Road Trip to the Gila Valley Temple

This Sat we decided we needed to take a family road trip to go to the Gila Valley Temple open house. We both feel strong ties to that area (me because of my wonderful time spent at EAC & Klint because his family has been in the Gila Valley since they came to AZ when the Gila Valley was being settled) and Klint's Grandma Layton still lives there so it was a great excuse to go visit her. Here are the pics of our trip. We got the boys settled into the car for the road trip, and we were off.Daddy drove the beautiful drive to Central, AZ. We love to see the beautiful landscapes, and landmarks we remember from our many trips there before. Soon after we hit the road Alex crashed out.
I kept Jameson busy with lots of snacks on the trip.

We always feel a little at home once we see our mountains. For Klint it's Mt. Graham. Throughout his life he made lots of trips, both with his family, and with his cousins & grandparents (Layton) to the family cabin up on Mt. Graham.

For me it's the smaller mountains on the other side of the valley. They were the ones I used to love to see when I lived there. (The pic doesn't do them justice.) When I moved there I remember thinking these must have been the "purple mountains majesty" talked about in the song because I'd never seen mountains that actually looked purple before. I still feel a little piece of me is home every time I see them.

We made it to the Gila Valley Temple & took our tour. The kids were a little rowdy from being cooped up in the car, but they loved being in the temple. Alex especially loved that everywhere he turned there was "Jesus" (a picture) and he shouted it out every time (he has no volume control). People couldn't help but giggle. At one point when we walked into a room he said "amaaaazing". It was so cute. It even stopped the tour guide and she asked if that was really what he said. We didn't even know he knew that word, but it was a perfect explanation. Jameson said his favorite part was "the water" or the baptistery. He thought it was pretty cool that "the water was on the animals". The boys especially loved the celestial room. It's so beautiful & has the most amazing crystal chandelier & matching light fixtures. It makes the whole room seem like it sparkles with light. The boys loved it. In talking about it later Jameson said he "loved the sprinkles" and Alex said he "saw da stars". They still tell people about the "stars" & "sprinkles" when anyone asks them about their trip.

Here we are in front of the Gila Valley Temple. We were the last in our tour group to go through the sealing room so we walked a little slow and got to stand with the boys and show them the mirrors in there representing eternity. I think it was a good physical way for them to see that our family goes on together forever . The boys loved it and thought it was "special". I'm really glad we were in that position to have teaching moment.

Klint & the boys in front of the temple.

Here's Alex showing how to be reverent for the temple.

Jameson didn't want to take a picture by himself, but he wanted to show how happy he and Alex were about being at the temple with a pose.