Kona Temple - Kona Trip - Part 6 (final)

The whole reason for the trip to Kona was our ward temple trip. We went to the Kona Temple on Saturday, March 6, 2010. It is a small temple so we had to schedule our appointments. It was so nice that other families were there so all the kids could play together while the adults were in the temple. Two adults stayed with all the kids. It was so nice to go to the temple after such a long time. Our temple in Laie has been closed for more than a year so this was a great trip for all of us.
James will be 8 in September so I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of him at the Temple. He was such a good sport. He HATES to have his picture taken.

I am not a great photographer and he needs a hair cut, but this is the best we could do.

This is the only part of this temple that stands apart from the other mini-temples, the cool palm fan plants. I am pretty sure that is their official name!

You could either have us up close or the temple in the background, not both!

Sophia

Daniel

I tried to get a picture of James at the front of the temple but he was really done by this point. So, no picture of James at the front.

After our temple session we had a few hours to kill before we had to be to the airport. Sister Alkire and her son came with us because her flight was the same time as ours. They had flown in that morning and didn't rent a car so they came to explore with us. We went to McDonalds to pick up some lunch and then went to the park to eat and let the kids blow off some steam. We found this really great community park that had lots for the kids to do.

Sophia is at the top of the stairs. The top kite looking things are for shade. This was a very clean, fun park.

She was tired, we had woken her up so she could get out and play before going to the airport.

What a cute girl!

She loves to climb. This was a great playground. It had something for everyone!

I like this picture of Sophia through the tunnel!

Daniel playing 'peek-a-boo' through the climbing wall.

So Big!

He was so proud he could climb to the top.

After playing at the park we went to show Sister Alkire the tide pools that were close to the airport since she hadn't seen anything on the Big Island but the temple. It was lots of fun and Daniel was such a great tour guide to show her around. We went to the same tide pools we had been at the day earlier so Daniel knew his way around.

After a mad dash back to the airport and checking in the rental van we were on our way home.

This isn't a great picture.. but here is Sophia, Daniel, and Sterling getting ready for the plane to take off, we were heading home!

The only picture James would allow, sort of!

We had such a great trip. It was so nice to go and relax and enjoy nature. We can't wait to go back to the Big Island. It is much more slow paced and amazing to me than Oahu!

That, to me, seems like the mystique and quaintness of Hawaii.

Oquirrh Mtn Temple Open House

On Saturday, July 11th we went to the Oquirrh Mtn Temple Open House. When I say we.. I mean the whole family was there were (29 of us!) It was a lot of fun to go through the temple with the kids and explain what things were and why things were. It was also fun to be there with family. Chase, again carried Daniel through the whole temple. Daniel loves Chase! We had an interesting experience while we were there. During part of the tour they seat you in one of the sealing rooms and a cute young couple talked to us about the joys of being sealed for eternity and the peace that it brings. While they were talking Daniel was looking around the room. The room has mirrors on opposite walls giving the effect of eternity. There are un-numbered reflections that go on and on. Daniel really liked the reflections. We also had a moment to just sit and look around the room and Daniel pointed to another little boy and not so softly said, "Mom he looks like me, he has a million freckles too!" I didn't realize that Daniel felt that it was an oddity. I guess in Hawaii there aren't many red head boys with "millions" of freckles. I never knew that he felt singled out. But he was so excited to see this other little boy who also had red hair and freckles. People do remember me as 'the lady with the little boy with red hair', but I had never really thought about him feeling any different than the rest of the kids here. After walking through the temple we got to enjoy some yummy cookies and took a picture on the lawn near the temple. (Daniel charmed several cookies out of the cute volunteer ladies!)