Temple Marathon

I mentioned in August that we had a family history "party" where the youth, in the Sunday School Geoff and I teach, found lots of names. We had another party in September, on a Sabbath afternoon, which turned into an afternoon/evening-stay-for-games-and-dancing-and-dinner party. None of the boys showed up this time, so there was a lot of letting loose! These youth are so fun.

This was all to work toward a "Temple Marathon", which we had last Saturday. For the most part, all youth provided their own names. For those that were short, they did the names other youth found.

We met at the church at 6:30AM. One youth slept in and was late, two youth forgot a recommend, and then finally we were on our way. First stop, Bountiful Temple.

We didn't schedule any times with the temples, as we weren't sure of how long things would take, and we figured we would do less names if we just walked in and things were too busy. We ended up doing five names each at each temple.

We stopped at IHOP, where the bishop met us for breakfast. Lively table!

Next was Jordan River.

Don't be deceived by their sweet faces, this picture took some wrangling after a massive acorn fight on that very lawn! I'll admit that it was a bit hard from this point on to be reverent during our waiting time in the temples. We later designated stages of behavior. There was Car Fun, Sardines (they played Sardines at on the grounds of one temple while we waited, so it represented quiet temple ground behavior), and there was Reverent Child. This last one was for inside the temple, but it was rarely achieved! Overall, they were great sports for the waiting times.

We made our way to the Timpanogos Temple.

We stopped at In-and-Out for a late lunch, then piled back in to the 12-passenger van we borrowed from some good friends.

In between the temples there were Chinese fire drills, freezes when walking in the crosswalks, loud singing and games in the car, dancing for an ice cream, stealing of wallets and phones, and other shenanigans. These youth are engaged, full of personality, and each has such unique gifts. We had a lot of FUN together.

Next was the Provo City Center Temple, which was incredible. It was our first time there.

Then we walked to a nearby ice cream place (where they each danced while ordering). After we had some competitive foot races down sidewalks. This group has a lot of energy!

Our last stop was the Payson Temple. And what a good choice. We walked right in. The sunset was beautiful. The energy of the youth happy and full. It was a great way to end the day.

We picked up some pizzas and headed home, pulling back into the church just after 10:00PM. It was a LONG day; all would agree. And yet we were HAPPY. We felt GOOD. We'll all remember it forever.