This is my friend Gretchen (who will probably choke me when she sees I uploaded this pic, but because I love this pic of her, I'm willing to take the beating).We met in our ward and have been doing quite a bit together. She is my book club buddy, my sewing club buddy, my craft buddy, swimming buddy and road trippin' buddy. You may have seen her in a recent blog of when we went snowboarding.
Gretchen is an amazing person. She was born in Florida, grew up for the most part in Alaska, got pregnant in high school, gave her daughter up for adoption (which I find highly remarkable), went into the Air Force, met her husband, has two adorable little girls with him, and is a stay at home mom. (sorry if I am divulging too much to the internet world... again, you can choke me later.)
Gretchen has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints all her life, but her hubby has and is not a member. Chad, Gretchen's husband, supports her in all her church events so when Gretchen and I were chatting a few weeks ago when we heard the announcement of the Oquirrh Temple Open House and she said she wanted to try and go I checked with Jason and we started to make plans. I had Thursday, Friday and Saturday off, so it was a perfect weekend to go up to the temple!
We decided to stay with a friend that use to live in our ward but now lives in Morgan, UT. So, Thursday, after a few errands, Gretchen, Kaya (3), Isabel (2) (AKA Izzy) and I headed up to the Mother Land. We stopped in Fillmore to let the girls stretch their legs. It was well needed. There was a playground for them to run around on and I think they thoroughly enjoyed it. We continued north and finally arrived in Morgan around 11 pm.
The next day we got up and went to the Oquirrh Open House. What a beautiful temple. I loved being able to look across the valley and see 4 different temples. The girls were a little restless from the long trip up, and Gretchen and I were thinking it may not have been such a good idea to bring them, but they loved it! Kaya and I played a game of, "How many pictures of Jesus can we count in the temple" and Izzy just loved being small enough to run through everyone's legs. They were troopers. My favorite part of the temple would probably be the creation room. Only having been to Vegas sessions, it was an interesting change. I also loved the staircases and the chandeliers, but what girl doesn't like sparkling things?
After the temple we went to a diner called Moochie's. Gretchen had seen it on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Their cheesesteak sandwiches were good, but I didn't really care for the potato salad. The Dr Pepper as always was fantastic!!!
We then went North a few miles to Temple Square. Gretchen had not been to SLC before, so it was fun showing her around. They were doing some construction, and it was sticky hot, so we didn't stay too long. We did check out the Church Office Building, Joseph Smith Building, Visitor Center, Temple and the tabernacle. That was as much as the girls could handle. Kaya was extremely excited to get her very first Kaya size Book of Mormon.
After the temple we headed back to Morgan to hang out with the Butikofort's. After dinner, Lisa took us to her parents house down the road so the girls could see the horses. It was absolutely beautiful there.
The next day, Saturday, we went to Hogle Zoo. Again, hot sticky and cranky, so we could only stay so long. We then HAD to go to IKEA. I wish that place were more like Walmart where no one bothers you and you can check yourself out. I really did not care for some of the staff there. But, I got a lot of ideas for things to make around the house and also some ideas of where to shop when I'm looking for something for the house.
We then made our trip back. The girls were good troopers and Gretchen and I had a blast. What a fun girl trip.
