I Love to See the Temple...

...we went there yesterday!

Mike and I went with his brother Robrt's family to the temple in Omaha. We planned to watch each other's kids while the other couple was inside the temple.

The trip started off on an exciting note when after only being on the road for an hour, Maggie got carsick for the first time. I was just thinking how she was being uncommonly quiet and peaceful, even for her, when I looked back and saw her looking a little pale. Next thing I knew, she was throwing up on herself and the carseat.

Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There was a diner/gift shop just up the road where we were able to pull-over to clean up Maggie and her carseat. Being pregnant, I was even more sensitive to smell than normal, so I was fighting not to lose it myself when I was cleaning up the carseat. And I was kicking myself, because I had been meaning to bring a change of clothes, but had forgotten it in the rush of leaving. Still in a hurry to make it to the temple for our scheduled appointments, I rinsed off both her sweatshirt and t-shirt in the rather sketchy bathroom and tried to dry both with a combination of blotting with paper towels and the air dryer on the wall. Meanwhile, Maggie stood by shirtless and patient. She was such a trooper. We had been hoping to buy Maggie a new shirt there at the gift shop, but unfortunately Mike could find nothing in the toddler/small girl sizes. The sweatshirt had gotten the worst of it, so we put her t-shirt back on, cleaned up the carseat a bit more and on we went. Then we had to drive to the temple, rolling down the windows now and then to get some fresh air. Looking back it was kind of a funny situation.

We couldn't believe it when we saw snow on the ground as we got closer to Nebraska! And we had Maggie running in a t-shirt!! Fortunately, we had a blanket to wrap around her.

We pulled into the temple parking lot at the same time as Robert and Lisa got there. I grabbed my nephews and neices and their stuff and Robert and Lisa hurried in to make their session. We really couldn't have timed it any better if we tried.

It was fun for Mike and I to try our hand at managing four kids, two under two. There were Sarah, 5, Amy, 3, Neil, 10 months, and Maggie, 16 months. We took the kids to the visitor's center and they all did very well, though I think a few people there thought I was crazy, seven months pregnant with a baby and a small toddler. :) Amy and Sarah were good helpers and enjoyed watching a movie there and looking at the displays. Maggie kept giving her cousins hugs, nearly knocking Neil over in her exuberance. She really liked looking at the displays with the bigger girls and helping a friendly missionary push a carpet sweeper over the carpet. Neil was very good for me, despite getting a little hungry there at the end, and enjoyed crawling around and playing with blocks. We all had a fun time.

Then we headed back across the street to the temple and switched places with Robert and Lisa. It was wonderful to be in the temple again. I had been trying to get there for several months, but it seems every weekend the past several months has been scheduled with holidays, family gatherings, or church assignments. I was glad we finally got to go and was grateful things worked out as well as they did. I hope to go again before Baby #2 makes her appearance, because after she comes it will probably be hard to get there again for a while.

As for pictures, if I had realized that I had my camera with me earlier, I could have gotten a cute picture of all the cousins in the visitor's center or in front of the temple, but I was too busy being mad that I forgot it to check for it. So this is what we got--a picture of Maggie and I in the temple parking lot (above) and a bunch of random shots at IHOP afterwards. What can you do?

Pictures from left to right: Amy, Lisa and Neil, Sarah and Maggie, Mike and Robert (I think Robert likes having his picture taken), and me and Mike (courtesy of little Sarah)

For the record: We did not make Maggie drive all the way home smelling like throw-up. We stopped at Target and got her a new shirt.