A Family Temple Trip

We ventured west to the great state of Nebraska last weekend to attend the temple.  We have heard really wonderful things about the Omaha zoo (second best in the nation, after San Diego) and the children's museum, but this trip's sole purpose was to attend the temple.  And it was a perfect day.  Well, perfect after we bought new clothes for Emma after she promptly barfed all over herself 20 minutes into the drive.  I bet from now on I will actually remember- Emma gets carsick!

The day went quite smoothly and quickly, which was a pretty stark contrast to our temple trips to Chicago.  We absolutely loved our trips to Chicago to attend the temple, but it always seemed to take forever to get there, there were no options for taking care of the kids on the temple grounds, and we always wanted to spend time afterward exploring exploring Chicago- often more time than we actually had, resulting in late night returns home and grouchy kids on Sunday morning.  On this trip, we turned a blind eye to the thing or two we'd like to someday to do in Omaha and had a great experience taking care of the kids at the temple.  There is a pioneer museum and waiting room at the temple where we could eat and play.  And the weather was even nice enough that we were able to go outside for a bit.

It was a bit of a surreal moment for me- hiking the small hill behind the temple with Noah bundled up in my arms, the other kids scattered in three different directions in front of me.  There is a small graveyard there for some of the many pioneers that died while walking across the country.  I was reminded of the sacrifices of our ancestors who wanted so much to obey the Lord and find religious freedom.  We found names and ages of pioneers buried there who were the ages of each member of our family.  

There are beautiful stained glass windows at the temple that I pointed out to the kids as we walked around the temple grounds.  Once it was my turn to go inside, I saw that those same window prisms casting beautiful rainbows across the rooms.  It reminded me of the rainbows that we see in our own home every afternoon.  I promised myself, and the kids, that every time I see those rainbows on our walls it will remind me that our house can be just as special as the House of the Lord.  

This temple is just two and a half hours away, and I'm already looking forward to going there again!