on the computer, Avot reading a book at the table, the Goob making us all laugh and keeping us distracted on what mattered less and focused on what mattered most: our time together.

There has been such a feeling of peace here in our home.  The other day, Avot went through the temple for the first time to get her endowments and it was amazing, from start to finish.  Lek came along to the Palmyra temple with us to watch Baby Zsa and they had a great time hanging out in the car together.  Liliputian and the Goob took care of the home crowd inside (it was raining) and without any media the entire day!  We came home and some were reading, some were building with legos and the rest were playing happily together in the girls' room.  The table and kitchen were pretty clean with cookies waiting for us to sample...yum!  We did get report of conflict while we were gone, but no worries!  Life will always have it's hiccups and bumps, but they got past it.  It was another miracle in a beautiful day.

As for Avot, she was radiant.  What an amazing day to celebrate with an amazing daughter.  I know those beautiful promises and covenants she is making will be such a blessing, a source of strength to her in the mission field!

I was also so grateful to hear that my prayers were answered that my little ones who were left for so many hours would not only be safe, but loved and happy.  Angels truly did make it a miraculous day over all!

We had a great lunch afterward, celebrating with Q-dawg's folks and our friend Sister Moore, thanks to Dad Biesinger.  It was so fun to sit and laugh with them (and Lek and the baby!) after sharing that beautiful experience.  Feeling blessed!

Avot's Temple Trip, with Lek and friends!

We have talked about going to Disneyland for years, the land of enchantment, right?  Then we always look at the cost for our large family and think, "Wow.  There are so many other fun things we could do with that much money!"...stuff that we have a lot of fun doing, too :).  (Of course, at this time I think we would get the super-mega-deal discount with the number of people in our family alone.)

So, as Avot approaches her time to "leave the nest," Q-dawg and I thought it might be fun to bite the bullet and go to Disneyland as a "final family thing" before she moves on to the next phase in life.  When we approached her with it, she thought about it for half a second, shrugged, and said that she was actually thinking it would be fun to do a Senior trip to all the temples in Utah instead.  Alright.  There are beautiful white buildings in that route as well :).  Sure!

Avot began making plans at the end of last year.  Things were busy, to be sure, so the final official preparations (like making sure the temples were open, exact dates, etc.) were gradually taken care of over the next several months.  She finalized with the friends who were interested in going, made those final calls to the temples, arranged the routes, and we set things in motion.

It all began on Tuesday, April 14th,...the first day I had that looked free of commitments. :)  Perfect day to prepare for a three day, 18 hour trip.  Well, according to Google maps it was 18 hours.  Apparently, Google maps doesn't take into consideration storms.

Yep.  Three days of catching every storm in the state of Utah from April 15-17.

It began bright and early Wednesday morning with Lek, Avot and I waking up at 4:30 am to shower and head out from West Jordan where I would be leaving the rest of the kids at my parent's house with a well organized schedule.  (Q-dawg and Chugger-dude were in New York fighting the "start work on the new house" battle.)  The roads were blizzard-like as we made our way through Salt Lake and the snow was coming down thickly all the way to Davis County.  We rendezvoused in Kaysville with the rest of the gang: Megan, Cassia, Carmody, Cumorah, Anna, and Chloe.  After that we headed north through an even worse blizzard to make it to our first temple, Logan. (Cumorah's favorite temple!)

We were running a bit behind, but they were great with working with us. (The blur is the snow :).)

I filled up with gas while they were in the temple and made it back in time to pick them up and head out to the Brigham City temple. Each temple was different and one of the differences with the Brigham City temple was the entrance:

 You went down into the parking garage, with its cement walls, and found this shining door of glory at the entrance.

Yes, those trees are in bloom in the snow.  A quick picture and dash to the car!

 It was cool because the whole volunteer group there in the temple was on hand to help just our group, which is probably why they needed an appointment. :)

The cool stairway up...Lek always has his own style. :)

Next we headed out to the Ogden temple, fortunately a temple that didn't take an appointment, because with all the weather, we were running behind schedule.

It was a miracle we got any pictures to show up with any clarity! It was hard to see if they were turning out between the darkness of the sky combined with my attempt to shield the camera.

The patrons at the temple were familiar with some of the kids from our group since the kids come there every week with their friends and it was fun to see their reception there.  Lek made it in first and out first since there was only one of him.  Well, he probably thinks there might be other reasons, but he did take special delight in making it out first every time :).

The blizzard was still in full force as we made our way through Davis county and down to our noon-ish appointment. (We got very good at calling ahead with the line, "I'm sorry, but because of the weather we are running a little behind schedule....")

I was able to help in a small way with this temple, handing the towels to the youth after they were baptized and watching them more closely.  What a special group of youth!  Then I had to go and get the van while they finished up, which I had parked a ways away, so I was unable to take this picture for them.

I had to include both of these pictures because they were both so full of fun!

And, this way, both Avot and Megan could be in the picture as well :)

Still cold. Still snowing.  April in Utah...sheesh!

We headed back up to Utah county for a little break for the afternoon for rehearsals, final packing, and two doctor appointments for me...perfect!

We met that night for dinner at one of the girls' houses and had a quick taco salad dinner with some parents before heading out to the Bountiful temple, which also didn't take a reservation.  Too bad!

They waited...

...and waited...

They considered going to Wendy's and grabbing some ice cream...but they didn't have the keys.
Some of them took pictures (as you can see).
Three hours and all they ended up doing was confirmations.  They had taken their names off the waiting list when they decided to look for the keys to go for ice cream and then put it back on when they got back in--although Avot says, "We got in at the same time that we would have even if we hadn't taken them off." :)
The foyer was jam packed with people waiting to go in.  I guess there is no better place to wait than in the temple, right?
My friends Julie, Karen and I went and did initiatory while the youth "did baptisms" (or so we thought).  They hadn't done confirmations by the time we got back down there.  

...but they are still smiling!  Fun group :)!

By the time we were done it was almost 10 pm, so we headed out, picked up some ice cream cones on the way home, and then we dropped them off before heading to Megan's house to spend the night instead of going all the way back to West Jordan...phew!

Julie gave us a delicious send-off breakfast at 5:00-ish the next morning before we headed off to join the group at Anna and Chloe's before heading off for the rest of the trip.  We threw the sleeping bags and packs in the back and we were off! (And, yes, it was still stormy.)

The traffic was horrendous through Salt Lake with crashes and slow downs so, yes, once again we were slow getting to our first destination: the Jordan River Temple.

It wasn't snowing at this point, but boy!  Was it freezing!!!  Lek had gone on ahead to the next temple with our extra car we brought back from Davis County and left before I remembered to take this picture :(.

We headed over, late, to the Oquirrh Mountain temple, which was even more exposed and had biting wind.  This one also had the whole patron staff on hand to help our group, all sitting and waiting for us to come.  It was beautiful to think of all these people waiting to help our youth be proxies for this ordinance!

Most of the temples had two or three picture options to choose from...not this one!!  One was all we could get before they would have become frozen!

Draper was the next temple, which was a little busier.  It was fun to see the different architecture in the temples.  The Draper was distinct with its more squarish designs...and the snow was better for packing :).

I think Anna had just finished throwing a snowball...

I think Lek was in shock with seeing his eight month pregnant mother laying on the ground to take a picture...

Finally...the picture of choice!

After the baptisms (and a pretty good snow-ball fight) we headed out of Salt Lake Valley to catch the temples in Utah county...only a little behind schedule :).

Mount Timpanogos...where I had a wonderful nap in the van so we didn't have a problem with a sleepy driver :)

Provo...three, two, one...

Ta-da!!! There's Lek! I actually did baptisms in this temple with them.  They had a pretty slick system in here with a giant of a man baptizing at lightning speed.

Here is the Provo Tabernacle Temple under construction--the one that most reminded me of a Disneyland castle.  Lek is obviously a little far-gone at this point...and this was before he stocked up on soda pop at the local cheap soda machine while I looked for a map; you know, just in case I got lost and my phone was dead and I had a van full of silly young adults who also had no idea where to go :).  And we were pretty silly by this point!

 We had a great time in the car, with many story brain-storming sessions, M.A.S.H., and story writing games.  It was hilarious!  They came up with some fun things in those hours on the road.

Payson Temple.  Beautiful, but not open yet.

See the sunshine?  Well, after we started heading east toward the Manti Temple in Nephi, it didn't last for long!

Full blown blizzard conditions again.  Kept me wide awake!  This temple was apparently also under construction at the time, or closed for cleaning.  Either way, we stopped by, caught a picture and then headed on south to St. George.

Beautiful weather once again, but bad news on the baptistry...closed for construction!  Apparently, the person who told Avot it was a "go" didn't realize she was coming for the baptistry?  The rest of the temple was operating, but the baptistry was closed for a month.

The youth still had a great attitude and enjoyed roaming the peaceful grounds.  There was a beautiful rose garden and, of course, this fun palm tree to...hug?  Weird :).  This temple was actually one of the favorite of many of the youth.  The peacefulness of the grounds and the beauty of the evening combined to still make it a very spiritual experience.

After St. George, we headed to one of the girls' homes in Cedar City, where their family graciously hosted the lot of our noisy selves in their upstairs.  It was nice to not be driving and they had fun giggling and playing games until late...as quietly as they could :).

We had an early morning the next morning and were on the road by 6 am, eating bagels and yogurt on the way north and east.  Time to head to Montecello!

It is not very clearn, but you get the idea.  Montecello is south of Moah and then you have to go up through the dot that indicates Carbon County before heading northeast again to Vernal.

Again, we caught blizzards on the route west through Green River before heading south to Moab.  Avot drove in some of those mountain passes, but I didn't get much rest with the twisty mountain roads and the slick driving conditions!

And then the blizzard picked up again as we traveled through Moab and into the mountains around Montecello.  So much for a picnic lunch!  We were 30 minutes late and so we had to wait for another hour because there are only enough people in the temple to do baptisms or sealings...not both.  So when we were late, they diverted their resources elsewhere, understandably. :S  Oh well.  We called and rescheduled with the Vernal temple from 5 pm to 7 pm, hoping that would give us enough time.

This temple was very small but peaceful.  And once again Lek got in and out first :).

After we finished there, I headed south...the wrong direction!  The youth were eating lunch en route to save on time, bless their hearts, so they didn't know what was going on. I was running a little low on gas, but thought I would just fill up at the next town north, which I didn't think was too far.  However, when we got to Blanding, Utah, I thought, "I don't remember driving through Blanding on the way down here.  Wait.  And what direction does that highway sign indicate?  South?!"  Oh dear.  Time to turn around and drive back up and down the mountain roads through the blizzard (still) back to Montecello where we made it to a gas station before heading out again...an almost 90 minute addition to our trip!!!!  Argh.

I started feeling contractions at this point and could time them regularly between this point and when we made it to Vernal, several hours later.  We drove up through Price, finding a couple awesome storms on the way and saw a doozy of one up ahead.  We took the route that would get us to Vernal just after Price, heading into some small mountain passes.  The blizzard became intense and I was driving at a crawl.  I stayed clear of the edges and was taking no chances, going very slowly.  When I got to the summit, however, I nearly cried.  An 8% grade.  I don't know how many mountain roads you have traveled, but I have traveled many, experiencing 4% and 5%, ...but 8 %!!!!  I actually considered turning around and heading back.  For Avot, I thought.

"Everyone, I need you to start singing lots of happy songs.  Right now."  We had already concocted several options and plans in case this really was labor for me (which obviously it wasn't, since I am still pregnant while writing this), so this added element of complete and total fear of the driver just made things more exciting.  I knew I had to put on a brave front and do this drive but it took everything I had.  We were going 5 mph or less as we inched down that mountain with its steep slides, sharp grade and abrupt turns.  Trucks would zoom up past us or on the other side of us, and I was alright. Nothing would make me go faster!  The singing helped and we made it, picking up a little more speed by the time we made it down the mountain. So much for making it on time to Vernal!  Between our Blanding detour and Death Pass (as I lovingly refer to it), we didn't stand a chance!

The lighting was terrible for pictures, but you get the idea.  Fortunately the temple was still open by the time we got there...

...although you can see that it was pretty dark...and we were all losing it :)

We all voted for pizza from Dominoes and some time to stretch legs at the park. It was between 9 and 9:30 by this point, but we all needed it.

Lek and I took turns driving home, with me doing the majority and him helping from Heber until South Weber.  The mountain passes, bright lights of truckers, and contractions made an exciting conclusion for this literally all day drive, but we made it back to West Jordan around 3 am...safe and sound.

Truly a miracle drive.

My favorite part was the discussion and sharing time we had on the way out from the park and pizza, a reflection on favorite memories, favorite temples and why, and any spiritual or transformational experiences.  It was humbling and beautiful to hear the hidden stories come out that had happened beneath the lighthearted fun that had accompanied us the whole trip.  I never heard a word of serious complaints (Lek's goofing off doesn't count :)...), they had fun as a group--enjoying everyone in everything--, and were self-entertained the entire way with songs, stories and games...and the occasional stretches of sleeping :).

Lek was my right-hand man, at shot-gun, and we all made it safely with no baby coming.  Like I said, miracle drive and a very memorable one at that!