Provo City Center

Scott and I had been wanting to take the kids to the Provo City Center Temple Open House for a while. Problem was finding a good time that we could get away to go. With the weekends booked and busy, we were struggling to get away. We finally decided to take a day off and go in the middle of the week. Tayden has early release from school on Wednesdays, so we figured that would be a perfect time to go. 

Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling particularly giddy and anxious to get on the road, so I suggested we head out after Scott got home from work and use our free night we had at Holiday Inn. Much to my surprise, Scott agreed and even offered to come home early. The minute I booked the hotel, I regretted it. All of a sudden, I had a million and one things to do and get ready before we left in a few short hours. Getting my family ready for one night is harder than you would think. Making sure everyone had swimming stuff, church clothes, regular clothes, socks, underwear, diapers,etc was quite the chore. But it all worked out and we were on our way.

Luckily, Scotts parents watched Tanner for us and took off that stress. 

The car ride down was great. Despite it being late, the kids did great staying awake. Even Kyle, who stayed awake without crying for about two hours and fell asleep minutes from the hotel. Getting the kids to bed was difficult. They were excited and all sleeping in the same bed, which was a small disaster. Then, Beckett and Cache woke up at 6:00 and got everyone else up with them. I was tired from being up with Kyle every few hours and quite cranky that the kids were already awake. But I told everyone, "We have two choices. We can either let last night and this morning ruin our day and have cranky attitudes. Or we can make the choice to be happy and get along and have a great day," We decided as a family to give it our best. And you know what, it turned out great.

The breakfast area was full, so we grabbed some food and took it back to the room and ate in bed while we watched cartoons. Then, we went swimming for a little bit before it was time to check out.

After swimming we got ready for the temple and hit the road to Provo. The kids all fell asleep for about an hour on the way down and Scott and I enjoyed a few quiet minutes to ourselves. Once we got to the temple, we went right in without much of a wait and started the tour. The two oldest boys were great, but Cache was a total disaster. Completely awful. I couldn't figure out what was going on with him, until it dawned on me we hadn't taken him potty in quite some time. I asked if he had to go, which he responded he did. Of course, this was half way through the tour with no bathroom in sight. He held it the remainder of the tour and I took him the minute we saw the restroom. I kid you not, the boy peed for 40 seconds. He had to go so bad. As soon as he used the bathroom, a new Cache arose and he was pleasant the whole rest of the day. I was frustrated with myself for not realizing it earlier. But at least we enjoyed the last few hours of the trip.

We asked a nice stranger to take a picture of us with the temple in the background. I specifially picked this spot so you could see the temple. I laughed when we got it back. Not only did she not get the temple, but she forgot half of Scotts head.

So we asked another lady on the other side. At least she got the whole family.

After the temple, we stopped and picked up some donuts and lunch and hit the road back home. Again, the boys were awesome. They are such good little road trippers. They each had one sticker sheet and two small toys from the dollar store and they were happy as clams. I am grateful that they can sit through a road trip without any electronics so we can enjoy each others company,

Can you believe this sweet face was such a pill?

It was such a great day and I enjoy spending time with my family immensely. They mean the world to me and I was grateful to show the boys that sometimes spending time together is more important than anything else. More important than work, school or any other responsibility. Obviously, those are super important and we can't just skip them all the time, but once and a while is okay. 

I hope the look back on this day with as much fondness as I do.