I wanted to jot down a couple cool experiences we've had relating to the temple lately. In 2020 I made a personal goal to attend the temple at least once a month for the whole year. I crushed it for the first three months, and then all the temples in the world shut down. And because I've already received my own endowment and been sealed to Nate, I haven't been able to attend since. I think it has been good for me to have this period where the temples have not been available to me, so that I can really tell the difference that being able to attend makes in my life. As a mom of young kids, I've frequently thought of it as a sacrifice to take what time I have alone and spend it at the temple. Now I'm recognizing that the blessings outweigh the sacrifice. I look forward with earnestness to the day that I can go back! It has been thrilling to watch our hometown temple continue to rise despite the worldwide closures. A few weeks ago the youth from church had an activity w...

 We're so excited to see the progress that is happening on our temple! Every once in awhile we'll drive by for a peek. Construction is definitely underway.  A couple weeks ago, we got to paint our testimonies onto rocks that will be included in the actual temple foundation.

This past Sunday for church, we watched the groundbreaking ceremony for a new temple, which is going to be 7 minutes from our house. Only 4 miles away! I cannot explain how excited I am to watch it be built, to have these sweet kids of mine be a part of it, and to be able to go there often once it's dedicated. After we watched the ceremony, we decided we'd better scoot over there and see if we could find the place where they dug.

This summer was wild and crazy. We packed it so full. And we loved it! It went too fast. We've got a few more big posts coming before we're caught up, but as has become tradition, here's our whirlwind summer wrap-up. Explorations at Hobbs Leah rocked swimming lessons. As part of a conference, Nate took the girls and got to sit in the choir seats at the tabernacle for a presentation. Tea party. Game night. Lots of pictures of this one, because it was a fave. While Nate was in Detroit, I got brave and loaded up the kids and their bikes and we went to the bike park, which we'd never done before. This got an 11 out of 10! Emmie discovered ducks. Such a happy day. We spent lots of time at the pool. Grandma! Bryn is an artist. And also awesome. The eyes and the door match. Nate and his crew built us some new deck stairs. Emmie entered toddlerhood. I learned what a sego lily looks...