Temple Square

Monday we spent the whole day at Temple Square with my parents and my brother James and his wife RaTray.  We went through the North and South Visitor's centers and the Joseph Smith Building.  We ate lunch at the Garden Restaurant on the top level of the Joseph Smith Building.  It is an amazing view of the temple from there.  These pictures are not in order because they came from my phone blogger and it posts them in random order.  Go figure.

All of us in front of the temple

Holding hands above the window symbolizes unity

Temple square is known for their beautiful gardens all times of the year.  The grass was green inside temple square and yellow outside. :)

The side of the Joseph Smith Building

Behind the tree is the Beehive house which was Brigham Young's home.  If you can see through the tree on the top there is a beehive.  The beehive symbolizes being industrious and working hard together.(something like that)

Inside the Joseph Smith building there is this metal sculpture of Joseph reading in James.  There are the actual words in the Bible where he read, "If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God."

Water fall in front of the Church Office Building

Eric and I in the exact same place we got a picture the day before our wedding.  The wind was whipping my hair around like crazy.

Outside the Beehive House there were flower pots representing each of the Young Women values with flowers of that color

Pictures from the Garden Restaurant of the temple!

Jarem looking out the window at the temple

Back of the Beehive House

Lots of pretty water features around temple square

Another picture of the kids by the sculpture

Waiting to be called to eat

I particularly love these daffodils.  They looks so happy.

Some of us including my parents and James and RaTray.  It was a bit chilly and windy that morning.

Jesikah looking at the temple

Another value pot

Alex inside the Joseph Smith Building

Another pictures of all of us

Jarem with the temple behind.  It seemed that either the face or the temple was overexposed because of the bright light outside.

Everytime we passed a water feature on temple square, Jarem said that was where he wanted to be baptized. :)

Chandeliers inside the Joseph Smith Building

I especially loved the South Visitor's Center where they have a to scale model of the Salt Lake Temple with cut-outs showing the inside rooms of the temple.  There is also a computerized kiosk where you can select a room and it describes it and gives you a panoramic video of the actual room.  While I have been inside the temple before, this was really amazing since there are many rooms in the temple that are only open to general authorities.  I would recommend this to everyone!  It also had lots of displays on how the temple was built.  I am always amazed that it took 40 years!  It is such a beautiful building!!!

Temple spires

Eric while waiting for our table

Christus statue inside the North Visitor's Center

More beautiful gardens

Jarem and Tessa by the statue of Christ

More of my favorite daffodils

The kids by one of many sculptures

Pretty pansies

That evening, we had dinner with some of our very good friends whom we haven't seen in probably 5-6 years!  Eric served his mission with Jon Hay and they were mission companions and built a close friendship.  Then, we went to BYU after we were married and Jon and his wife did also.  We spent nearly every weekend with them.  We were pregnant with our first babies at the same time, both boys.  We were very close.  His first wife passed away just a few months after we moved to Missouri several years ago.  It was a very hard transition for him with two little boys, but he has been remarried for several years now and they had two more girls together.  They have a really nice family, and we really enjoyed getting reacquainted and being in their home.  They are really great people!  Below are a couple of pictures of Eric and Jon.  

I thought it was really interesting to see the kids interact.  I think Alex had a good time with their son that is his age, but he was maybe a little jealous of him.  He felt that Thad was buff, athletic, all the girls liked him, good socially, gets straight A's, and is strong spiritually too.  I told Alex that he shouldn't be jealous because he has all of those same traits except maybe the buff. :)  Alex is a little less mature probably, but Thad is 3 months older which makes him a junior instead of a sophomore, so Alex still has time.  They have a girl Tessa's age who Tessa really got along well with.