Thursday, October 22, 2015

A SPECIAL WEEKEND IN PHOENIX

I was so excited this summer for August 1st. My cousin Monica and her family had chosen that day as the day they were going to be sealed in the Gilbert, Arizona temple. Saturday morning, Monica and Shawn had to go quite early for their endowment session and so I watched all of the girls. We had a very fun morning together. They played hide and seek and played with the Kindle together. We had several hours to kill, but they managed to have fun even though it was obvious that Annabelle and Shannyn couldn't wait to be sealed to their parents.






When we finally got to drop off the girls at the temple, I made Stella walk around while I took a few pictures. It was HOT and also HUMID. I had never been to Arizona when it was humid and it was quite a shock. Stella was like: "Mom, why am I all wet?" She was a trooper, but she wanted to be inside the temple so we went in and waited. I had decided to leave her by herself while I was gone for the sealing. She was very nervous but I knew she would be okay, and she was.

The sealing was seriously amazing. The sealer was very tender and as they finally were able to kneel at the altar together I was almost smacked by the spirit. It was really neat. I even mumbled under my breath "woah" because it kind of took me by surprise.

After the sealing everyone let me take some pictures to commemorate the day. The Gilbert Temple is a really beautiful temple.
























That afternoon after lunch everyone rested while I watched the kiddos. We got pretty creative and those girlies had a good time. Then we went and had something to eat and drive by the temple to see it at night. It was really pretty but I had my "cheap" camera so I couldn't get the pictures I would normally want.
For the next few days we stayed at the Haywards' house. They weren't there for most of the visit so it was pretty quiet. Stella had the best time hanging out in the fancy pool. I had a good time doing a little shopping and hanging out in Scottsdale which I always love. It was a fun little trip.

One of the beautiful desert nights we spent in the pool trying to play a little water tennis. Of course I was trying to capture the perfect action shot, so what I ended up with was too many pictures. But it was such a nice, lovely night I don't mind all the photographic reminders.




















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