Danny approached me about this wild and crazy idea of driving to Afton, WY for the Star Valley Temple Open House...and I was all game! We would leave when the kids got out of school, drive 3.5 hours to Afton, tour the temple, grab some dinner at a local place, and drive the 3.5 hours back! That's right, folks. Seven hours of driving with 4 kids for a half hour temple tour! But it was all good...cause we had the fifth "Alcatraz" book to listen to. :)
Danny mapped out our trip. He takes after his Grandpa Lovell when it comes to these long, pretty drives. And per Grandpa Lovell's mantra, "you never take the same way twice", we went one way up and another way home! The weather was raining at home, and ended up turning to snow once we got up in the Cache mountains. I glared at Danny a time or two...my only stipulation to making this trip into Wyoming was that we not tackle any winter driving. It didn't get bad, though, so that was good. For our safety and for the happiness of our marriage!
We made great time and pulled into Afton right when we expected to. It was still pouring rain!! We parked at the Stake Center next to the temple and that's where we were able to meet the missionaries and watch the open house video. Then we boarded a tour bus that would take us up the street to the temple. Because of the nasty weather, I didn't get to take any pictures of the outside of the temple or the kids on the grounds like I like to. Our bus picture will have to suffice. :) Honestly, the bus trip was a high point for the kids!
Thanks to covered walkways, we did get another chance at an "Erected 2016" pic with Joey. :)
The temple was beautiful. It was tiny, though!! It was more simple than others we've seen recently, but nonetheless beautiful for it. This time, we had the kids tell us what each room was for, and they did an awesome job. This is their third temple open house this year alone! It seems like a hair-brained idea to take the kids to Wyoming for an open house, or to plan our visit to Colorado around the Fort Collins open house schedule. But Danny and I decided that we want to give our kids every opportunity to be inside the temple. And these are unique opportunities! We want our children to become so comfortable inside the walls of the temple that it feels like home.
After we made it back to the car, we headed toward a local restaurant for dinner. But we had the strangest experience! We were seated immediately, and then the waitresses seemed to avoid us for almost 20 minutes! We didn't get waters or anything! I was starving and anxious to start our drive home, so we left. We went across the street to a local drive-in...and waited there for a few more minutes without any service. Ultimately, we went through the drive-thru of Burger King. So much for local cuisine! Our drive home was rain, rain, rain...all the way. And darkness. We went through Garden City at Bear Lake and through Logan. I'm sure the fall colors would have been beautiful during the day! We finished our book just as we were pulling into our neighborhood at about 10:00 pm. Not too shabby.
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