Brigham City Temple

Shad took this photo while he was ushering on the temple grounds. Amazing!

 This beautiful building has been one of our main focuses for the month of August. The Brigham City temple was announced during the 2009 October General conference. I still remember the shock that was audibly felt in the room. It hit pretty close to home for us because it will be our family's temple district. It has been so much fun seeing this temple come up from the dust. When Jack was only a month old I took the boys to see the construction of the temple. When I looked back on that blog post I can't believe how much they have grown since then. Every time we would go to Brigham City Haken would ask to drive by the temple to see the progress they have made. Although it seems like such a short time, a lot has happened in the two years since the groundbreaking.

It is an amazing building! The dedication will be on September 23rd. However, the public was able to tour the temple for 4 weeks before then. On August 13th we decided to go have a picnic for family night and then tour the temple grounds as a family before it got too crowded with the open house that week. It was such a fun night and I think Haken was the most excited out of all of us. He is so good at seeing all of the little details and pointing them out to us, like the beautiful flowers, fruit trees, and the shiny rocks cemented into the exterior walls. 

The beautiful fountain in the front. 12 waterfalls come out from
 the main water source. I thought that was very appropriate.

Jack loves to push

Pointing to his favorite flowers

Oh how I love these boys!

Family photo with the temple peaking in the corner.
(Can you tell Shad loves his Iphone camera?)

Picnic at the tabernacle across the street

On the 17th of August we had a very unique experience. Although the temple open house hadn't officially started, they were giving private tours to some members of the valley. Because Shad now teaches at the Box Elder seminary in Brigham they asked if the seminary teachers would like to come have a private tour with their wives. um...yeah. So we dropped the boys off with my friend (thanks!) and took Gracie with us. It was an experience that I will always remember. They took us from room to room, telling us interesting things and bearing testimony. We even got to tour a few rooms that they don't show the general public, including the bride's room. Shad said that was his favorite room because he got to hold his little daughter there who might one day be in this room getting ready for her own wedding. The church definitely spared no expense in this temple. It has attention to detail everywhere. There are peach blossoms all over (a symbol of the many peaches and other fruit that grow in the Brigham area), beautiful blue tile ceilings, large wall murals, original paintings, gorgeous chandeliers, ornate hand carved wood work...I could go on and on. I'm sure I will notice something new every time that I go there.

Following our tour Shad had the opportunity to be one of the tour guides himself for the remainder of the day. They needed extra people that day since they were accommodating many people who would be using wheelchairs. He had an amazing experience bearing testimony and spending time in the temple all day. On the 21st he was also able to volunteer as an usher. After working all day, he served on the grounds of the temple until 10:00 pm. He was so hungry he had a pizza delivered to the corner he was standing and then took the remainder to other hungry volunteers. He had two other assignments the following week but had to give them to others since he was so busy with school starting the following week.

The following Monday (August 20th) we went as a family to the open house. This time it was a silent walk through as we went from room to room. Haken was so interested in what every room was used for, so Shad made sure to stop and pull him aside so they could talk about it. 

I hope that my boys felt the special spirit that was there even before it was dedicated and know that it really is a house of the Lord. So, between the tours of the temple, ushering, and me helping to sew costumes for the temple celebration that will be the night before the dedication, we have really had our focus on the temple this month. We truly feel blessed and know that we will be continually dedicated to attending the temple once it is finished. We can not wait until the dedication!