Temple trip

Thursday and Friday were our stake Fill The Temple Day. We decided to make a mini vaycay out of it and took the kids out of school Thursday for some family time. 

We left Wednesday night when Aaron got home and headed for OKC. 

The children were stoked to be staying in a hotel and fell asleep quickly. It was after 10pm when we got settled. They were crazy crabby the next day but we just kept them loaded up on junk food and made the most of it and they all crashed on the way home Thursday. 

Aaron and I don't have children sleep in our bed, aside from the very rare special circumstance. In the hotel we fell asleep with Corbin between us and he stayed there for the night. I never understood why anyone would co-sleep with children. I don't judge others if that's how they roll, it's just not our thing. We never "got" why anyone would choose restless nights with everyone cramped and jetting kicked in the face all night by a kid, let alone the intimacy/privacy thing. I will say that I kind of get it now after our night with snuggly Corbin between us. He was warm and cuddly and it was like having a personal heater in our bed all night. We don't plan on changing our "no kids with us in our bed at night" policy at home, but I do see the positive side of co-sleeping after our all night snuggle fest in the hotel with Corbin. I also got kicked and kneed in the back and smacked in the face enough times to limit our wonderful experience to a one time event. ;) 

On Thursday, we met up with Zebleys, who had the same mini vaycay plan as us, and we hired sweet Hannah to babysit in the meeting house on the temple grounds while we were in the temple. It worked out perfectly! 

 I hope we will have a temple in NWA someday...and I hope it comes sooner than later! I'm thankful for the peace and perspective I feel when we are there and leave with clarity and understanding and feelings of love and happiness. Doing temple work makes me feel connected to  others and reminds me that we are all God's children. Zebley's had brought family names with them and we were able to do work for a couple of Eric's ancestors. I'm thankful for the sealing ordinances of the temple that bind my family together forever. 

These were our children within 2 minutes of pulling out of the temple parking lot. Exhausted much? Hahaha! 

They were happy to wake up for a side trip to Pop's, a dive diner on Route 66. The walls of the building are made of glass shelves and lined with thousands of  soda pop in every flavor you could imagine from "pumpkin", "communist Leninade", "monster lime slime", and "pirate piss" to "watermelon", "bacon" and "beef jerkey". The Super fun! 

We let the children each pick out a flavor and put together an assorted six pack of soda. 

The choices were orange dreamsicle, strawberry cream, strawberry watermelon, bug juice, irish cream soda rootbeer, and fudge brownie cookie dough---which was Aaron's choice against my advice. 

SO gross. One sip was all anyone could handle and I even spit that sip out. The children also picked out a candy from the old school candy bar selection of zero bars, zebra stripe gum, missile suckers and cow tails to name a few. The food was excellent and Pop's was a great adventure!

We grilled dinner when we got home and Aaron left to help out a friend in the hospital. When he got in late that night I commented about how exhausted he must be after the restless night, early morning, adventurous day, long drive home and then being out to visit his friend, etc. He just shrugged it off like it was no big deal, even though I could tell as he collapsed into bed that he was far beyond tired. He is such a good example to me of serving others with a willing heart and happy attitude. 

One of the greatest blessings that always seems to come to our family after attending the temple is an increase in capacity to work joyfully.